Sample Educational Videos
These days, high-tech learning environments are needed to keep up
with the rest of the world. Remember the days of the 35mm film and the
slide projector? And how you learned how to operate it so well? Well
students of today can do the same, but with more forms of media and
technology than you would have dreamed possible.
Educational content for television or computer screens is keeping up
at least. Connect with a different generation and use online
educational videos! You can bring them to the catacombs behind the Western Wall in Jerusalem and get an interactive view of the wall, or meander along the Great Wall of China.
You can open their eyes to socially relevant issues with documentaries and video clips like Bullied, Battered, and Bruised, World Against Child Labor or The Power of One.
Current events are also no problem with CNN and other news sites that post news stories online.
Here are also some favorites on YouTube, the popular video-sharing site:
- A Vision of Students today
was created by an Anthropology teacher and his class from the Kansas
State University to send a very powerful message on the difference
between students (who learn) and their teachers (who teach).
- A Vision of K-12 Students Today
is a video clip using elementary, middle and high school students and
talks about the way kids learn and communicate and how these affect
their school level.
- Pay Attention is extremely useful when planning with other teachers on how to intergrate technology into the classroom.
- Stuck on an Escalator is
a highly effective commercial showing two people getting stuck on an
escalator, afraid of taking the next step by themselves. It can be used
as a jump-off point for discussion on making decisions and acting on
them.
- Everyone knows your Name can
be shown to high school students the sooner the better, as it is a
great resource on Internet Safety and Cyberbullying. Knowing the
consequences of their online lives earlier can help a great deal.
- Talent Show is
also about Internet Safety and prevention of cyberbullying. It shows a
pre-teen girl onstage at a talent show and publicly humiliates another
girl in the audience. The audience does not do anything. It is a call
to stand up against bullying, and how seeing it in cyberspace does not
change the need for it.
- Cyberbullying-In the Kitchen shows
teenagers in the kitchen with their mother. The teenagers talk openly
and naturally around the table, much like how they would communicate
through text or social networking websites, showing how the mother can
stand witness to foul language or other forms of harassment that might
not be obvious if done online.
- Dove Commercial is
a great reminder to be vigilant with the media. Technology these days
can blur the boundaries between reality and non-reality, and being
media literate in this day and age means students have to start
recognizing and evaluating the value of different types of media.
- Introducing the Book is
a funny video clip about the medieval “help desk.” It serves as a
reminder to fellow teachers of that time when human beings didn't know
how to open or read a book. In a few centuries from now, it might also
be hard to imagine a time when we didn't know how to open a digital
document.
- Did you know 2.0? is an updated version of Karl Fish's original slideshow back in 2007. It is an amazing, powerful video.
Sources:
Dyck, Brenda. “Seeing is Believing: Harnessing Online Video Clips to Enhance Learning.” Retrieved May 26, 2009 from
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/profdev040.shtml
“Top Ten List for Educational Video-Clips.” Retrieved May 26, 2009 from
http://langwitches.org/blog/2007/12/26/top-ten-list-for-educational-video-clips/
(Published 08 June 2009, Smart Communications, Inc.)
