Create Your Own Video

At many of the professional developments that I have attended, there has been a big push on the flipped classroom.  I could use video in my classroom to create this experience for my students.  I would assign one or two videos for them to watch at home, with guided notes.  They would then come back the next day, and we could talk about what they learned and then actually practice together.

Blooms:-Students will compare and contrast mean, median, and mode-Students will identify when it is appropriate to use mean, median, and mode to represent different sets of dataCreativity was definitely implemented in my video that I created.  It took a lot of time to figure out how I wanted to design each slide and make it appealing.  I think using this video to flip the classroom would be successful if I could guarantee that all my students had technology at home.  I teach in a low income school so I know that it would be a struggle for students who do not have a computer or internet at home to view this.

When I was creating my video, I thought about many of the principles we learned so that my video would be effective.  One I tried to use the most was the Personalization Principle.  Students learn more deeply when text is presented in a conversation style.  I tried to make most of my on-screen text appear in a conversational format, rather than formal.  Another principle I focused on was the Temporal Contiguity Principle.  My multimedia messages and graphics were presented simultaneously.  This helps the learner build connections with what they are learning.  I also made sure that the main vocab words were in big font, or titles so that these words stood out to the viewer.  As talked about in the signaling principle, this will call the viewer’s attention to what is important.  Thinking about these different principles forced me to get creative with my video to make it as effective as possible.
PowToons was a great application to explore.  I have always used YouTube videos in my classroom but they seem to miss a key component that I want my students to learn.  With this application, I now have a resource I can use to create my own video for my students to use.  In the past, I would’ve never even considered this. In the future, I may try speaking throughout the video to make this video an even bigger success.  My video I created had no narration, only on-screen text.  According to the Modality Principle, it would’ve been more effective for me to have narration.  I really enjoyed making this video.  The only problem I had while making this video, was creating the timeline.  It took me awhile for me to figure out how to make the graphics appear at different times. While creating videos takes time, this is something I can use for the rest of my career! I will definitely be making more videos in my future.

Here's a link to the video

Evaluating a Video

It was very hard finding an interesting video for my math class that hit the standards I was teaching.  I chose the video, Meat-A-Morphosis: An Introduction to Functions, to review.  I think this would be a great introduction video for my Algebra 1 students who are beginning to look at the topic of functions.  Our school does not block YouTube, so this would be accessible to use in my classroom.  

This video is a very fun and entertaining way to introduce the topic of functions to an Algebra 1 math class! However, when reflecting on the principles that we learned, there are some that Meat-A-Morphosis followed, and some that it did not.  I think this video did a great job with the Singling Principle.  When new vocabulary words were presented, they put them in huge font and made them pop out.  They gave great examples with each of the vocabulary words, both concrete and abstract.  For example, when they showed the difference between input and output, they showed it through a math equation and also showed it through the function machine.  This also worked well with the spatial Contiguity Principle because all vocabulary words were presented right next to the examples so students have a clear understanding of difference between input and output. This movie did not have any narration, except for on-screen text.  It has been shown by the Redundancy Principle, that it is more effective if graphics are presented with narration. There were a few instances when the screen would explain something through on-screen text and then show an animation example after.  However, based on the Temporal Contiguity Principle, it would’ve been more effective if these two things were presented simultaneously rather than apart. While narration would’ve been more effective, the on-screen text was presented through newspaper headings and in a conversational manor.  The Personalization Principle explains that people will learn information better when it is in a social style rather than formal.  Overall, I believe that this video would be an effective instructional tool to introduce functions!

Video by :Jason Ermer