Job Discussion Forums

[gaijinalways]

I have a questions relating to making YouTube videos and specifically trying to use them to teach about content. I checked a few videos by Nick Pellatt who pmed me (thanx Nick) and found his fun and more usable if he put more subtitles in a few of them.

This one below is very simple showing a Chinese New Year celebration and its subtitles are sufficient.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfidf-dnELQ

I'm wondering, are any of the rest of you making these to teach with?

I'm considering using some for next semester and plan to make some of them, but hope to consider more what I should make and how I should use them. I use plenty of videos made by other people, especially animations as well as documentaries, so I have some ideas, but would like to hear from other people about;

making YouTube videos and software you might use
what topics you use
how your students react to them

I also know some teachers who have made videos in class, though I'm not sure I want to do that though it's a future consideration.

[Stephen Jones]

If you're just a teacher on your own you're probably OK with copyright law (with the enforcement part of it not the theory) but do be careful if you work with a large institution.

[nickpellatt]

You're welcome.

I havent used videos on you tube as a teaching tool, I make em to record travel experiences etc really, which I share with family and friends.

I cant access You Tube here in China, but there is software you can find from a google search that allows you to download You Tube videos to your computer, which you can then edit as you please with Movie Maker. If you find suitable clips, you can then pause, add subtitles etc, as much as you want.

Something I have tried (which failed a bit first time out) was using short movie clips, played without sound, asking students to use context and gestures to describe what might be happening, and the roles of each character.....and then to write dialogue for the scene.

Video editing software makes the task more manageable...just edit a clip down to a few minutes at most in size...rather than worry about having to find the right part in a full length movie during class.

You Tube should be full of clips that you could download and use for that kind of task.

I will try the task again. Students did use context and gesture to describe the relationship and what was happening on screen quite successfully....but failed to produce dialogue. I will do the task again, but will have dialogue prepared with perhaps the first and last line of the actual script, and perhaps a note showing the turn taking of actors. They just needed a few prompts to do that task better.

[Glenski]

I use YouTube videos made by other people (including VOA), sometimes to teach content, but mostly to teach some listening skill.

I know of one teacher in Japan who used Windows Movie Maker or similar program to put a Powerpoint show onto YouTube. It was a class project to describe the school. The video Powerpoint show had music and titling, I believe.

It caught the eye of a school in the USA whose class of American students thought it was very interesting, so they made contact, came to Japan to visit, and together they made one!

[gaijinalways]

Wow, Glenski, that sounds interesting. I'm not sure how much movie making I want to do, but I'm thinking of some ideas for school and a related business, and the videos would help with that. Doing an exchange with another school is always of interest.



Nick, I've done presentations on video activities, I can email you some of my ideas if you're interested. Some of your travel videos can easily be used to elicit vocabulary (Kilimanjaro, I'm jealous).


Students find videos engaging, though of course you have to be careful that you're not showing too lengthy clips with no work produced (either oral or written). Low level students like describing actions in videos as well as learning some new vocabulary and there are different ways to do that. I have also seen a video and related text (maybe OUP and also a Mr. Bean series as well) that helps students to model dialogs that are presented.


nickpellatt posted

[ajjane]

I was thinking of doing the same. This has provided some extra ideas that I now have humming around in my brain. I have a little flip camera that creates decent videos.

[gaijinalways]

I should probably buy one of those, as I've heard they have gotten cheaper. I don't generally use a video camera now, so might be a bit of a learning curve. I should probably go to Laox and see if I can get an English language model, though I know for more products now you can get an English language manual in Japan.