Videos and Education

Videos have always been an incredibly useful tool to me in education. For projects, usually for a social studies or science class, I began using videos around 7th grade. The first time I used a movie was ten minute clip about the stages of volcano eruption. At first I used them as an introduction to my topic to help my audience focus and create a common picture for them to visualize. As I progressed into high school and DVDs became the norm, I began integrating the videos into the middle of presentations. I liked this approach more because it allowed me to highlight necessary details, such as the significance of geography in the Vietnam War, while also working a short break into my presentation. While the class watched the clips, I could grab a drink of water, catch my breath, go over my notes to make sure I had not skipped any vital details, etc.

With the advent of streaming video and the accessibility of movies on the internet, I will definitely be using movies in my lessons. As a social studies teacher, I would love to have a field trip every week so my students could actually experience the regions and cultures we study. Since there is little chance of this happening, I believe videos will be an adequate substitution. I also like the idea of doing adjusting the three stages of reading to the video, doing pre-, during, and post- exercises. I would also likely distribute a work sheet with the movie to better focus my students.

Another aspect I like is that many social studies authors are affiliated with major organizations such as National Geographic or NCSS. Because of this, these organizations like to incorporate them into the movies they produce. As a student, seeing the author of my history of Egypt textbook actually handling artifacts gave the book further credibility and gave me a better appreciation for his work. With luck, I will be able to incorporate books by authors who also appear in movies into my curriculum.