Learning with Videos!

In my recent teaching practice, I have been using a number of videos from YouTube to aid teaching and learning. Students seem to really enjoy watching videos, and I find that it really breaks up lessons that are heavy in information. They can be useful for starters and plenaries, as it is often difficult to grasp students' attention! During the ICT module I completed recently at University, we looked at making videos to assist teaching. Making the videos was really fun, editing photos and adding music. However, I couldn't help thinking how time-consuming it would be to make videos, when there are thousands online showing the same topics. Despite this, I would definitely use Photo Story if there was a certain topic that I could not find a video on. Here is the video I made, it's nothing educational, just a few pictures from graduation day, to work out how to use Photostory!

I really like Photostory and I will use it in the future for topics that rely heavily on information, to make them seem more interesting! For now, I find loads of educational videos on YouTube to show my students. For example, in a recent Psychology lesson with year 13, I showed them the following video of the strange situation study, for them to gain an insight into the study's methodology, and it worked well because students could directly see what happened, rather than simply reading it from a textbook.

Videos in lessons are definitely helpful, in my opinion, and from personal experience. I try to include at least one video in every lesson, because I think it definitely aids understanding!