There’s an old — and inaccurate — line of thought that teachers use videos to fill up class time. In reality, educational videos are highly effective and impactful. Their use is time well spent. Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching notes that in the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, videos unite the dual visual and auditory aspects of information. By combining these two channels, videos can maximize working memory capacities and improve education.
Even more, according to the University of Queensland’s Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, using videos in the learning environment can increase student motivation. This, in turn, can lead to improved classroom performance and deeper learning of subjects.
And, as an increasing number of school districts jettison the old ‘snow day’ model of cancelling classes during inclement weather or other emergencies, videos can keep lectures and other lessons in store for days when brick-and-mortar classrooms are closed.
This leads to the importance of educators creating learning-focused video content. With today’s technology, it’s easier than ever to create high-quality educational videos for the classroom. Smartphones, web cameras and online screen recorders make it easy for any educator to create videos. In addition, the use of video editing software provides multiple options for anyone looking to take their videos to another level.
Creating educational videos is key (and easy)
At the outset, some educators might be daunted by the prospect of creating their own videos to use in their curricula. In reality, however, creating videos is easy with the proper tools, such as Screencast-O-Matic’s suite of video solutions, including its innovative and powerful screen recorder and video editor.
Educators can find the screen recorder exceptionally useful, especially when sharing equations and other information with students. The video platform features extensive attributes, including the following:
- Record any part of a computer screen
- Add and size webcam images for a picture-in-picture effect
- Narrate from a selected microphone during recording
- Trim the start and end of recordings to remove unnecessary parts
For ease of use, the Screencast-O-Matic screen recorder can be used on as a Chrome app and is available in the Chrome Web Store as a free download. The video platform can be used on a PC, Mac or Chromebook.
Educators of all subjects can create compelling, knowledge-rich multimedia with Screencast-O-Matic’s powerful and affordable video editor. Using the tool, educators can do the following:
- Animate video with transitions and overlay effects
- Import video, audio, and images from other devices
- Zoom in/out and highlight areas of videos
- Add and edit narration, music, and system audio
- Hide/show and scale/crop webcam coverage
- Use green screen technology
- Add and style text, images, blurs, and shape overlays
- Add stock music and use captions on any recording
With these solutions, educators can create an unlimited number of videos suited to any subject. Screencast-O-Matic user plans are available for both individual educators, schools, and universities.
Don’t forget student filmmakers
Using instructor-created videos made with Screencast-O-Matic is valuable in the educational process. It’s also beneficial for students to create their own videos while taking classes. According to Edutopia, video can tap into students’ interests and habits. Self-created videos can allow them to creatively demonstrate subject matter mastery and knowledge, as well as reflect on course topics. As a bonus, students from kindergarten to graduate school can even create tutorials for their fellow classmates, further strengthening the learning experiment.
Screencast-O-Matic is easy to use and intuitive, giving students the ability to start recording within seconds. Students can appear in their videos with the use of a web camera. They can utilize multiple handy features include drawing tools, zoom and highlight capabilities, automated captioning and audio enhancements including audio narration to tell a story.
Sharing videos with the class
Once videos are completed, Screencast-O-Matic makes it easy to share them across a full range of distribution channels. Educators using Google Classroom can upload and publish their videos directly using Google Drive. Students can share their videos on YouTube or Vimeo. There are additional options to share them via Facebook as well as Twitter.
With all these affordable and easy-to-use features, more user-generated videos are surely going to be created, shared and enjoyed across educational institutions.
This article is brought to you by Screencast-O-Matic. Screencast-O-Matic takes visual collaboration to the next level with its easy-to-use screen capture, video editing and video sharing platform. With more than 9 million users, Screencast-O-Matic empowers educators to create and manage videos for classroom instruction, training, mentorship, lecture capture, and more! For more information, please visit screencast-o-matic.com
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