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Thursday, July 14, 2011

PBS LearningMedia Video Project

This week our task was to create a video that could be used in our library by students or teachers. I had no idea what I was going to create a video on until I got an email from "Keystone TechTalk" a list serve that I subscribe to. A BRAND NEW web resource was introduced to me. PBS LearningMedia has thousands of videos, interactives, and resources for teachers on almost every topic in our curriculum. I knew immediately that I wanted to share this with the teachers in my district. So, I felt that a video introduction was the way to go!

I have used several different video creation tools in the past including iMovie, MovieMaker, and Animoto. I feel comfortable using all of them and choose iMovie for this particular project because I felt that it offered more options and was a bit more user friendly. I found storyboarding to be very beneficial! I have to admit that I don't normally write out a 'formal' storyboard, it is normally just in my head. However, I might start. This allowed me a way to look at transitions and the flow before I started compiling the pieces. I felt that the storyboard made the actual movie making process go very fast. I didn't have to think, just assemble.

The only snag that I had when making this video was that my screen cast kept skipping on the audio. So, after several screen casts with the same issue, I decided to just do a voiceover in iMovie. This worked perfectly.

I hope that this video will entice a few teachers to check out this new resource from PBS. My goal with the video was to inspire teachers to want to take a look at the site. I wanted to include a short "how-to" that would demonstrate just how easy it was to navigate and search for resources. Hopefully, those not comfortable with technology will see that it really is very simple. Check-out the video for yourself! I would love to hear your comments.


3 comments:

  1. I loved your video! I find that I cannot give each teacher in the district their own personal tutorial on a new learning tool or website, so making a brief video introducing a web tool, like PBS Learning Media and showing how to actually navigate around in the site is a wonderful idea. Sometimes that is all it takes to get a teacher interested in using a tool. Plus, unlike me showing them in person, a video is a resource they can go back to if they forget something I have told them when they try it out for themselves. It found your video very informative and one that the teachers in my school could benefit from as well. Thanks for taking the time to cover a very worthy topic for us all!

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  2. I think that sounds like a great resource - I'm going to try it out later today! I loved the very beginning of your video with the flying words - was that easy to do? I have never used imovie.

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  3. I agree that iMovie is an easy application, and I think it's interesting that you used a screen cast. I did that when we created our FocusOn Presentations. I think it's nice to have that visualization when teaching about technology so the audience understands what to do easily!

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