Colleagues,

If you are intrigued by the idea of teachers making videos of  
teaching and learning in their classrooms, you will find a discussion  
about this taking place on the Technology discussion list ( to  
subscribe, go to http://www.nil.gov/lincs/discussions ).  The  
discussion is also being archived on the Adult Literacy Education  
Wiki at

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Google_videos

David J. Rosen
newsomeassociates.com
djrosen at comcast.net
On Dec 22, 2006, at 3:12 PM, David Rosen wrote:


> Colleagues,

>

> Suppose we had a free video library of  500 digital videos ( from 3  

> minutes to 15 minutes each) of adult education classrooms.  Suppose  

> these were made and edited by adult education teachers and their  

> colleagues (and students) using local digital video and editing  

> equipment.  Suppose some of these videos -- those that were  

> successful illustrations of EFF content standards or state content  

> standards or curriculum frameworks, for example -- were each  

> awarded prizes of $500 by state professional development centers.   

> Suppose these videos were online free, for example on Google, but  

> also indexed in a searchable database so that teachers,  

> administrators and professional developers could find good video  

> examples -- in practice -- of a concept, standard, or teaching  

> method they wanted to see. Concepts such as "integrating technology  

> in the classroom," "formative assessment," "standards-based  

> numeracy,"  "project-based learning,"  "effective teaching in the  

> ESOL multilevel classroom" and many others ,might be illustrated  

> through actual video examples from practice.

>

> How do we get started with this?

>

> 1. Teachers need to follow Barry Burkett's example and make videos  

> of their teaching and upload them to Google for others to see.  At  

> first, the quality may not be ideal, but quality can be achieved in  

> time with better editing software, better mic-ing of sound, more  

> cameras, more time to edit. Teachers can get good at making  

> videos.  They can then teach their students these skills, too. (Or  

> maybe some students already have the video skills and can share  

> them with the teacher!)

>

> 2. State literacy resource centers need to provide teachers with  

> incentives to do this "project based" professional development.   

> The incentive could be in the form of $500 mini-grants to rent or  

> purchase equipment or software, or to pay for a teacher's time to  

> make and edit the videos.  The incentive could also be in the form  

> of ($500) prizes for videos that were selected as exemplary, to be  

> used in state professional development or curriculum standards work.

>

> 3. We need a database. Once we have it, we need reviewers who will  

> look at and tag the videos so they can be found in the database  

> using commonly used adult education terms.

>

> I would be interested in your thoughts about this idea. I would be  

> even more interested to know if you, or teachers you know, are  

> excited enough about this to get started, to make a video of  

> classroom teaching and learning.  If so, visit http:// 

> wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Google_videos for more information  

> on how to get started and e-mail me about your interest in this idea.

>

> David J. Rosen

> djrosen at comcast.net