THING 9 - VIDEO

I have a digital SLR camera which I have used to record myself ... when I've needed to speak at conferences and not been able to be there, and I've also delivered a couple of sessions for a MOOC on advocacy. But I can't say I'm comfortable doing this.

I'm also constantly using my mobile to make recordings ... usually of my family but that's fine as I'm on the other side of the camera.

And the odd occasion where things have been more involved, then usually somebody else is dealing with the technical side of things, the live-streaming and recording which means all I have to do is worry about what I'm going to say and try not to get too carried away with emotional gesticulations (something I'm inclined to do when I start talking about books and libraries). And even if I do make the recording myself then it's been easy to just send a MP4 file.

But this is the first time I've ever created a YouTube video using a screencast.

I've been putting Thing 9 off a bit - for several reasons. I don't like downloading software onto my computer. I'm always convinced it will cause me major problems with using my regular applications even though it never does - and I live with a computer guru so he's always the one I call for if I get weird messages appear - but I wanted to do this on my own. I needed the time to sit and watch the tutorials properly; I'm the sort of person who tends to half read instructions and then get impatient with "wanting to get on with it" (and then wonder why it doesn't work properly!). I also was a bit stumped as to what topic to use - I prefer to spend my time doing something that is needed or will be used rather than creating something for the sake of it.

I finally decided to create a short screencast on the Heart of the School website. It's only a couple of minutes long and I've added speech bubbles rather than sound, partially because I wanted to sort out how to do that. The video isn't so much for instructional purposes but more as a channel for me to learn the tools and techniques in this module so it's not really going to be much use to many people ... unless you've never seen the website before in which case I thoroughly recommend it!

In the end, I quite enjoyed doing this! https://youtu.be/A9jgcJHLFJ8 It was easier than I anticipated although the editing of the speech bubbles isn't very refined though I guess practise makes perfect.

I can certainly see how useful it would be, particularly after lessons as you could create a video of what was taught, with your comments, and put it onto the school's VLE for students to revisit. It would also be a good alternative in actual lessons occasionally as it would be something different for students to watch rather than listen to me. And they do seem to pay attention to anything on a screen.

I often use YouTube tutorials myself for all sorts of things and I know many other people do ... from crafts to car repairs to home decorating to cooking! You name it, there's probably a YouTube on it and being more of a visual learner it's my medium of choice.