Educational Videos Help Your Lesson
Friday, July 17th, 2009
Videos Aren’t The Enemy
As a teacher, I know first hand that a lot of time goes into creating lesson plans. Typically there are four steps:
- Picking the topic
- Researching the topic
- Developing a presentation to keep students engaged
The truth is, we live in a visual world, but videos aren’t the enemy. They can help get a point across. Using educational video in your lessons is a great way to make the curriculum come to life. There is nothing like teaching a unit on the ocean and having a video full of detailed images and full of ocean sounds for the students to see and hear. Video helps capture and present the many different habitats, species and regions oceans encompass around the world.
Research has proven that visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners benefit from video resources in addition to lectures and white boards text. For the learner that needs to experience the lesson visually, educational videos present another option. With hundreds of videos available across subject areas and designed for specific grade levels and units of study, all teachers can utilized these resources to make their lessons more effective.
As much as we would all like to show full length videos, it’s not always an option. Carefully placed video clips placed at important points in your lesson improve your lesson. Teaching a history lesson on the Louisiana Purchase? Find short clips to make it relevant. Teaching about metamorphosis? Let your students see the changes of a butterfly in real time. They’ll love it and you’ll love watching them.
Using video in your lessons will help you turn on the light bulbs in your students minds. As educators, that’s why we teach – the “Aaah ha” moments. Have one in each lesson.
