Video Tutorials

Video tutorials are a tool with the power to do a lot of good for learning. I have believed this for quite sometime in fact it was one of the first posts on BrokenAirplane. There are three main obstacles to overcome in this area and they are: Access to technology and videos, pedagogy and usage of video tutorials in your classroom, and high quality creation of video tutorials.

The first one is quickly diminishing as smartphones become more and more ubiquitous, many more students around the world have a phone rather than a computer. The issue of pedagogy is arising as an issue as some schools are adopting video tutorials or technology based lessons as a replacement for the teacher. Others feel that the video tutorial is not effective at delivering content.

I believe that video tutorials have a time and a place. In Patrick and my experience, they are most effective when they are used for a specific skill or concept as opposed to curriculum. This keeps the video focused and allows students to focus on a concept. When it is something "fuzzy" like Inertia or Gravity (as proven by the Veritasium videos/research) it is difficult to convey it through a video, there are better ways of ensuring that these concepts are understood and that they stick. Video tutorials best work in situations where it is a new skill and has multiple steps.

It is my belief that we are stronger when we work together as a global community of learners and educators. Each of us must have at least one amazing thing that is worth sharing with the world and video tutorials allow us to share all of those wonderful talents with each other and our students. So Patrick and I have worked much this year to refine our instructions on how to make video tutorials. In that time we have discovered some really cool things both technologically and pedagogically and we wanted to share them with you. I hope you will share this around your school, share with us what you are doing with the technology, and provide any feedback to ensure that this is helpful to as many people as possible.

Here is a link to the original PDF for the Video Tutorials.