About
How can "how to videos" support research, writing, thinking and collaboration?
OVERVIEW:
There are so many things that can be easier to learn when you get a step-by-step overview of the whole process. When young children get to create "how to" videos, it can be an empowering way for students to demonstrate their learning using language, images, sound and interactivity. How-to videos can be simple or complex. When students get to explain what they know about and know how to do, it can build learner confidence. Working together on a "how-to" video builds the trust and respect that make learning fun.
1. Start with Experience. Discuss: What have you learned recently from watching other people? What have you learned recently from watching a YouTube video?
Learning by Watching: When children talk about how they learn from watching, it may be useful to introduce the idea that it can be hard to pay attention to everything all at once. How-to videos slow down a process and use a combination of image and words to help people pay attention to details and learn more effectively.
2. How-to Video Production: What's Learned? View the How To Take Care of Your Pet Video. Discuss: What did you like about the video? How did the children demonstrate creativity? How did they demonstrate collaboration? What kinds of knowledge, competencies and skills were activated by producing this video?
3. The Production Process, Step-by-Step. How might the teacher have introduced this activity? What inferences can you make about what children did at the beginning of this project, well before they picked up a camera to film the scenes? What probably happened during filming? What happened after the scenes had been filmed?
ACTIVITY: Make a list of all the steps in the process that were likely part of the learning experience as developed by the teacher and her students.
4. Make a Simple How To Video in a Collaborative Team. In a small group, work under deadline pressure to create a simple video about a simple process. Use only 5 shots to communicate to a specific target audience.
GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
- What role do notice about how creative ideas develop?
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What do you learn about your approach to collaboration when you participate with others in creating a "how-to" video?
- What kinds of behaviors among group members promote and encourage creativity? Problem-solving?
- What kinds of content might be best learned through the process of children creating "how-to" videos?
- How could this activity be adapted for other curriculum content areas?
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