Good or bad, the ability to record and publish digital video to the Web has changed how we relate to the world around us. Whether viewing new footage shot on cell phones, using applications like Jing or Camtasia to demonstrate onscreen processes, sharing videos of the family holiday on flickr, or creating movies and multimedia presentations on your laptop or online, these new technologies are putting the power and creativity of video production, editing and sharing (or broadcasting) into the hands of anyone with access to the Web. In doing so, media production and the ability for mass communication are within the reach and can be influenced by the public at large.
While the ability to produce your own videos has been available for sometime, this ability to publish and share these productions with the rest of the world has only been a recent development greatly influenced by the proliferation of social media (i.e. Facebook)and file sharing sites (i.e. Flickr, Youtube, Vimeo).
Like the mainstream photo editing technology that came before it, easily affordable and accessible digital video production and editing tools are allowing more people to become the writers, producers, directors, and even stars if their own online cinematic productions. Many digital cameras have built in video recording devices, and the built in camera features available on cell phones are replacing the need to purchase a separate video cameras and allowing people to almost instantly record and share their videos through online uploads.
While the ability to produce your own videos has been available for sometime, this ability to publish and share these productions with the rest of the world has only been a recent development greatly influenced by the proliferation of social media (i.e. Facebook)and file sharing sites (i.e. Flickr, Youtube, Vimeo).
Like the mainstream photo editing technology that came before it, easily affordable and accessible digital video production and editing tools are allowing more people to become the writers, producers, directors, and even stars if their own online cinematic productions. Many digital cameras have built in video recording devices, and the built in camera features available on cell phones are replacing the need to purchase a separate video cameras and allowing people to almost instantly record and share their videos through online uploads.
From Consumer to Publisher:
Video “consuming” is probably more appropriate in my case than video sharing – unless you consider the mass emails I send out to my friends to check out the latest “viral video”, or the links I post to my Facebook account to share a good laugh. For me, video as a medium is mostly about being entertained by someone elses' vision and production. To take advantage of the true sharing experience I would need to produce something of my own to “put out there”.
After looking through my rather anaemic collection of videos on my own computer – ironically, I taught video editing and production for COM, but had done very little of my own production besides the occasional samples for demonstration purposes – I decided I would need to take a different approach.
Video “consuming” is probably more appropriate in my case than video sharing – unless you consider the mass emails I send out to my friends to check out the latest “viral video”, or the links I post to my Facebook account to share a good laugh. For me, video as a medium is mostly about being entertained by someone elses' vision and production. To take advantage of the true sharing experience I would need to produce something of my own to “put out there”.
After looking through my rather anaemic collection of videos on my own computer – ironically, I taught video editing and production for COM, but had done very little of my own production besides the occasional samples for demonstration purposes – I decided I would need to take a different approach.
I started by investigating one of the sites that I am most familiar with. Playing with Youtube, I discovered a few new tricks for generating video content right on the site. I began by creating the intro to my post using the Search Stories Video Creator, which not only shares my video creation, but also shares related clips after viewing my "story".
Once I had established my “channel”with my first video, the option to upload, edit and piece together other video clips became available through the video editor feature. This online application allows you to edit and add music or other sound clips to your video production. Having editing capabilities online eliminates the necessity of having a system on your own computer, although I still prefer to use programs like Adobe Premier or Windows MovieMaker for access to more editing options.
In terms of searching out other video clips, Youtube provides a lot of clips to choose from, but often these clips come with a disregard for copyright. While some clips are old enough to be in considered public domain, many are often uploaded withour proper adherence to copywrite. Although these clips are removed by YouTube, due to the quantity of files and accounts that would require monitoring, there is little that can be done to stop other users from resubmitting the same clip under different names, over and over again.
Another issue with YouTube is the minimal regulation for the nature of the clips it allows to be posted. Security is in place in the sense that there are age restrictions in place on certain clips, but this is often left to the discretion of the uploader and is easily circumvented by industrious, underaged users. This is yet another reason Youtube is often blocked on many school servers in an attempt to avoid inappropriate content (Richardson, 2010).
These issues prompted me to look into an alternative sharing site that might be more appropriate and less problematic for schools. A review on www.reelseo.com led me to Vimeo.
Vimeo is a more "family friendly" sharing site. Pornography, commercial productions and copyright protected materials are not allowed on the site. All the content being uploaded to the site to be the intellectual property of the person posting the video. The uses of images, music or other video clips must adhere to copyright laws as well and vimeo also works with the Creative Commons organization and allows you to license your own work under the CC designation.
My video post was created using the vector based Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Flash applications to produce the graphics and create the animation effects. Using the Creative Commons site to search out royalty free music, I was directed to the Incomptech site where I was able to download the music for my video. Although Vimeo will convert your file formats for you when you upload, I chose to convert my flash file to a Quicktime video format before uploading to the site to avoid any issues that might arise from attempting to reformat online. The final version was posted to Vimeo along with musical credit given to the writer and source site for the piece I used.
Personally:
Again, I am not a big producer of video content. I still tend to document my life mostly in pictures, (I think my “Digital Immigrant” status is showing again). Unlike my students, the medium of video is not in my nature to be my first choice when trying to capture a “moment”.
Again, I am not a big producer of video content. I still tend to document my life mostly in pictures, (I think my “Digital Immigrant” status is showing again). Unlike my students, the medium of video is not in my nature to be my first choice when trying to capture a “moment”.
However, this summer I did find a use for creating video off my digital camera. My parents were out of town and were unable to make it back to Edmonton to attend a family friend’s wedding reception. I went to the reception and was in the process of taking pictures, when it suddenly dawned on me, “Hey, why aren’t you filming this?”
Clinging to my old notions of minimal file space and poor video quality, I was forgetting that I was holding a more than decent digital recorder in my possession with a very large memory card for storage. I took the opportunity to document the speeches and highlights from the reception to the best of my abilities (no tripod and a few “beverages” made the camera work a little shaky). In the end, the best part was having a video to show to my parents when they returned so they could really get a sense of the atmosphere and venue.
At the time, I still wasn’t comfortable with posting video online, though I realize now it would have been a great opportunity to share the footage with my parents while they were away – having limited experience with the sharing sites, privacy was still a big issue in the back of my mind. Now having a better understanding of privacy controls, this might be an option I would consider in the future.
Although I understand that you can control who sees your posts on YouTube and Vimeo, the nature if these sites is to post video content that you want to be public or that you think the public would want to see. I think I would choose to upload my wedding video to my Facebook account instead. In terms of something personal like a wedding, birthday, or vacation, these are what I consider more intimate moments that are more appropriate for sharing amongst your close friends and family (I mean really, does everyone need to see you cut into your birthday cake for the “bizillionth” time?)
Professionally:
When I think back to the autobiography we wrote at the beginning of this course, I am realizing again that I do need to see or experience the practicality of a technology before I “buy into it”. So far, my enthusiasm for video sharing is more about using and creating videos for teaching and learning purposes.
Sites like TeacherTube.com, allow for safe uploading and embedding of videos for educational use. Sites like Teacher.tv or LearnAlberta.ca provide video resources but teachers must either login or be within the proper geographical location to access some of the resources due to limitations placed on the conditions of use (LearnAlberta.ca acquires the rights and permissions to use, revamp or post materials in order to make them accessible to a mostly Albertan audience of teachers and students. Teachertv.com is a site based out of the United Kingdom and some videos will not play outside of the UK as determined by the users’ IP addresses).
When I think back to the autobiography we wrote at the beginning of this course, I am realizing again that I do need to see or experience the practicality of a technology before I “buy into it”. So far, my enthusiasm for video sharing is more about using and creating videos for teaching and learning purposes.
Sites like TeacherTube.com, allow for safe uploading and embedding of videos for educational use. Sites like Teacher.tv or LearnAlberta.ca provide video resources but teachers must either login or be within the proper geographical location to access some of the resources due to limitations placed on the conditions of use (LearnAlberta.ca acquires the rights and permissions to use, revamp or post materials in order to make them accessible to a mostly Albertan audience of teachers and students. Teachertv.com is a site based out of the United Kingdom and some videos will not play outside of the UK as determined by the users’ IP addresses).
As a Communication Technology teacher, the opportunity to use a site like Vimeo to post student work or to create forums for discussion are very appealing options for me. In the past, my students’ video work was only shared within my school (mostly due to concerns with Internet safety and blocked site access), however a site like Vimeo is one that I would feel comfortable bringing to the attention of my administration because of its’ “code of conduct” and control of privacy settings that make it a much safer environment for students to participate in.
That being said, no matter how “safe” a site appears to be, the responsibility still lies in the hands of educators to convey the importance of appropriate use and conduct online when modelling these behaviours and implementing them with our students. Should students use Youtube to research topics or watch tutorials/demonstrations, and happen to come across inappropriate materials, these “real life” moments can be used to the educator’s advantage and be the catalyst for discussions about what is appropriate, and how we choose to conduct ourselves when accessing a sharing site (Richardson, 2010).
This brings me to my final point and that is to recognize that no matter how “powerful” a new technology may seem, or how wide spread its’ use may be within a society, the role of the educator is to see the potential of these new tools and see beyond their immediate conventions.
“The challenge for educators is to ensure that [these tools] are used to promote and extend new ways of thinking and learning that were not possible prior to their introduction”, (Nykvist, 2008, p.177).
Text References:
Text References:
Nykvist, S. (2008). Creating contexts for effective on-line communities of practice. In N.Yelland, G. A. Neal, & E. Dakich (Eds.) Rethinking Education with ICT: New directions for effective practices (pp.165-179). Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
I loved the YouTube Search Stories! Thanks for sharing. I made a quick one for the grade 2's and grade 7's that are partnering up to research about the flooding in Pakistan.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpCBE10fOIY
I did notice that it would only accept 50 characters or less, which was a bit frustrating.
Tamzen
I also thought that it might be a neat way for students to show their thinking about their research, the search strategies they tried, and could be a great reflective tool that can even be embeded into a blog.
It is a great idea to do these YouTube Search Stories. Such fun!
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