Using Video in Geography Teaching

This is an area which I have started to get 'into' recently. But then found I hadn't enough time to really do it justice at the moment. Here are some thoughts though....

My mentor is Daniel Raven Ellison, who established the excellent website at his school in Berkshire.

This offers a wide range of DOWNLOADABLE resources. The idea is that the projector screen, or IWB, becomes a new window in the classroom, which can be a window to anywhere in the world.

Daniel has recently requested that people help with a collaborative project that he is developing. Check out his posting on the SLN FORUM here for more details. If you have a DV camera (or can transfer to digital media) why not help him out....

There are various places to which you can send your finished videos. Some of these offer free hosting. Such as OURMEDIA. This is a rather useful resource in lots of ways.

Dan is asking people to save their work under a particular format. This will allow people to search for the VIRTUAL WINDOWS or the teacher perspectives on key questions. There are WORLD VIEWS: answers to universal questions...

You could also send your documentary style film (if it's under 4 minutes long) to CHANNEL 4's FOURDOCS site.

He has also created an ADD ON for the excellent Earth Browser. This allows videos to be located to their position on the Earth and browsed accordingly.

On the course I attended at 21CC at BBC Broadcasting House, we used a rather nice Sony DV camera, and some sound recording and monitoring equipment, and then used Pinnacle 9 to edit the video.

I made a film about the congestion charge with Simon and Rob from Leicester.

Video editing was carried out using Pinnacle Studio 9, which is currently around £25-£40 depending on where you get it from. A PRO version which has CHROMA KEY facility is also available. This would allow you to film a student and place them in front of an erupting volcano from another video....

Final film we made was 52 Mb when rendered. Now received my copy from the BBC - thanks !

http://www.teachers.tv/showcaseProgramme.do?transmissionBlockId=111593&zoneId=2&transmissionProgrammeId=112268 is a link to a TeachersTV Secondary Showcase which features David Lambert talking about using video clips in the classroom. You can watch the actual programme in your media player. This link may not be a long term one... Let me know if you go there and it's gone...

Dan was also featured in a recent article in The Independent's Education section (on 12th May 2005): the article was entitled: "All the world's a classroom" by Virginia Matthews.

Some clips can be downloaded, or request a free DVD from Channel 4's CLIPBANK site. I did this, and you can get

I recently (July 2005) purchased a rather nifty little gadget. It's the Philips THUMBCAM. It has several functions in a small package which hangs easily round your neck on a cord, or can be put in a pocket. The lens is protected by a flip down flap. It can do the following things: it has 128Mb of memory (can be used as a FLASH / USB drive), a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, a Video recorder - can take up to 15 minutes of video (at lower resolution), used for Video conferencing, and also act as a PC Cam (Webcam) for those of you who have Skype or whatever...

All rather groovy....

There are various pieces of software, many of them free, which will allow you to make your own videos.

Tony Cassidy of MY WORLD IS A GEOGRAPHY WORLD fame has recently posted an interesting piece of work on the use of CLAY ANIMATION, using a FREE (my favourite price) piece of software from CLAY ANIMATOR website.