It has never been easier to make videos and then get them online. I’m going to cover a few quick ideas.
1. Make videos of student work using something like Animoto as a way of showing off what students have produced
2. Create videos from your powerpoint slides. Keynote (for mac and iPad) allow you to easily do this, as does the 2010 version of Powerpoint. I’ve also heard very good things about the ‘Explain Everything’ iPad app. Even if you don’t have these, you can export your slides as jpg images and use something like MovieMaker
3. Create screencasts – these are recordings of your screen, with you providing an audio commentary. If you have a mac running 10.6 or higher you have this built in to Quicktime. If you don’t there are a number of free services that allow you to create short recordings (I’ve used screencastomatic on several occasions and been very happy with it)
4. Publish them either to a youtube or vimeo account. Youtube has more of a community attached to it, while Vimeo is more likely to be accessible by students within school.
Why would you bother? Well, for me the real benefit has been from having students being access the guide to a key assessment or important piece of work as many times as they want, and for students who missed the lesson to be able to easily catch up. It’s also reduced the number of break and lunchtimes I’ve had to run through the assignment again!