NOW Classrooms, Grades 9-12. Meg Ormiston

on different devices. Make sure you allow students time to get familiar with the tools available to them.

      • Science: Have students make a video of themselves explaining lab safety, including all the rules they must follow and the common mistakes that can endanger students if they don’t follow the rules.

      • Art: Have students create a video covering specified techniques they use in art class so other students can learn how to correctly apply the techniques from watching the video.

      • Physical education: Have students create a video that demonstrates the instructional pillars of your physical education program, such as the proper use of machines in the weight room or a series of warmups you use in a dance class.

      • Career and technical education: In an automotive repair class, have students create a short instructional video about how to safely use equipment. Students should share their videos on the classroom LMS.

       Operational: Editing to Improve Videos

      Learning goal:

      I can edit videos to create more polished products that better demonstrate my learning.

      Recording a basic video is both a simple and useful process, but for students to truly unlock their creativity, they need to know how to edit video. The purpose of this lesson is to have students edit a video that you or they created to remove unwanted or unnecessary content, convey a steady flow of information, and provide visual flourishes that can engage an audience both inside and outside the classroom. As in the novice lesson, different students will bring different degrees of knowledge to this exercise. Diffuse this knowledge throughout your classroom by having experienced students work in groups with less experienced students. To further help students understand the importance of polishing their work, we encourage you to share student work beyond classroom walls using a video-hosting service and social media.

      In addition to the apps we referenced in the novice-level section of this NOW lesson set, students can try using tools on YouTube (www.youtube.com) or Magisto (www.magisto.com) to edit their videos or include interesting visual effects in them.

       Process: Editing a Video

      Use the following three steps to teach students how to edit a video.

      1. So that they have something to edit, provide an editable video for students, or have them locate or create a new video of their own.

      2. Let students or student groups select an app or tool they will use to edit their video. Students should import their recorded video clips with the app or tool and begin sequencing the video content in a way that makes it more compelling. This can include removing extraneous material, adding text or other special effects, adding video transitions, and more.

      3. Students should review their final product. When they feel happy with their work, they should save it and post it to a platform you designate. This could include uploading it to a video-hosting site like YouTube or Vimeo or posting it to the classroom LMS. As a final step, have students explain the editing strategies they used so everyone can learn from each other.

       Connections

      You can apply this lesson to different content areas in the following suggested ways.

       TECH TIP

      Some schools still block video-hosting sites like YouTube. If this is the case at your school, students should use a dedicated video-creation tool like iMovie to edit their videos and then post the videos to the classroom LMS.

      • Mathematics: Have students create a video explaining a topic like the slope of a line. Have them enhance the video by adding in comments, sound effects, and pauses that emphasize the important parts, such as formulas and easy-to-forget details.

      • Social science: Instruct students to create a video reenactment of a historical period by taking short videos from different time periods and connecting the episodes with details from history. Have students merge all the videos together, with proper transitions and audio, and present their complete video to the class.

      • Science: Record a video of a chemical reaction caused by different elements in a chemistry-lab exercise, and then have students go back and edit the video to add in the details of what happens in it, such as what elements are in use, what reaction happens, and why the elements react the way they do.

      • Career and technical education: In a welding class, have student groups locate a video online that explains a repair process on an object and is at least six minutes long. Instruct students to edit the video to one to three minutes, distilling it down to only its most crucial information. Students should share their videos through the classroom LMS.

       Wow: Mashing Up Multimedia Assets

      Learning goal:

      I can use assets from multiple media formats, like images and multiple audio sources, to create a video that clearly communicates a message.

      The video medium inherently combines multiple types of media content—audio and visuals, for example—but it’s possible for students to use advanced video tools to create even more impressive multimedia videos. Green screening, which uses a green background to swap out part of a primary video source with other images or with secondary video sources, is an excellent example of this kind of mashing of media assets. Likewise, students can implement multiple audio tracks into a video, allowing them to merge narration, sound effects, and background music. The more video skills and strategies students learn to deliver professional-looking content, the better prepared they are to do high-level work in college and in the professional world.

      The video-creation tools we’ve already introduced in this NOW lesson set provide various capabilities students can use for this wow-level lesson. We suggest introducing students to Green Screen by Do Ink, an iOS app that works on iPads and iPhones. It is easy to use and allows users to insert numerous images and videos into an existing video’s background. Students can also use WeVideo (www.wevideo.com) on any device that interfaces with Google Drive. VirtualDub (http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net) is also a free, open-source video-editing tool for Windows computers. Also, ask your students if they know of any alternative apps, websites, or free programs.

       Process: Recording a Green-Screen Video

      Use the following eight steps to have students create a green-screen video.

      1. Students should select a green-screen app to use for their project. Before opening the green-screen app they selected, students should find or capture images or video they want to appear in their project’s background and save them to the device they use to record their green-screen video.

      2. To create a simple green-screen production, have students create a single green slide in PowerPoint and project that on the screen in the classroom. This allows students to act out the scene in front of the projected green screen. A bulletin board with green paper also works well for this purpose.

      3. Have students open their green-screen app and create a new project. (If the app asks students to allow it to access the device’s microphone and camera, they should select OK.) Most apps, like Do Ink’s Green Screen, have a divided timeline that features multiple layers that include at least a separate background source and foreground source.

       TEACHING TIP

      Have students start planning their multimedia work by having them complete a short storyboard that depicts what they plan to create.