Recently faculty have been clamoring to effectively incorporate video and other multimedia assignments into their courses. This, in addition to the huge number of classes that require video for content delivery, has made video a hot topic on campus. Ariella Rotramel, Visiting Assistant Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, sent me this NPR story about a group of students in Zanzibar who created a video reflecting on the use of Swahili and English in their educational system. The video (see above) was eventually submitted to the Eye Want Change video competition for students. For consideration, videos must be shot on a smartphone or tablet, be under 10 minutes long, and relate to a social matter.
Why am I including this story on a blog about instructional technology?
- The video was created by the students living the tension between native and colonial languages and could be very powerful to use in your classroom for topics like colonialism, globalization, educational policy, language death or assimilation, economics of tourism, and so many others. Wondering what other topics students in the competition have covered? See all the 2014 finalists here.
- One goal of the video was to improve student fluency in English (as a second language). If you are teaching a foreign language you can probably see the benefits of immersing students in the foreign language through video creation: writing a script, correcting it for grammar and vocabulary, and speaking in the target language.
- The students used smartphones or tablets to record and edit the video – tools that all our students have access to either through the DELI program or by checking out an iPad mini at the library’s circulation desk. Instructional technologists are also available to help students use the devices.
If you are interested in exploring video projects, contact your Instructional Technology liaison, read our blog posts on the topic, or feel free to explore the handout we used at Tempel Summer Institute.