Vlogging and Video Production

I have always loved the use of video production in the classroom. It allows students to explore texts through role playing and acting out moments from books or history, or informative videos or presentations, etc. It also allows students to draw together many images and video clips in an abstract manner without acting needed. Video production encourages high-level organizational and thinking skills for students to be able to synthesize the amount of images, sounds, text, etc. with preparation and editing. While any video production project can be engaging, and creative, while stressing high-order thinking, it also requires vast amounts of time and technology. Just transferring video from camera to computer let alone acquiring a camera, computer, or editing software can be hard for many students, and their teachers. It also requires the teacher to relinquish quite a bit of control since students need to be able to work independently and at their own pace on longer, in-depth, and difficult tasks. Vlogging on the other hand eliminates much of the technological, planning, and time constraints with only the need for a webcam and YouTube. There could be many applications down the line for Vlogging, from allowing teachers to lecture or explain assignments online with visuals, non-verbals, and facial expressions to go along with the materials available online. It could provide an interesting grading tool as well.