Finishing Math Videos

For the last several weeks my class has been working on designing, scripting, and filming a series of math videos. The idea of these videos grew when I was searching online for short math tutorial videos for use in my classroom. I was looking for these as every one of the kids in my class has Internet access at home and I heard some of them discussing the difficulty of explaining over the phone to one another how to complete some math homework.

I searched the web and all I could find were videos that were at least high school level and mainly college. Of course, I got an idea.

Why don't we make our own?

Talking about this with my students, they agreed. They saw a gap we could fill in the knowledge that was posted online. They thought it would be helpful for themselves, and for others. So the process began. They first chose random math concepts we had worked on in class. Simple things, none to difficult to film or explain: converting percentages to decimals, finding the final price of an item including taxes, using a matrix as a problem - solving strategy, etc. Seven in all.

They first worked with their concept, making certain they knew what it was and how to do it. They scripted, they wrote a list of essential math vocabulary they would have to use to ensure other people knew what they were talking about. They scripted again, they storyboarded, practiced, and filmed. Last week they edited, and now the videos are completed.

They are simple in technique, short, and focused. But that is exactly the idea. They are not meant to be great works of film. They are meant to be small downloads they teach one specific thing. I'm leaving for Pittsburgh tomorrow for the NCTE national conference, so they probably will not get compiled between now and then, but that is the last step. If these videos turn out to be useful for us and for others, I hope they will become the first in a library of these videos that we will be creating. Another set this year will give us 14 concepts, by the end of next school year, we could have 28 of these online. A worthwhile project.

This was an interesting process for the kids as many of them could not believe that we could not find other things like this online; there's everything online. They were very interested in the implications of posting things these videos online as "global homework helpers." They all had stories of being stuck doing their homework at some point, and them having the ability to help kids anywhere by posting these online was interesting for them. A voice in the global knowledge collective. Like the tagline of this blog, I always tell the kids we can do these kinds of things "even from here."

Comments

[WIll Richardson]

Great, great, great post Clarence. You're making me want to get back into the classroom again.

[Matt]

What an excellent, student-driven incorporation of the technology. I'm handing this one to our math teachers.