Videoblogs…Another Tool in the Toolbox?

We’ve been making some inroads at my school into multimedia video projects using MovieMaker. It’s been slow going as we’ve had to work through the process of the most efficient ways to save and produce the video our students take. But in the last couple of weeks, we’ve had some really fine interpretations of Romeo and Juliet as well as some minute-long vids with a political bent. I think the teachers are starting to see the potential despite the added time it takes to create them.

Today, JD Lasica points to a couple of articles in Business Week about videoblogs and their growing popularity. JD has started a group called Ourmedia that will be supporting videoblogging, podcasting and other such forms in a big way with hosting cataloging. And as bandwidth increases, so will this meme.

Of course, there are all sorts of videoblogging ideas for the classroom if schools have the requisite equipment. The most obvious is a regular video journal of events. But I like the interpretive stuff more, and I think it could work across the curriculum. What about math students doing a regular “Math in Real Life” spot where they go to the supermarket, say, and show all the uses of algebra that we employ every time we go. And then create a uses of algebra video blog that kids who are struggling can use to help them with the concept. Or how about a video cooking blog in consumer class, or a video experiment blog in science or…

All of this would be focused on creating content that others could access and make use of. I mean now that we have the ability to share student work with the masses, shouldn’t almost all of it be work that the masses can find worthwhile to consume? This of course is where the biggest shift in thinking needs to occur. If it’s not just for the teacher any more, how do we assess it? And if other people are going to consume it and use it, what new standards does that create?

I know videoblogging is not a tool teachers are going to reach for very often, at least not yet. But it’s too much fun to think about what’s going to happen when they do.