How to develop video & visual content for children'

How to develop video & visual content for children'

Step Up and Start Creating!

Why Create?

The magically moving multicolored world of videos has captivated the attention of grown-ups and children alike. If the integration of video and visual content in education seemed important earlier, it has now become indispensable. At this specific hour, the twenty first century child finds itself standing in the middle of a digital and academic revolution and educationists must run, just to keep up with this transformation in pedagogy. In such a scenario, personally created e-resources in the form of video tutorials can truly prove to be a heart-balm for the modern teacher and student alike.

Transforming Education

Four months ago, the mere notion of online classes for school students would have sent shock waves to the average Indian teacher, but today, the story seems to be different as millions of teachers have shifted the classroom entirely to the virtual realm. The next step, now dictates educationists to explore and master Digital Learning Content production, adaptation and reuse.

Getting Started

The first step for any teacher to accomplish this goal is to identify and acknowledge the multitude of digital tools that are available online. In order to be able to navigate from the basic step of getting started to the more daring step of creating full blown tutorials, all a teacher has to do is “Get Started”.

Range of Video Types and Tools

Here is a list of the various categories of video tools available for creating quality content online.

• Micro Videos

For teaching narrow topics in less than a minute, 15 second to one-minute micro video clips are the simplest resource and can be created using the most common social media platforms such as Vine, Instagram, or Snapchat. These apps offer several custom pre-sets to aid content creation and work very well with students who have a short attention span.

• Training Videos

Training videos improve skills and promote independent learning by giving detailed instructions. Apps like Filmora and iMovie can be easily downloaded even on smartphones and are great for creating training videos. With a proper instruction manual and orientation for new users, creating videos on these platforms is as easy as creating a Facebook account.

• Screencast video

Creating videos by screen recording and audio narration is by far the fastest and easiest way to create videos. Teachers taking classes on zoom and google hangouts are already aware of the simplicity of this feature. Those who wish to take it one step further in terms of video quality may use easy soft wares like Camtasia’s screen recording tool, Screencast-O-Matic or BlueBerry Flashback Express Recorder for a no hassle creation.

• Animated Videos

One doesn’t need to be an artist to make animated videos. Softwates like Animaker and Powtoon can be used by anyone to make custom made animated videos.

• Role Play Videos

A teacher may even engage students by creating roleplay videos simply by acting out scenarios from the textbook and recording them. The whole process of creating roleplay videos provides a 360 degree engagement for the students.

• Presentation Videos

Picture presentation videos are as simple as creating a Power Point Presentation. All one has to do is create the PPT, Click on the File tab, select Export and navigate to Create a Video. Finally narration may even be added to explain each slide.

• Photo Videos

With Apps like Magisto one can easily upload photos and videos, select an editing style, a soundtrack and give it a title. The app automatically adds filters and special effects to it and creates the video. Google Photos app that is available on every smartphone may also be used for this as it follows the same procedure for creating videos.

• Full Blown Tutorials

Tutorials are videos that follow a comprehensive instructional method for teaching step-by-step. A combination of some or all of the above techniques can help anyone create an effective tutorial. Stepshot, Animoto, Moovly and Demo builders are softwares that make any video seem like it was professionally made.

It is quite common for teachers to feel overwhelmed by the amount of equipment that is used by content creators. Fancy devices may be helpful for commercial recording but they are definitely not a necessity for creating quality videos as eventually the success of the resource will boil down to the effectiveness of its content, script and voice over quality. Use of Visuals and editing skills are bound to improve with the number of videos one creates. Worrying too much about perfection at the very beginning may paralyze one’s enthusiasm.  Even for teachers who are completely new to technology or working in a remote corner of the country, creating quality videos would require a basic smartphone followed by a thorough knowledge of the concept they are teaching. So, whether a teacher falls in the category of technologically challenged or an IT genius, it is time for the whole fraternity to step up and start creating.

Authored by Nidhi Bansal, Pro-Vice Chairperson, Pacific World School