What I Really Want to Do Is Direct
So I’ve been interested in the idea of the “flipped” classroom and using podcasts to help students review material. I don’t think I’m ready to go for the full flip idea, where I assign students to watch a video that introduces content and then we use/discuss that content in class. But I think it could be a really useful review tool. So I decided to try to create a video that would review key terms from the beginning of World History.
Here’s the result, if you’re interested.
This was my first time doing this, so I expect I’ll find ways to change the process. But here’s how I did it.
I wrote a script in Google Docs, which you can find here.
Then I used Photoshop to create a series of 36 images, using a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution that would work at 720p. I used Google to find the images, and finding pictures that were of high quality was a little more challenging than I expected. But I found enough that I liked. Then I cropped them in Photoshop and copied them all into one master Photoshop document, where I could use layers to just show the parts I wanted for each part of the video. I saved each version as a JPG file. Having the Photoshop document came in handy when I spotted an error later and had to go do a correction.
I copied the 36 images into iMovie on my MacBook . . . I have an old version, but it works well enough. I read my script into GarageBand and created a podcast file that I could copy into iMovie. From there I just had to adjust the length of time that each picture appeared on the screen and add some transitions. Alex helped me, so we got to have some bonding time over the video editor.
From there I had to finalize the iMovie and then upload it to YouTube. I think I’m also going to make a MPEG-4 version that I can host here on the Notnews server for students to download. But that will probably be tomorrow’s task.
Will I keep doing this? I’m going to do at least one more, and then get feedback from my students. I enjoyed making it, but it did take several hours of writing and image-creating to do. Like I said, there ought to be some ways I can streamline that down the road.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.