A Video Homage
by Karen Hamilton - Thursday, July 22, 2010, 12:52 PM
As Wesch and Burbules so eloquently point out, sites like YouTube can be more that just places with silly videos, they can be self-educating communities.
One way to start a dialogue with students is to use a simple application to make a statement. One such app is xtranormal. In the free version, users can create a short 2 person animation that says something. One user can post their work to YouTube and others can respond with their own short. It becomes a conversation. Xtranormal is a simple text to video format. Their slogan is something like if you can type you can make a movie.
I haven't been feeling well the past couple of days suffering from migraines, even so in an hour, I created a short (kind of bad compared to my normal stuff) video on the subject Who is the Teacher?
I did the basic animation in xtranormal and then dragged it into iMovie to add some titles and music. It's not great but I think it gets the point across in an hour a person can create and post a short piece of work, in an instant someone else can view it and respond, in hours there is a conversation
Web 2.0 has limitless capabilities for collaboration. As a YouTuber since 2006, I've shared a lot of education and got a lot back. For me it is like Nick says..it is a "free exchange" and there is an "open source ethos" ..kind of a karma thing -you give a lot and you get much in return.
Here's my Who is the teacher video? (with borrowed words from Nick!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bK7jjcRjyw
