Watching Videos Actively

I am taking a college class on flipping my classroom.  The idea is that I have students watch the videos the night before so I can spend more time working with students on the assigned work.  The thing is, most students I've worked with watch videos passively and don't know how to actively watch.

This is my fear when flipping my classroom but there are things I can do to turn students from passive to active viewers.  The good thing about videos is they help build background knowledge while providing another way of seeing the knowledge.  Videos can also enrich and clarify written text and deepen or solidify student learning.

There are several ways to accomplish this. The first is to use a three step process.  The first step is to provide questions to help students focus on the most important points.  Students write down their answers to the prompts or questions on paper or on a digital document.  Next, the class should rewatch the video together with the teacher taking time to stop the video to comment on things students need to be aware of while modeling appropriate behavior.  The final step is to debrief students to make sure they got the important information.

Other suggestions for using videos more actively is to give students a reason for watching the video, taking time to pause the video so students can write down answers to the questions or prompts, and turn on closed caption so students can read along with the narrator or presenter.

There are ways to increase student involvement to make them more active viewers.  Ask students to tweet their comments to each other with the appropriate hashtags or create a poll for students to answer with information from the video.  My favorite way is to use a video from Edpuzzle or use Edpuzzle to curate a video.

I prefer using a curated video because I can include comments on what to watch out for when doing the math, I can include a short answer question, or a multiple choice which students have to answer before they can move on.  I can also include directions for them to copy certain things into their notebooks.  Furthermore, I can check to see how long it took for them to complete the exercise so I know if they whizzed through it or really paid attention.  I can also see how many times students watched each section.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.