Modern technologies have made shooting, editing and sharing videos a creative task that tutors can use to create educational resources.
This video on Medieval Seafaring was created as one of the learning resources for our FutureLearn course Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds: Maritime Archaeology. In just over six minutes it is able to provide a great deal of information verbally and visually, telling a story about wooden ship building techniques and the tools used in a way which is easy to recall later. Humans are good at remembering stories!
Video is a superb educational medium that uses editing to shape the pace, focus and tone of the material. It can include material shot on location or in a laboratory, and use close-ups, slow-motion, fast-forward, animations, graphics, stock footage, archival material and music. And for the viewer it enables repeat viewing, pause and rewind – unlike a lecture where if you miss or don’t understand something that was said, then that moment has passed.
Modern technology has made video easy to shoot, edit, share and view. Many phones now shoot high-quality video and are capable of simple editing tasks, while affordable semi-professional cameras and software enable sophisticated editing on standard PCs at a affordable cost. Services such as Vimeo and YouTube offer free sharing of videos, and our Panopto system offers a secure institutional system with controlled access if required.