10 Creative Ways to Use Video in the Classroom

There’s no doubt that video has changed the way we share information. And as always, teachers are at the forefront of using this resource creatively.

After a challenging year that pushed teachers to go more online, we’ve been blown away by the different ways teachers have used video to engage and excite their students.

Check out these 10 teacher-inspired ideas for how to use video in the classroom for either online or in-person learning.

Make sure to also keep an eye out as we share best practices for enhancing your videos using Edpuzzle!

1. Virtual Field Trips

The museum, Paris, the Grand Canyon … if we could, we would go anywhere in the world to help our students learn. That’s why YouTube is a game changer. You can find all sorts of videos to make your students feel like they are experiencing things first-hand.

Tip: Record your own virtual field trip to make the experience a bit more personal. Your students will appreciate seeing you interact with the location and hearing you explain important concepts. It’s also the perfect excuse to take that extra little vacation!

2. Teaching essay writing

Writing is tough to teach. Kids need personalized support to develop the necessary skills, but teachers aren’t always available to sit down with every student.

Using Edpuzzle to explain and model each part of the writing process not only provides you more time to conference with your writers, but also provides students with the ability to work at their own pace.

Tip: Embed open-ended questions with Edpuzzle to have students begin making guided choices about their own writing.

3. Mistake analysis in math

We all know how much students love catching their teacher’s mistakes. So why not incorporate that into your lesson?

Engage students in a discussion through strategically planned errors. Record a video of yourself solving a problem incorrectly and ask students to identify the way to get the correct answer.

Tip: Use Explain Everything to record your video on an interactive digital whiteboard and make your math problems come alive! Once you record, you’ll be able to easily upload the video to Edpuzzle as part of our integration.

4. Lab demos

While we 100% agree that science should be as hands-on as possible, using video can sometimes come in handy.

Lab demos, for example, are time-consuming, wasteful, and require a lot of clean-up. By recording your own lab demos, you get to reuse the same video every year and give students a more close-up (and safer) view.

This gives you more class time to let students get their hands dirty while providing them with more individualized feedback.

Tip: Ask questions in your video (as if your students were right there with you) and have the same question appear as a multiple-choice question in Edpuzzle. Because it’s automatically graded, it will allow you to quickly scan for student misconceptions.

5. Video Read Alouds

Video read alouds aren’t just a result of remote learning. Although nothing beats the special connections that you make with a normal read aloud, there are several advantages to using a read aloud from YouTube.

You have access to many more books online than you might have in your own school library. That means you can open up your students to a diversity of stories without the cost of finding the physical copy.

Tip: Use Edpuzzle's Live Mode to watch a video read aloud as a class, and stop the video at strategic points in order to spark a discussion.

6. Giving students' feedback

Giving written feedback on assignments can sometimes feel counterproductive. Either your students won’t take the time to read it or they won’t completely understand it.

That’s where the magic of screencasting comes in. Using screencasts to give students feedback lets you model exemplary responses in a short and clear way. And because it’s a video, students will be able to refer back to it as many times as they need.

Tip: Embed your webcam in the recording so that students can see your face and feel more connected to you as you go over the feedback.

7. Back to School Night

Engaging your students’ parents and guardians right off the bat is a sure-fire way to start your year off with good vibes. If you love the flipped classroom model, try flipping your Back to School Night!

Simply make your own videos explaining class rules, your course syllabus, school policies, etc. so your students’ families can “meet” you before they ever set foot in your classroom.

Tip: Consider flipping your parent-teacher conferences as well to maintain good communication and strong relationships with your students’ families throughout the year.

8. Student-created video lessons

Kids love putting themselves in teachers’ shoes, so why should it be any different with video? With Edpuzzle’s student project feature, students can get a taste of what it’s like to create their own video lessons.

Edtech expert Stacey Roshan recommends using Edpuzzle for students to self-assess themselves after a presentation. All you have to do is record student presentations and have your students upload their own comments to the video to analyze their performance. Very meta, right?

Tip: Do some appsmashing with Flipgrid and Edpuzzle to have students create their own video lessons to review a unit and then share them with their classmates.

Creating an #appsmash with @Flipgrid & @edpuzzle student project on a review of the 3 states of matter. Love how they prepped for their videos and questions in advance! @NewlinElem pic.twitter.com/I54zkjsYeu

— Kelly Sherrill (@kelly_sherrill1) February 2, 2018

9. Sports game analysis

It’s easy to place the blame for students’ inactivity on technology (we’re looking at you Netflix), but the truth is that the right combination of edtech can transform your sports teams, P.E. and Health classes.

If you want to take visual feedback from practices, games, and sports instruction one step further, record your students so they can watch themselves back instant replay style.

Tip: Use notes in Edpuzzle to pause the video strategically and highlight notable plays (see example above).

10. Professional Development

Although not technically “in the classroom”, this tip is definitely worth using at your school. The reality is that PD could use a makeover and video is just one way to bring it into the 21st century.

Use video PD to dramatically reduce your school’s budget for professional development and increase teacher engagement. Sounds great right?

Plus, because video is naturally self-paced, teachers can work through the videos based on their learning needs.

Tip: Check out Edpuzzle’s selection of self-paced courses with topics ranging from tech integration to online privacy & security, project-based learning and more!

Share your thoughts!

These are just a few awesome examples of how teachers and students can use video in the classroom.

Feeling inspired? Tell us your favorite or share your own idea by tweeting us @edpuzzle!