Simple Technique for Online Video Lesson

Just discovered "Picturing Information" a 4 minute video which analyzes an Infographic depicting per cent of mothers of 4-year-olds who work outside the home. After pausing to give viewers time to study the infographic and make their own analysis, author analyzes the infographic: Why does child have sad face? Why is mother pictured as a professional (vs blue collar job)?

As you can see from the video below, this is a very simple technique for creating a video to serve as an online lesson.  In many discussions of the 'flipped classroom' (where instructor records and posts a lecture for students to study before class so that classroom time can be used for actual discussion or hands-on activities), the tools involved are quite sophisticated and/or expensive.  But the technique here is easily available to anyone sitting at their home computer who has a smart phone or digital camera that records video.

One can easily adapt the technique of this video to use with widely available PowerPoint.  Just insert the infographic (or poem or short text) in a slide, record your narration, then convert to video (this function included in MS Office 2010 and later).

College faculty NOT preparing students with Web skills.

Lisa's (Online) Teaching Blog of 12/25/11 investigates a study by Pearson and Babson Research, published in April 2011, which reports that “over 90% of all faculty are using social media in courses they’re teaching or for their professional careers outside class”.  Are faculty really so involved in Web use?  By delving into the study, Lisa found Figure 15, which shows that less than 10% of faculty require their students to actually create content on the Web.  Students are not being given practice in Web skills that employers will find useful - ability to create & post video to YouTube, maintain a blog to involve customers or clients of employer, etc.