About a week ago I posted my first 'vlog post' to YouTube. I have a couple of different reasons for trying vlogging: I want to learn and develop ways of making short educational videos more efficiently to assist the teaching staff I support at work, and I also think that it might be the best way to communicate some of my research.
Unsurprisingly no one has looked at my first vlog - so far I've not publicised it, and I doubt there's many people searching for videos about the meaning of "blended learning" - my chosen subject for this first attempt.
However, getting lots of views was not my aim, learning was. In some ways I'm quite pleased with the result - the vlog was filmed as one ~10 minute take, with various mistakes edited out afterwards to bring it down to ~5 minutes. Editing was quite quick, so in terms of efficiency of production it was not bad. The end result however isn't great. I don't think I'm a natural in front of the camera, and a lot less of my face would have made it better... Next time I should plan to have a few images rather than just slides of some key information. The content also doesn't need the video, so could actually have been put in a blog post with a lot less effort. It also would probably have been more accessible, and quicker to digest in that form.
So, thinking about education, probably before making a video the teacher needs to think "Is there anything in this lesson that needs video?" If the answer is no, probably text and illustrations is a better choice.
From my viewpoint, was it worth making this Vlog post? Yes, because it was about learning, so the fact that video was unneeded in this instance is just part of the lesson.
If you're remotely interested, the Vlog, 'What do we really mean by "Blended Learning"' is here - I think the last 10 seconds, when I come to a conclusion is maybe worth watching :-)
