Using Video Technology to Collect Evidence Of Practice
Posted by Art Recesso on Wed, Jan 26, 2011 @ 09:10 AM
Evidence capture devices are becoming more widely available, less expensive, and less intrusive all the time. The most complex devices are ones that your school or district must buy and set up for you; but there are many simpler devices that you can supply on your own.
Video Capture
Video has proven to be a powerful tool for capturing direct evidence of classroom events. Student teachers have been bringing camcorders into the classroom to capture themselves and other teachers for more than twenty years.
How the technology works. Quite simply, you can set up a camera in the back of the room and capture the events. Latest improvements in even the consumer line of video camcorders allow you to zoom, adjust the quality of sound capture, and even label the events. New “pro-consumer” cameras even store to hard drives rather than tapes. You can now buy a video camcorder such as the JVC Everio that fits in the palm of your hand, zooms great distances, and captures hours of video and/or audio on a hard drive. No more tapes! You don’t even need a VCR for playback anymore.
Typically, software comes with the camera so you can offload the video from the camera (even if on tape) to a computer for playback or editing. Mid-range camcorders come equipped with viewfinders so you can watch the playback immediately after the event, without processing the video.
What the technology produces. With a simple camcorder setup, you can record evidence of your actual classroom teaching as well as student reactions to various parts of the lesson. You can capture your practices over multiple sessions (to see how your teaching approach is evolving), or you can single out very specific events within a single lesson.
Most appropriate applications. The camera provides an “external” perspective on your teaching. It can help you distinguish what really happened from what you perceived was happening. For lessons in which you stand at the front of the classroom, you can also set up a camera behind yourself to capture student reactions that you may not notice while the lesson is in progress.
What the technology helps explain. A video record can help you understand:
- Your actual practices as compared to recollected or intended practices
- Very specific events that occurred in the classroom
- Your use of various strategies in class, and your interactions with learners as you employed those strategies
- Learners’ response to teaching
- Students’ interactions during classroom events
- Students’ construction of knowledge while engaged in hands-on activities