Teacher First: Creating a Science GIF

If a picture is worth a thousand words, is a 5 second gif worth five thousand words?

We're studying inertia in our 8th Grade Physical Science class and the teacher showed this demonstration.  I don't need to explain it because it's right here.   

This is pretty simple.  Afterwards, the students were asked to write out their observations and create a diagram showing the forces at work in this scenario.  The teacher performed the demonstration a few times; some of the students needed to see it again.  ...and again.  Tying the concepts of inertia, friction, and force to a real example is tough for any student, let alone an 8th grader in the spring time.  This creates a a problem that a gif can help fix.

The gif format can be embedded into a PowerPoint or a class website and allows the students to observe the demonstration as many times as they want.  This can be valuable for those students who want to review it again or for those students who missed the demonstration.

I used my iPhone and an app called 5SecondsApp that creates gif files from video.  It's free and moderately easy to use.  Plus it has the capability of syncing with DropBox.  Like Instagram, you can add filters and play with the video as much as you want; I don't know how valuable that is, but it's neat.  I didn't use a filter for this video.

And, using the gif-maker you can see what we did in class today.  That, in itself, is worth five thousand words.

Videos: Worth a Thousand Words?

A picture, of course, is worth a thousand words.  But, is a video worth a thousand words?  With absolute certainty, everyone knows the answer to this question is "maybe."

A Lengthy Video

I find it hard to justify watching a video for an entire class-period.  Even if students are filling out a worksheet tied to the video, they are only being asked Knowledge based questions.  Unless a teacher is filling in a lesson plan for a substitute teacher dedicating an entire class period seems like a misuse of time.

If it's necessary to watch an entire video there's got to a significant assessment that goes along with it.  In English or Drama class, watching and analyzing a particular interpretation of a Shakespeare play may be valuable.  I can't think of anything in science that would justify this type of time investment.

Fortunately, many of the new science videos are short but highly informative. Take a look at the Pocket Mouse video on the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) website.  It's a minute long, well produced, and communicates information very well.  HHMI produces DVDs with longer segments and each portion runs for 10-15 minutes.

But, we're getting into short videos.  Videos that run longer than 20 minutes are, in most cases, time-fillers rather than the engaging material we'd hoped for.  And, the students know it.

A Short Video

Short videos, on the other hand, can help facilitate inquiry, curiosity, and discussion, all the things that we educators wake up in the morning eager to make happen.

Video segments can help students grasp difficult concepts or visualize instructions before going on to a lab. Not only do students take in the knowledge, but the surrounding time the video can be used for questioning and analysis.

Personal Experience

Perhaps I am biased based on my own experience.  I can not think of a time in my educational career where watching a lengthy video was an essential part of my understanding.  I also don't know of a single respectable teacher that does this as a regular part of their course.

So, until convinced otherwise, only short videos will make their way into my lesson plans.