Review and Compare Online Educational Video Services
As many as 94% of teachers are doing it in the classroom, an increasing number of Home Educators are beginning to do it, and even the parents and caregivers of Special Needs students are now understanding why they need to do it.
Doing what?
Using online educational video as a powerful and potentially very beneficial teaching aid, that what!
There is no doubt that the audio visual nature of video and movies as an educational tool is extremely useful, after all it is a powerful form of Visual Learning. But choosing which educational video service to use can be like trying to compare apples with oranges.
A recent survey of the many websites now offering online video for educational purposes reveals the good, the bad, and the downright ugly side of what can only be described in most cases as a very misleading situation.
For a start if you are going to use video for teaching children a selection of curriculum topics, it is stating the obvious that you need to use educational video that was designed specfically for the purpose. Trying to use video content that was original designed for television programming and enterainment can hardly be described as being aligned to National or State Standards.
Then of course you have the issue of educational video that is not subtitled. This type of video, no matter how good the content, is essentially only doing 66% of the job. Children – whether they be Special Needs or not – need to have the choice to watch, listen to or read each presentation. It is this that caters for the widest range of Learning Styles and abilities. In fact in 2010 the Government passed laws requiring video providers to provide subtitles – otherwise known as closed captions. Yet because this is the Internet, many providers simply ignore these requirements which is testament to a very prevalent attitude that is if it’s video, and if it’s of a general educational nature, it’s good enough.
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