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You may have already started a blog but here’s another idea to consider – a vlog. As you can guess from the squished-together way these new technology terms are formed, a “vlog” is a “video blog”. That is, a form of blogging in which the medium is video.
As a teacher, you might set up a blog site in which your students could post videos on a daily or weekly basis. Video is a very rich, creative media for students and the possibilities (formats, special effects, lighting techniques, subject matter, stop-action) are endless.
One of the best ways to get ideas for your vlog is to visit other, successful vlogs and see what they are doing. To that end here are a few of my favorites:
Alive in Baghdad
Excellent vlog with Iraqi journalists posting weekly videos (every Monday), detailing life in Baghdad. Illustrates the conflict through the voice of Iraqi citizens.
Crooks and Liars
Good political satire. Pretty well done.
CSPAN
I know, I know…but I think these guys are way ahead of the technology curve with live feeds, editorial coverage, featured guests, and regularly scheduled programming. An impressive vlog site.
MN Stories
I like this one. It’s a community vlog featuring all kinds of quirky and interesting human interest stories all about people living in Minnesota. Note that this site has channels so that you can sort through the vlog by area of interest to you (food, music, art, etc). For a classroom vlog, you could do the same – that is, set up channels for different content areas or elements of the course.
Sustainable Route
Two young women set out on a 13,000 mile road trip to find sustainable solutions to our environmental problems. Sort of a Thelma and Louise go green.
So, those are my favorites – what are yours? Oh, and here is a pretty good tutorial that covers the basics of shooting your video, compression, uploading, posting, and RSS feeds. Whoosh.
