As educators, we’ve been using videos for years in our instruction, but mainly, those videos have been produced by someone else.  In recent years, creating videos has become a passion for many educators who want to embed the use of self-produced rich media into their instructional practices.  We see evidence of this in the flipped classroom model for which many educators create short videos that students view to prepare for  the next day’s work in class.

For those who have SMART Notebook installed on a PC, you’re on your way to creating instructional videos through the use of the SMART Recorder.  You can access the SMART Recorder from the SMART Board Tools icon in the system tray of your PC or by customizing the Notebook’s toolbar by adding an icon for the Recorder for quick access.

SMART Recorder Basics

This video will help you get started using the SMART Recorder to create your own instructional materials.

Advanced Features in the SMART Recorder

After activating the SMART Recorder, look for the Menu dropdown and choose Options.  There are two options that you’ll want to explore:

1. Target Files:  This gives you the option to decide where your recordings will be saved by default.  Setting this to a particular folder will help to ensure that your recordings always go to one location for easy retrieval.

2. Watermark:  If you’re producing a number of instructional videos, you’ll want to be sure that your work is clearly identified as your own. The Watermark options allow you to specify any image or text that will appear on the screen as others view your recordings.  Each option will allow you to set Properties such as transparency, position on the screen, color, font, size of text, etc.

3. Hide to System Tray: This feature in the Menu is helpful as you record a video.  By choosing it, your viewers will no longer see the Recorder toolbar shown on the screen and you won’t have to worry about how to hide it while recording.  From the icon on the system tray you can start and stop your recordings.

Instructional Uses for Video

1. Flipped Classroom – as teachers embrace this concept, they seek quick and easy ways to produce short instructional videos that student will review prior to the next day’s class.

2. Materials for Substitute teachers – creating instructional videos can help subs in your classroom to present content during the lesson that you’ve created in advance.

3. Instructional Library – create short “how to” videos that students can use as a follow up to today’s class lesson: how to search for a website, how to locate and bookmark the class website, how to hand in an assignment in your learning management system, best practices for interacting with others online, etc.

4. Share your videos in your own YouTube channel, on Vimeo or on any other video storage service so you can provide links for quick access.

How do you use video to support the instruction in your classroom?