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In advance of my guest-hosting gig for Monday's #engsschat on Twitter, this weekend I produced and posted some really short clips to illustrate multiple ways to produce video lessons. I remember that when I got started, the video-production step felt daunting and a bit terrifying. Let me know in the comments if this is helpful, incomplete, inspiring, offensive, or "other" 
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 That being said, it seems there are two kinds of flippers in this world: Those who assign videos, and those who do not. Some very smart people have pushed this point recently, like Robert Talbert in his blog and his book. So did Brian Bennett on his nodes blog (until last year when he seemed to change his mind). I have detected 3 reasons for this not-just-videos stance:
I've been trying for months to wrap my head around the flipping-without-videos concept. Robert Talbert's January 2017 piece described 5 different options, all of which involve a structured activity for the individual-space (usually homework) task: a game, a podcast, reading a text.... Even though he writes a bold-faced caveat that you can't just assign chapter 3 of the book and call it flipping, I fear this is still a misleading suggestion. ("But we have class discussions about chapter 3 the next day, in the group-learning space! That means I'm a flipper too, right?!" Uh, no I don't think so.) If we stretch the definition of flipped learning too far, then it will break.  I'm not talking about a civil war within the flipped community.* Maybe video-based flippers are a subset of the flipped-learning community; maybe we need our own label like the "in-flip" or "in-class flip" folks (Catlin Tucker has a well-read piece and Martha Ramirez wrote a mighty fine FLN item). Educators in this sub-group could share strategies for making effective videos, connections between those lessons and group-space activities, methods of accountability for the videos, etc. ... without talking at cross-purposes with in-flippers and other non-video-based flipped classrooms.
What would that term be?! I thought of vlipping, but that sounds terrible (David Walsh agrees) and we might have trademark issues with a Columbian company. Or we could try vid-flipping, but I don't love that term either. Wait, maybe that's why no one discussed this idea before: the brand naming seems impossible! HELP!!! * But if it happens, then I claim the Captain America role ;) It's the 4th of July, so of course I am not teaching in school today. If I were, then we'd surely focus on the Declaration of Independence; instead we usually explore this document in November or December. The holiday always reminds me of this video, which remains my favorite (and usually my students' too): The material itself is not really unique. My content partner has taught the 5-part structure for many years, and the "break-up message" analogy has been noted by many other great teachers. The 5-finger mnemonic device (pinky = Preamble, middle finger = Tyrannical Acts, etc.) is the only element that might be a Mr. Swan original. The idea popped in my head sometime in 2012, when I was preparing this unit.
For the first 2 years of my current Social Studies job, I did most of this teaching in just one class. That includes the "break-up" skit, which I performed 4 times in one day. Exhausting!! And what about the handful of kids who were absent that day?? In 2012 or 2013, the idea of video-recording that performance occurred to me, but I didn't do it. What's the point? Where would I post the video? My colleague and I committed to flipping in the summer of 2013, but we used other people's videos for most of that year (or assigned really boring voice-over Powerpoint lectures -- yikes!). On Halloween 2014 (a Friday), I stayed late after school to record the video you see above; I brought in the white T-shirt that morning, which still shows evidence of the folds and wrinkles from lying in a bag all day. That year I was the faculty advisor of a video-news production elective, so I had easy access to a greenscreen and Kodak Flip camera with tripod. I story-boarded the video in my journal that morning, but basically it was just a recording of the in-class lesson I'd already given 8 times (4 sections a day x 2 years experience). I first recorded the "handy guide" which appears at the end, but I already knew that would be the wrap-up segment. This required 4 takes. Fun fact: I had a perfect take in the middle, but near the end an intercom announcement about the 4:00 late bus interrupted my performance. I swore loudly, vigorously, and impressively before hitting the Stop button. I kept that 'blooper' on the SD card for a couple years but it got erased. Too bad. Next, I did the 5-parts section you see in the beginning. The marker ink was barely dry on the props you see taped to the whiteboard. I recorded it all in one take, but I wish the tripod were higher so you're not looking up my nose!! Later, I used iMovie editing tools to cut out the bits where I moved each mini-poster onto the whiteboard ... that makes it look slick. I don't like the echo-ey classroom acoustics, so usually I don't record videos here anymore. Fun fact: that echo is very difficult for students with cochlear implants and other hearing aids. The "restaurant" performance got done last, although you see it in the middle of the video. By now it was about 5:00 and I just wanted to get the job finished. A quick costume change, a shift of the tripod to the previously-erected greenscreen setup, and a little Method acting later ... the piece was done. Rush home -- grab thick coat -- go trick-or-treating with kids -- a long day ended at 8:30pm! Well, except for the iMovie production that I mentioned earlier. It took about 2 hours of work to totally finalize the video and post it. Most of that work was adding the text titles in just the right spots so students could understand the lesson. Total time for this video = about 7 hours from planning --> recording --> editing (not including the rehearsal/workshopping for two years previously). On the other hand, I never again need to perform this skit during class. I can (and do) recycle this video lesson every year. Also I can (and do) share this performance with Facebook friends on the holiday, just because. That seems like several hours well-spent! We got back this evening from a full day at the New England League of Middle Schools conference at the Convention Center in Providence RI. For the second year, my colleague and I presented to fellow educators about our flipped classroom -- it was quite well-attended, and we got some great questions and feedback from the audience. That included some requests for examples of our video lessons....  all credit due to Bill Watterson I have recently produced most movies with a simple camera and iMovie, but there are many more ways to produce your clips. If you already have multimedia presentations, wouldn't it be great to convert them into your homework videos? Yeah it would. Sometimes the process is simple, sometimes it's more complicated ... depending on your original version. If this blog post is missing a crucial step or a common computer program, or if you find an easier solution, please let me know!
Making a movie from Inspire or a similar app
Converting an Explain Everything project into a movie
 
Converting a Keynote project into a movie
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Who is this flipping guy?! Andrew Swan is wrapping up year 18 of teaching middle school (currently 8th-grade US History in a Boston suburb). Previously he has taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade English, ancient history, & geography in Maine and in Massachusetts. Categories
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