Gifted students are pupils who demonstrate high achievement in an artistic, creative, leadership, or academic capacity. Their high achievement may be linked to specific or broad academic fields and pursuits. When it comes to equity, these students require special or additional activities, services, and opportunities that are not part of the standard curriculum or system.

In the not-so-distant past, higher education lectures were almost entirely instructor-led with a heavy focus on written learning materials. Students would spend hours of their week trying to absorb long and complex texts, regardless of their preferred learning style. Then, they would sit in a lecture hall and listen to a professor talk while they listened, often with little audience interaction. For some, this was an effective and enjoyable way to learn but, for many others, it wasn’t quite so engaging.

COVID-19 changed education in an instant. ProQuest customers were drastically affected by global shutdowns and had to completely pivot their research, teaching, and learning models in a matter of days.

Modern technology has had a tremendous impact on our society and accelerated different service sectors in ways that were previously unimaginable. News and politics have largely moved to social networks, banking can be comfortably handled from the comfort of a couch and your car automatically updates itself to become safer and more convenient to use.

Engagement with your students isn’t always easy if you teach some of the core K12 subjects like reading, writing, and math. You don’t generally get to run around, get the paints out, or start banging a drum in those lessons. Plus, the pressure for exam and homework results is often intense.

The use of video in education isn’t what it was. It was once considered a rare treat for students when their teachers would roll the AV cart into the classroom and turn on a video for an hour or two of passive media consumption. Today, teachers use videos regularly, generally in bite-sized chunks, as an integrated part of their lessons. Rather than consuming them passively, students now actively engage with the content as their teachers facilitate activities and discussions centered around the video. Video is no longer just an occasional supplement: a recent survey shows that video streaming sites are the top digital tool teachers use in the classroom (Common Sense Media, 2019).

When we think about the ways in which our world is connected, systems of global trade, international travel, or economics come to mind. But as pandemics like COVID-19 or the Spanish Flu have taught us, public health is one of the most critical aspects of our reliance on each other.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week so we wanted to take a moment to recognize teachers who work tirelessly to educate the next generation. These unprecedented times go to show how essential teachers are in our society. At Boclips, we are proud to be working in the education space and we’re very lucky to have several educators on staff. Keep reading to find out more about them.

Let’s talk about passive and active learning in the context of video-driven lessons. As teachers, every minute in the lesson counts so it’s important that we have both a clear goal and a clear strategy associated with the videos we choose to share with our students. Once we find the right video, we ask ourselves, “Okay, what do I do with this? How can this clip be an active learning experience instead of a passive one for my students?”

Watch this short video hosted by Ed Kendall of Boclips  to learn how you can use video in your virtual learning platforms to keep students engaged and keep teachers coming back for more.