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.

Set the stage for digital citizenship with a community contract

Teachers are scrambling to respond to the sudden push towards remote learning, and technology is helping bridge the gap left by the classroom. But with all the live conferencing, increased screentime, and new learning apps arises another challenge for schools to solve: how to make sure students safely and effectively engage with these tools.

Teachers are busy people. There’s the constant balancing act of lesson-planning, grading papers, meeting with parents and co-workers, and organizing extra-curricular activities. And that’s on top of actually teaching lessons! So when a new resource comes along, it’s easy to see why it might not be a priority. There are so many tools that are wonderfully innovative and rich in pedagogical value, but if they take a long time to implement or aren’t easy to incorporate into existing workflows, they’re likely to fall by the wayside. Fortunately, this problem of “too little time” is one that many EdTech tools are looking to address.

As an unprecedented incident, few stakeholders were adequately prepared for the non-school-based education that’s been required in the wake of COVID-19. The crisis has left students, parents, teachers, school administrators, and companies that support them scrambling to adapt to the abrupt virtualization of education. It’s drastically changed the way we educate our children today, and it’s likely to reshape our approaches to education for the long-term.