Fewer than half of teenagers interviewed in a study by Common Sense Media felt that they were able to identify a fake news story from a real news story online. As digital platforms and social media sites continue to be a primary source for news and information across age groups, the need to be able to distinguish what news is true and what news is fake becomes all the more crucial.

Keeping students engaged in a lesson can be challenging. With shortening student attention spans and limited time for teachers to develop captivating lessons, more teachers are turning to educational videos to enhance and supplement learning than ever.

March is Women’s History Month and we are excited to be able recognise and celebrate women’s contributions to all aspects of society throughout history up to the present day. Before its introduction by Sonoma School District in 1978, women’s history was rarely taught in schools but now a wide range of resources make teaching about such an important topic easier than ever before.

We're happy to share that the feedback generated from teachers in the beta version of boclips for Teachers has been fantastic. Much of this feedback has helped to drive our product roadmap. As a result, we're excited to share new releases you'll see when logged in, items that we're currently working on, and what is coming in the future. 

Now Available in boclips for Teachers: 

🙋 Support Chat Added: We’ve added customer support chat which appears as an orange chat icon in the lower right of your window. If you’re having trouble finding the right content or want a little help getting to grips with the site, click on the chat icon and a member of our support chat will be ready to help.

We're excited to introduce you to a new content partner! Red Rock Films specializes in developing expertly researched educational videos that span the subjects of science, nature and history. These high quality educational short films are perfect as standalone learning pieces or used to spark discussion in the classroom. 

Another year, another BETT show. This year was my 8th BETT show in a row, and after 4 action-packed days in the Excel Centre, here are my top 5 takeaways from the show.

It is 2018 and we live in a time where media literacy is a crucial skill for students of all ages. Students must learn how to sort opinion from fact. Like most teachers, I have students from a variety of different backgrounds and as a result, they come to me with varying amounts of prior knowledge when it comes to media literacy.

Often, when I’m preparing for the start of a new unit or important section, I turn to videos as a means of engaging my students. Videos are a wonderful visual for English Language Learners, they captivate reluctant learners, and they incite the curiosity of all. Many of my students come to school with different backgrounds and experiences and videos have the opportunity to reach all students.

There are many diverse learning styles that educators need to reach. It is agreed upon by numerous research studies that 65% of the population consists of visual learners. In a Huffpost article from 2014, it states that video may be the best way to improve learning styles, especially when it comes to remembering key facts and figures. Forrester Research estimates one minute of online video equates to approximately 1.8 million written words. In addition, 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. This indicates visual education aids like video can improve learning styles and increase the rate at which we retain information. 

Using boclips in the classroom has been very beneficial in sparking debates and getting students involved in classroom discussions. One activity that I have enjoyed involves the Revolutionary War. We began class by watching the video titled, The Events Leading to the Revolutionary War.