Some comments on FL and video

The possibilities of video technology in a FL class are endless. I still remember when I was learning English as a child that short videos is all we had in many classes. My teacher would show us “real life” situations with native speakers and then there were repetition exercises. Some times we would also try to transcribe the whole dialogue or fill in the blanks. Video technology today offers a lot more than this. Creating, editing and sharing videos have become very easy processes, and especially young people do it mostly for fun.

I think that some of the challenges for using this kind of technology in FL education are:

1) To design an activity that gives the chance to everyone in the class to interact simultaneously.

2) To gauge the language level of the videos according to the level of the students.

3) The understanding and use of certain video technologies can be a challenge for some students.

4) For the instructors: evaluating a video activity that requires no writing.

Here are some of my ideas for video projects in a FL class:

1) Mini videos in the TL with instructions for an arts and craft or cooking or painting projects.

2) Periodical interactions with native speakers using webcams.

3) A “jigsaw-like” video editing game on which the students need to organize the sequences to create a logic situation.

4) A semester-long video project on which all students collaborate by turns to create a story in Spanish simulating reality or, why not…science fiction!