TeachingRE Issue 4.pdf - the Second Level Support Service

U S I N G V I D E OI NR E L I G I O U S E D U C AT I O NBy Brendan O’Regan,Arklow CBSBrendan O’ Regan is aregular contributor to‘Teaching ReligiousEducation’ and has joinedthe team of localfacilitators in R.E.Support. I thank Brendanfor his continued supportof R.E. teachers and forthis publication. He offershere some practical anduseful hints for usingdigital video from theinternet in your R.E.classes.Many of us have been using video in RE for years, and now it has never been easier. Internet video provides so manyopportunities to use video clips to illustrate or back up the content of our lesson plans.Finding a suitable video clip can seem easy, but a lot of patience is required as you may have to wade through a lotof unsuitable material before you find the one to suit your needs. Don’t give up on your old stock of clips andprogrammes on VHS quite yet!YouTube is the usually the first port of call.The more specific you are in your search terms the quicker you’re likelyto find the clip you want. As schools generally have YouTube blocked (centrally through the schools’ broadbandnetwork) you’ll need to download the videos elsewhere and bring them in on laptop, disc or memory stick. GodTubeandTeacherTube are also useful and may not be blocked in school.You can also just do a search on your topic withthe word video added – e.g. search “pilgrimage video”.There are many ways to download the videos. I generally useRealplayer, which is likely to be on most computers anyway. If not search for “Free Realplayer” and install it, preferablyusing the “run” option rather than “save” when given the choice.Then, whenever you’re watching a video clip rightclick it and choose “Download this video”. Or, depending on how you’ve set it up you may have a “Download thisvideo” button. If this doesn’t work at all, open Realplayer, go to Tools/Preferences/Download and Recording andmake sure to tick the box beside “Enable Web Download”. Downloaded video clips appear in the Realplayer playlist,but they’re actually stored in a “Realplayer Downloads” folder, within the “MyVideos” or “Videos” folder. Other waysof downloading include YouTube Downloader, Freecorder Toolbar (latest version), and some web based methods likewww.savevid.com or www.ripzor.com ).These files come in “flv” format, and so will need an flv player like VLC (free).Alternatively you can convert the file to a more PC friendly format, like wmv, mov or avi. I’ve found Quick MediaConverter the best free software for this. Windows Media Player will now play the file.Another advantage of convertingto wmv is that you can now include the clips in a Powerpoint presentation, or you can import them into WindowsMovie Maker (Convert to mov format for Macs). In Moviemaker you can join clips together, edit clips, add titles etc.If Moviemaker gives trouble you could try VideoSpin 2, also free, while Moyea FLV Editor Lite (free version with somelimitations) will edit the raw flv files without having to go through a conversion process (you can always convert thefinished project).The conversion and editing process is fraught with frustration, mainly caused by the way clips are created using“codecs”. If it’s made with a codec you don’t have you’re in trouble! One codec you’ll need is “xvid” (esp if you haveavi files) – do a search for this, download it and install it. For PCs Windows Media Encoder should help also, while K-LiteCodec pack is a whole bunch of these gathered together.To include video clips in Powerpoint, just open a new slide, use the insert menu to insert “movie from file”, andbrowse to where your clips are stored (probably in “My Videos”, “Videos” or equivalent). If you’re bringing yourpresentation on a disc or memory stick, make sure to include the original video files as well, as what you’ve insertedinto the presentation is actually a link to the video file rather than the video itself. It would be a good idea to havea presentations folder, where you include the presentation and its related videos.TEACHING RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ISSUE FOUR SEPTEMBER 200933