modern media: videos

Videos have become prolific in today's world: YouTube in particular provides viewers with numerous and varied videos that provide everything from the entertainment of watching babies laugh to the education of learning the nuances of Euclidean geometry. We are drawn to the humorous, sentimental, exaggerated, and shockingly true, and the more creative the video, the more we want to watch it and share it.
"Videos" in the classroom ten years ago meant watching recordings of Bill Nye the Science Guy or the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird, but with the proliferation of online videos and online video-making tools, "videos" in the classroom can now also mean that students can create movies of their own or teachers can more effectively use a personalized flipped-classroom model.
Here are a few video tools and ways they can be integrated into the classroom to encourage critical thinking and creativity:

1. The templates in Wideo make this tool seem geared toward product promotions and presentations, and would incorporate well into a classroom discussion of media and advertisements. Students could use the Wideo templates to easily "sell" any sort of product, from an idea to an object, and they can practice with appeals and other persuasive techniques. Though the "educational" templates sell themselves as ways for students to more creatively submit homework, this just seemed tedious and unnecessary for both the student and teacher; however, students could probably incorporate a quick Wideo at the beginning of a presentation to quickly engage their peers; helping students at least be aware of a tool like this might help them seek more creative options than PowerPoints.
2. Pixiclip and Jing are the two tools an instructor would find most helpful in a flipped-classroom environment, but students could use these tools as well. To a large extent, they put the student in the "teacher" chair, and could be incredibly useful if student groups prepared video reviews of critical concepts or vocabulary before a test; research shows that "teaching" is often the best way to learn! Both take a bit of practice to be used to their full potential, and "ad libbed" audio would be risky for a teacher or student, so I recommend a script first.
3. Powtoon, even its basic, free subscription, can allow students to create cartoon versions of book plots or historical events; if you want students to be creative and think on a higher level, consider asking them to create interactions between characters from two different books or historical time periods. I used Powtoon to create a short cartoon of a teacher announcing a research paper assignment to his students, who, to his chagrin, became anxious and scared until the school's librarian came to the rescue. It took a few hours to master the tool and the nuances of the timing, but I think a few teacher-made videos like this (and I mean a few) throughout the year can help add some humor to the classroom. You can view my video below.