cyberbullying

Using video
Learning Technologies for the Classroom
Participant materials
© British Council 2013

Using video
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1 TASK TYPES FOR EXPLOITING VIDEO
SILENT VIEWING TASKS
Task: Watch and script
Ask students to watch a clip with the sound muted and try to script what they think the people in the
clip are saying. This works best with clips that have two or three people interacting in familiar settings.
Task: Observing culture
Ask students to watch clips and compare the culture depicted within the clip to their own culture. This
works well with clips that depict everyday life in the target culture.
Task: Watching for mood/character
Ask students to watch a clip and try to describe what people are feeling and why and what kind of
character they are. This works best with clips that have people interacting.
Task: Watch and describe
Ask students to watch a clip and to describe what happens in the clip. This can be done verbally or
orally. This works best in clips that have plenty of activity and excitement.
Task: Watch for processes
Ask students to watch and order/note down steps in a process. This works well with instructional clips
such as cooking videos or showing how to do things.
Task: The witness
Ask students to watch clips and then be a witness and describe either what happened or visual
descriptions of people. This works well with video clips from films with crimes taking place.

Using video
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LISTENING TASKS
Task: Watch and transcribe
Ask students to watch a clip and write down what they hear as a dictation activity. This works well when
the clip is quite short and the sound quality is good.
Task: Specific information
Ask students to listen for specific facts and information. This works well when you create true/false
statements for students so that they don’t have to write too much and they know what to listen for.
Task: Comprehension
Ask students to listen and answer questions. This works best when the answers required are quite short
and don’t require them to stop and write a lot.
Task: Pronunciation - Intonation
Give students transcripts to accompany video clips and ask them to listen and mark on features of
intonation that indicate mood or attitude. This works well with clips that show people interacting with
strong emotions.
WATCH AND RESPOND TASKS
Task: Did you agree?
Ask student to watch and see if they agree with the information being given. This works well with clips
such as interviews where opinions are being given.
Task: What did you like?
Ask students to watch and decide if they like what they see. This works well with entertainment videos
such as music videos or with clips which show other cultures or exotic places.
Task: What will happen next?
Ask students to watch the first part of a clip and then describe what they think will happen next.
Students then watch and check. This works well with video clips that show narrative.

Using video
Page 3 of 14
WEBCAM ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS
Here are some suggestions for activities which use video as a communication tool.
Video learning journal
After each lesson ask students to go home and send you a short video clip telling you what they
learned and what they remember from the lesson. They could also ask you questions about things they
felt were unclear or that they didn’t understand. To make this work well you also need to reply to your
students using the video tool that you choose.
Video dictation
Record yourself on video saying a short monologue. Tell your students they have to write down the
monologue and then record themselves saying it and send it back to you.
Chain story
Record the first sentence of an imaginary story and send it to your students. Tell them they have to
record your sentences and invent and record the next sentence and send it back to you. You then
record the two sentences and add another and send it back to your students. You continue to repeat
this process until you have built up a story together.
Video dictionary
When new vocabulary comes up in class, give words to different students and ask them to research the
words and then create a video dictionary entry about the word. They can include information about
different meanings, parts of speech and an example sentence. They then send the clip to you and you
collect the clips together to make a video dictionary.
News report
Ask students to collect news items, either from world or local news or from around their school. They
can then use the information they collect to produce their own short news report video. They can do
this either alone or in groups or pairs. This works particularly well if the students have phones with
video cameras as this will enable them to add video clips from around their environment.
Guess the object
Ask students to record a video of themselves describing an object. They should never say what the
object is or show it, but only describe it. Collect the videos together and show them in class. The other
students have to guess what the object they are describing is.

Using video
Page 4 of 14
Sales pitch
Ask students to choose a normal household object and record a video of themselves describing the
useful properties of the object and attempting to sell it. They can show the object as they describe it
and even invent a price. Collect together the videos and then show them in class. Give students a
budget and they can watch and decide which objects they would like to spend their money on.
Video interviews
Try to arrange a time for an interview with someone from outside of the class. This could be with
another teacher or an English-speaking friend. Tell your students that they are going to interview the
person and to prepare some questions. Use one of the live video conferencing technologies so that
your students can interview the person in class (from wherever they are).
These ideas were originally published on: 20 WebCam Activities for EFL ESL Students
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.it/2009/07/20-webcam-activities-for-efl-esl.html

Using video
Page 5 of 14
SCENARIO – PRACTISING LISTENING AND SPEAKING WITH ONLINE VIDEO
Decision 1
Rhona teaches English in a secondary school in Mexico City. Her school has a well-equipped computer
room where each computer has a headset with a microphone. Rhona and her colleagues regularly take
their students into the computer room to use the internet during their lessons. Two students work on
each computer. Neither Rhona nor her colleagues have used the internet to watch video clips or to
practise listening. Rhona has carried out several webquests with her students and now wants to
experiment with video and listening tasks.
What is the first thing Rhona should do?
a. Request the purchase of a second headset for each computer.
b. Book the computer room for her first video-based lesson.
c. Start looking at the videos present on video websites such as YouTube.

Using video
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DECISION 1: OUTCOMES
a. Request the purchase of a second headset for each computer.
Outcome
This is a sensible approach. Rhona will be the first teacher in her school to integrate internet-based
video and audio into her teaching. She needs to be clear about how her learners will listen to these
resources. The present hardware set-up isn’t satisfactory.
b. Book the computer room for her first video-based lesson.
Outcome
This clearly needs to be done but Rhona first needs to ensure the room is sufficiently equipped for a
lesson using internet-based audio and video files.
c. Start looking at the videos present on video websites such as YouTube.
Outcome
Rhona clearly needs to do this but she first needs to ensure the room is sufficiently equipped for a
lesson using internet-based audio and video files.

Using video
Page 7 of 14
Decision 2
Rhona is lucky! Her head of department is able to buy another headset for each computer allowing both
students at each computer to listen to the video. For her first video lesson Rhona decides to use the
short recorded news broadcast available on the BBC website. In the staffroom she carefully prepares a
series of tasks for her students to work through. These tasks involve first watching the broadcast
without sound then later with sound. Rhona can use these tasks even if the content of the news
broadcast changes – as happens on a regular basis.
The big day arrives and Rhona takes her students into the computer room. Rhona gives her students the
URL of the BBC news site and gives them the first task and asks them to watch the video. The activity is
not a success. The video, even though it is a short three-minute broadcast is very, very slow to arrive
onto the students’ computers. They lose interest and start checking their emails instead.
Where did Rhona go wrong?
a. She forgot to lay out the ground rules forbidding students from accessing their email accounts in the
computer room.
b. She should have watched the video in the computer room.
c. She forgot to check whether the school’s internet access could deliver 16 video files simultaneously
without too much delay.

Using video
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a. She forgot to lay out the ground rules forbidding students from accessing their email accounts in the
computer room.
Outcome
Her students know very well that they should not check their email accounts while in the computer
room.
b. She should have watched the video in the computer room.
Outcome
A good idea but this would not test the ability of the school’s network access to deliver 16 simultaneous
downloads.
c. She forgot to check whether the school’s internet access could deliver 16 video files simultaneously
without too much delay.
Outcome
She forgot that all 16 computers would be downloading the video file at the same time. The school has
broadband access but this cannot cope well with 16 simultaneous downloads of a video file. She should
have confirmed with the IT technician that the school’s internet access would be able to download the
videos onto all 16 computers without too much waiting.

Using video
Page 9 of 14
Decision 3
Rhona has a lot of experience using the internet with her learners and quickly comes up with a solution.
She divides the class in two, one half downloads the video while the other half search the BBC website
for the answers to five questions quickly written by Rhona. The videos now download quickly and half
the class completes the video task. The lesson proceeds well and both Rhona and her learners are
pleased with the outcome.
A couple of weeks later Rhona plans another lesson exploiting internet-based video. This time she
selects a short video on YouTube. She wants to avoid the download problems she encountered first
time around.
What should Rhona do?
a. Add the URL of the video to her personal wiki and ask her students to click there to access the file.
b. Ask her IT technician to help her to play the videos on each computer before the lesson.
c. Ask her students to watch the video once at home before the lesson.

Using video
Page 10 of 14
a. Add the URL of the video to her personal wiki and ask her students to click there to access the file.
Outcome
This will not solve the problem as the video will still download to all 16 computers at the same time.
b. Ask her IT technician to help her to play the videos on each computer before the lesson.
Outcome
By playing the video beforehand, the video can be replayed without having to download again.
c. Ask her students to watch the video once at home before the lesson.
Outcome
This isn’t possible as a couple of her students don’t have internet access from home.

Using video
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Decision 4
Rhona’s learners are all able to access the video together without any problems. At the end of the
lesson Rhona asks her learners what they think of the lesson. They like the lesson but they complain
about the tasks that Rhona gave them. They say that they couldn’t write the answers to the questions
and watch the video at the same time so they had to spend a lot of time ‘rewinding’ the video to answer
the questions properly.
How could Rhona have avoided this?
a. She should have given more thought to the nature of the listening task.
b. By preparing a transcript of the video for the learners to use during the task.
c. By discussing the content of the video in general terms before watching it.

Using video
Page 12 of 14
a. She should have given more thought to the nature of the listening task.
Outcome
It would have been better here to have given the learners questions requiring very short answers, for
example True/False questions. This would have allowed the learners to focus on improving their
listening skills.
b. By preparing a transcript of the video for the learners to use during the task.
Outcome
This will take Rhona a long time to prepare. This could be worth doing if it is essential to the task. Here it
isn’t.
c. By discussing the content of the video in general terms before watching it.
Outcome
It is usually a good approach to introduce the topic present in a video before watching. However, this
won’t help solve the problem associated with this task.

Using video
Page 13 of 14
Decision 5
Rhona has learnt that there are a series of stages to work through to use video effectively with her
students. She has resolved the hardware issue and now knows that her learners can listen comfortably
to the video. She can search for useful clips on YouTube and knows how to avoid download problems.
She is now giving more and more thought to the nature of the task she develops to exploit the content
of the resource.
When Rhona is planning her listening activities what is the most useful piece of advice for her to think
about?
a. She should always prepare a transcript of the video clip she is going to use with her students.
b. She should always think about the listening strategies we adopt in everyday life and incorporate
these into her tasks.
c. She should never select video clips that last more than two minutes.

Using video
Page 14 of 14
a. She should always prepare a transcript of the video clip she is going to use with her students.
Outcome
Writing out transcripts is a time-consuming activity. Rhona should do this only when it can serve the
aims of the activity she plans.
b. She should always think about the listening strategies we adopt in everyday life and incorporate
these into her tasks.
Outcome
Finding good video content on the internet is important for the effective use of video. Rhona is now
able to find and deliver online videos to her learners. She now needs to build effective tasks to develop
her learners’ listening skills. An awareness of the listening strategies we use in everyday life will help her
to achieve this.
c. She should never select video clips that last more than two minutes.
Outcome
Rhona should always be mindful of the attention span of her learners when selecting media to use in
her teaching. This in addition to her knowledge of downloading issues and her teaching aims should
determine the length of video to select. A rigid two-minute limit though isn’t always appropriate.

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