Strategic use of short instructional videos is an effective way to enhance lessons and learning for digital kids and 21st century students. I currently use Jing to create .swf files and the SMART recorder (part of SMARTnotebook download) to create .wmv files for YouTube uploads.  A quick video can be a useful way to “chunk” a list of instructions together.

In my techie world, videos help primary students when saving and are a vital strategy to keep this assessment-driven teacher happy (and organized!) In addition, I recently viewed a video on creating on-the-fly assessments for students using SMART response “clickers” which I think is a slick way to elicit student response and “check in” with them during videos. As a general rule, I tend to find that videos less than three minutes are best, perhaps with the option for some students to review at own pace, or even beforehand.
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