The Conjugation Champ (ft. Decent quality video editing)

Greetings!

It’s been another week and I have taken up the task of video editing! (Heads up, the video is way better than the last 2 posts).

I was always a bit apprehensive with video editing because I thought it was a time eater and too complicated to deal with. After looking at it for a couple of hours, it’s a lot simpler than I expected it. I’m no means an expert, but I can navigate it well enough to continue with these edits in the future (given enough time).

I used Microsoft ClipChamp for my video editing program.

When you open the program to create a new video, one of the first things to pop up is the option to import media, which is as simple as click-drag-drop. Once the video clip is in, you can add it to the template and edit it right away. You can splice sections you’re not happy with (like a long pause or rambling on too much) and add transitions afterwards (if applicable). You can add all kinds of other media (texts, images, gifs, music…) and move them wherever you want, both on the screen and the timeline. There is even an option for automatic closed captioning, which does a decent job of translating the audio. I thought about adding it to my video and editing the closed captioning, but the length of the video was pretty long already and I didn’t want to waste time (maybe next time). There is an option to pay premium to access more features and options, but the free version is good enough for me right now.

If you plan to use this tool in the future, I’d recommend creating short clips first and then edit them in ClipChamp, as opposed to making one long video. It saves a good chunk of time in the editing bay.

I can see myself using this tool as a future educator. I would primarily utilize it to create review videos for the class, in case they were struggling on a particular subject or if they happened to miss a class. It would allow me to assemble the material together in a concise and clear way, without droning on and repeating myself. On the SAMR model, this would likely be regarded as Augmentation.

For Substitution, a teacher could use it to create a funny video that has no educational purpose.

If students were assigned a project and wanted to utilize video to convey the material, ClipChamp would be useful to bring all the ideas together in a fun, creative way.   This tool could be an introduction to those unfamiliar with editing technology (Modification),

Finally, for redefinition, I could see a project based around news media outlets/game shows, in which a class-led dramatic scene is filmed and students have to find creative ways to edit the clips to convey certain emotional or knowledge based ideas. The projects could then be uploaded to Youtube for future grades or the public.

Without any further adieu, here’s this week’s progress!