102 Academic Things You Can Do with a Flip Camera

Creating a public service announcement (i.e. Students could create PSA regarding school’s anti-bullying policies or career technical related issues like encouraging women over 40 to get annual mammograms)
Developing storytelling skills A good resource is..
Creating a video scrapbook of a student’s year in career technical area or school in general
Creating a video career passport or professional portfolio
Recording an “About the Author” section after conducting research
Interviewing fellow classmates to review topics and build upon what each is saying
Playing “Beat the Teacher.” Have the teacher explain a concept fully, covering all of the important ideas or concepts. Time the teacher. Then see if students can beat their time but still adequately cover a topic.
Demonstrating physiology and anatomy concepts (Go to You Tube for a good example
Creating book talks
Promoting career technical programs or the WCCC as a whole in “three words or less” (Go to You Tube for a great example
Creating a persuasive pitch why one item, candidate or other misc. subject is “better” than or should be selected over another.
Recreating important historical events and then reacting to the event
Having students conduct a camera scavenger hunt.
Creating a newscast
Recording student performances
Recording a puppet show
Having students evaluate their own behavior and determining strategies to increase learning
Documenting simulations (I.E. Having nursing students conduct a head-to toe assessment )
Recording students’ independent “field trips” documentation of personal interest and exploration
Promoting specific career technical programs
Challenging students to explain concepts in their own words and accompanying the content which visual support
Taking it on field trips for future reference or students who may have missed (i.e. videotape special exhibits, displays and points of interest)
Creating promotional videos for career technical clubs
Filming a tour or any other type of presentation in another language
Carrying out a peer assessment of work by students at another school, in mainstream media or everyday life and potentially posting their reactions to a blog (i.e. Hair style implementation, detailing of cars, etc.)
Interviewing students and teachers about their favorite books and why those books have made an impact
Recording student reactions to simulations or role playing
Taking the camera outside at several point of the year to demonstrate concepts within nature
Taping point of view movement (tying the camera securely onto something to show an authentic point of view (shopping cart, bike handlebars, belt, etc.)
Using the camera to serve auditorily impaired students
Demonstrating test taking strategies
Getting students to reflect upon their experiences as a new WCCC students “If I had only know ______, my transition to the career center might have been a lot easier” or “Capturing staff or professional development.
Having students perform a picture book
Recruiting students to the career center by documenting how students felt prior to coming and then explaining how they knew they made the “right” decision.
Videotaping storytime for preschool students during the summer- can be posted on the internet so you can continue hearing and seeing picture books
Improving presentation skills
Having students put sign language to a story or song
Documenting group dynamics (i.e. Presenting students with a challenge, documenting how they solve the task and later evaluating their team work and interpersonal dynamics)
Collecting group flip chart responses and then using that content to create a Wordle
Creating a lab or science safety video
Having students tape themselves doing physical tasks and then going back to the filming to self-evaluate 9i.e. Easily used in PE or drama classes)
Demonstrating mastery of literary concepts through performance
Having students videotape good or poor examples of something- a skill assessment, human behavior, etc.
Evaluating self and group experiences of hand-on learning experiences
Recording the steps taken to solve a math problem
Creating modern pen pals
Recreate a famous speech
Creating a workout video
Demonstrating the rules to a game
Combining video with text for impact- (i.e. Students reenact life in an air raid shelter in WWII- text showcases subtext or unspoken thoughts of people in the reenactment)
Using the cameras during IEP meetings for documentation or to show present levels of performance (i.e. PT’s and OT’s can use to show skills as well)
Keeping sick students who are absent connected with class for extended period of time (i.e. Have students create a mini lesson or class review and then embed in a class blog
Defending a challenged book
Capturing video rehearsals for feedback and slf/ peer evaluation
Capturing math in everyday activities or items
Having students create quick and easy tutorials for other struggling students
Creating book trailers instead of traditional book reports
Having the student ambassadors create a student led “Welcome to our school” video for the first day of school.
Hooking it up to binoculars to see nature or subject up close
Capturing science labs for when students miss class
Recording science experiments to provide evidence or outcome documentation- Taking other experiments with a changed variable and comparing and contrasting how the variable changed the outcome
Sharing their world with potential students
Recording speeches easily showcasing celebrations or where improvement migh be needed
Capturing math and science concepts in nature
Sending a video thank-you to a classroom volunteer or to a soldier
Recording students telling “One important thing they learned in lab”
Sharing information with parents
Interviewing an “expert”
Recording workplace experiences
Creating “how-to” videos
Capturing celebrations to share with parents
Videotaping a lecture and having students edit the video so that they can determine key information and condense the content to what they “must” know
Recording key parts or key explanations in your lecture
Modeling social language skills for the workplace (i.e. demonstrating a social skill and then an inappropriate reaction to the same situation- explaining why one was a proper action within the workplace and why one was not)
Performing digital storytelling
Taping a students mock interviews so that they can go back an self-evaluate their performance—Would they hire themselves? Why or why not?
Creating a commercial
Creating a “Choose Your Own Ending” book. (Excellent example at
Filming a career technical lab or classroom tour
Creating videos to analyze motion of objects in a physics lab.
Recording Reader’s theater to assess fluency in the early grades
Videotaping readers’ theater after writing a script to summarize a piece of work
Adding to the Voice Thread concept (See
Creating a satirical piece that examines a present day practice
Having students create a video thesaurus of worn out words while giving examples of other words that could be used instead
Interviewing a person who lived through a time period
Creating propaganda
Reviewing a subject by having student decide up key points of a chapter and then presenting those key points
Having students present mastery of OGT skills (i.e. How to read a pie graph, etc.)
Creating a documentary
Recording guest speakers
Creating a music video or rap
Making a video alphabet
Taping a beginning teacher’s lesson
Subtitling a play in a foreign language
Recreating important points in history
Creating a visual representation or interpretation of a poem
Having students write a parody of a personal piece of work and then perform it
Taping the students improve to demonstrate the meaning of vocabulary- students can vote which pieces best deliver the content
Creating a reaction to a current event (i.e. Columbus man with golden voice, Wikileaks, etc.)
Divide students into groups to cover additional materials you don’t have a lot of time to devote to but you would like the students to be familiar with like. . .
Motivating students!!!!