Videopaper in the classroom

General Resources

TERC: the organization that created the videopaper. The web site contains links to sample videopapers, tutorials and a link to download a free copy of the software.

Download the videopaper Builder 1.0 software (Macintosh only. PC version to be available in 2003.)

School Psychology Program

Download instructions (PDF) on creating a videopaper according to the first-year and second-year assignments.

Teacher Education Program

The videopaper is a required component of the ED 101 class. Click here for a downloadable PDF of the 2002 assignment. As part of the Teach Education Program, the videopaper has several objectives:

Preservice teachers:

• Reflect on their teaching from multiple perspectives (their own, over time; Peer group; Faculty; co-ops; supervisors)
• Articulate and explore some of their expectations for the lesson (both in video and in writing); contrast these expectations with the reality of the lesson (in writing)
• Heighten their awareness and perception of significant moments in the classroom, using the videopaper as an extension of the ethnographic double-entry notebook observation methodology introduced earlier in the semester
• Capture and assemble a collection of significant classroom moments and relate these moments to each other in a meaningful way (in video and in writing)
• Present these reflections to others in their cohort (in video); solicit feedback and response
• Offer preservice teachers a view into each others’ classrooms
• Incorporate feedback and further reflection in order to present a full videopaper reflection on one individual lesson

Education Department:

• Take advantage of the ability of video recording to allow the observer to re-view and revisit fleeting classroom moments that would otherwise eclipse one another over the course of a class period
• Allow for these observations and self-reflections to become the subject of conversations amongst preservice teachers and faculty on the application of educational theory to the daily practice of teaching
• Develop, over time, a library of these thoughtful self-reflections on classroom teaching that can be used as curriculum within the Education Department with future students

Future use of the videopaper library:

As a library of videopapers accumulates over the next several years, faculty will cull together a collection of the most striking and useful work. These videopapers will be compiled on a CD that will be reproduced and distributed to incoming students as part of the coursework for ED 101. Through the insertion in each paper of a link to an online discussion board, the videopapers will be used to join the preservice teachers together in a pre-class discussion that will take place prior to the weekly class meeting. All students will be assigned a particular videopaper to watch in preparation for an upcoming class session, and each will be required to participate in an online moderated discussion with their individual ED 101 professor. If possible, the choice of videopapers will coincide with the assigned topic for that class meeting. Students and faculty will thus have participated in a pre-class discussion of one commonly shared example of classroom teaching in preparation for each face-to-face class meeting. The shared library will expand and be revised as time passes and new videopapers are created to replace older ones. The curriculum will thus be updated to remain current and relevant to the experiences of some of the most recent graduates of the program.

Back to Videopaper in the Classroom.