Videos

A video is essentially a sequence of images and sounds. 

Because it is a sequence, the information is presented in a specific order, whether it is a story or anything else.  Therefore it's essential to check student understanding as you go, rather then checking the comprehension questions at the very end.

A narrative video is a story, like a tv show or a cartoon.  There are basically two kinds of questions you need to ask for a narrative video:
   1. Comprehension questions: make sure they understand the story as they go along.  For example, if the video shows a crime and a punishment, it's important to check the students have understood the crime first.
   2. Opinion questions: it's important to have the students judge the story on different levels and to justify their judgement.  For example, "was the punishment appropriate for the crime?"  In the long run it is better to choose something controversial than to show our students only things we approve of so that they can learn to think critically.  For example, many feminists disapprove of the passive roles of females shown in Disney movies, but forbidding their daughters from watching those movies will not make the point as effectively as watching it with them and discussing it.

There are many kinds of information videos, and many are presented as problem-solution.   For example: "there is a water shortage - desalinisation is the answer because..." or "most people live with a lot of stress - here's what you can do about yours".  Therefore the twin aims of the task must be to check that the students
   a) understand what the problem is
   b) know what solutions are being proposed 
(more on the difference between knowing and understanding on the next post!)