Video Story Problems 101

I was recently approached by Dan Spencer of the Jackson County ISD here in Michigan to be apart of the REMC Connected Educator Series. He really enjoyed the idea of all the work a lot of us are doing with Video Story Problems, and wanted to help highlight it at our upcoming state ed tech conference, MACUL. Seeing as the conference typically brings in between 3,000 to 4,000 educators from around Michigan, Canada, and the Midwest, I jumped at the opportunity to highlight not just want I’ve been doing, but hold up a lot of awesome work that other teachers and students in Michigan, Indiana, and Virginia have been doing with the idea of video story problems.

It was also an opportunity to reflect on why I started playing around with the concept of video story problems in the first place, and why I think it’s such a powerful model for both bringing real world problems and curiosities into the classroom, as well as a great way for students to tackle some of the Common Core’s Standards for Mathematical Practice. Many of the students have had to model, demonstrate appropriate strategies, and use technology to “explain the mathematics accurately to other students”. It’s still an imperfect process, but most learning worth tackling is, and I have no doubt that all involved will continue to grow and get better at using digital media to help students demonstrate math in the real world and share mathematical processes with their peers around the country.

Dan Spencer asked me to create an “infommercial” screencast that focused on the basics of creating video story problems for the Connected Educator Series. After watching a number of other screencasts that covered a LOT of information, I wanted to create something that was simpler, and allowed me to showcase several examples of video story problems without the need for me to drone on and on. Below is the screencast I put together last weekend with the help of my daughter, teachers Brian Bennet, students from Michigan in Sean Dardis and Ben Curran’s classrooms and students from Virginia in Tyler Hart’s classroom. If you can’t view the embedded youtube video below, you can watch it here as well.

I really wanted this presentation to be a “Video Story Problems for Dummies” type introduction, as I don’t claim to have as great an understanding of mathematical concepts beyond the rather simple elementary topics of numeracy, fractions, and number sense. I do have a decent grasp on creating digital media, including video work, and wanted to showcase several different ways teachers and students are using video to capture and/or create mathematical learning experiences. There are certainly a LOT more people involved with the video story problem project, but I wasn’t able to fit them all in to the screencast for time reasons. I would highly recommend also checking out videos from Chad Conklin, Jason Osborn, Derk Oosting, and Jason Valade.

While I’ll be giving a brief overview of the concept next week at the annual MACUL Conference in Grand Rapids during an “Innovation Zone” presentation, there are several other ways to learn more about video story problems, and how you can get started with them in your classroom. Check out some of the links below to learn more.

Video Story Problem Channel – All of the currently submitted to the VSP Channel on Vimeo are found here, and you’re welcome to hare your own if you create some, just contact me!

Sean Dardis’ Video Problem “Think Through Form” – A nice graphic organizer to get learners thinking about the steps and processes needed to create a video story problem.

Ben Curran’s “Leave Your Mark” post on VSP – A nice reflection on all of the “hidden” lessons students have to learn while creating a learning artifact for others.

My Video Story Problem Planning Template – A simple graphic organizer for getting students started.

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