A new way to use video in the classroom

After having a bit of a look on YouTube.com for some ecology related videos that could be used to teach students, I came to the conclusion that although there is a lot of videos on there that have the word 'ecology' in them, not all are educational, and a lot are American, so not all that relevant to our students. I did some across this one that could be used to give students a basic overview of transect counts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qrewFfvF3Y. Although this digital video is very good at explaining to students the method of completing a transect and their purposes, it doesn't really relate to the topic. I do however think it would be a good way for students to teach each other.

One way to use video in the classroom, is to set students up in groups, with each group being given a different strand of one particular topic to research. For example, if students were preparing to complete a field study, each group could be given a different aspect such as transects or food webs or whatever other activity the assessment requires students to complete. Each group researches their topic and teaches it to the rest of the class by making a video.

I believe that although digital videos can be used for engagement, they can also be used for learning. It gives teaches a broader range of resources to access, rather than just using library videos, that are sometimes out dated.