Good video material can make a powerful statement to students and quickly engage their interest … and they don’t have to be long to be effective.

There is a wealth of video materials available to Tasmanian Government teachers and students through the eCentre’s collection of digital resources (login required).  

Film Australia also has an award-winning collection of free downloadable video clips from their archive. Clips are matched with resource sheets that include background information and suggested classroom activities and can be searched by topic or key word using the Digital Resource Finder.

There is also the brilliant Australian Screen collection developed by Curriculum Corporation through The Le@rning Federation. The education collection is designed to help teachers and students make the most of the wide range of moving image resources on the site. The clips in this collection are accompanied by teachers’ notes created by specialist curriculum writers. Expert curators’ notes also provide useful background material.

These collections are made specifically for education, unlike sites such as YouTube, where anyone can upload their own video about anything … and they do!  A teacher at New Norfolk High School said to me last week, “I would never have thought about YouTube as a source of useful videos for learning!” 

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