edTPA: Video Recording and Video Editing

As the year comes to a close, Elementary and Secondary Teacher Education students are putting the final touches on one of the last assignments they submit before becoming teachers: edTPA. This final assignment is as complicated as it is important -- it requires students to record themselves teaching in a classroom, and will determine whether they will move onto having a classroom of their own.

Teacher Education students come into the edTPA process with various levels of video skills. Some students have had extensive experience recording videos, while others have never touched a video camera. To help students out, Ed Tech provides students with a handful of video recording and video editing workshop throughout the weeks leading up the the edTPA submission deadline, and offers them various handouts and videos for students to reference during submission.


Here are some of those instructional videos, so that you, too, can become a video guru!

(The camera used in the edTPA process, as well as the following tutorials and handouts, is a Canon Vixia HF R500)

Importing Video

Uploading Video

Importing AVCHD Videos

What is a camera?

Ever wonder how your digital camera works and what tech is involved.  Sit back, have a pop, and listen.....

Product Review: Ricoh Theta S Spherical Camera

Aided in part by innovations such as Google Cardboard, 360-degree video has grown increasingly more mainstream over the past year and a half. Last March, YouTube started allowing its users to upload 360-degree content, followed by Facebook later in the year.

360-degree content is created using either a constructed rig of cameras, or a camera specially designed to capture 360 video. The videos are then stitched together, using a variety of processing technologies. Information Technology has purchased a Ricoh Theta S camera as our first venture into 360-degree production. Though Ricoh is known more for their copiers, printers, and other office equipment, they were the first major manufacturer to enter the spherical camera game, back in 2013. 

The Theta shoots in full HD, with a maximum of 25 minutes of continuous filming, and ~175 minutes of total capacity. An added benefit is the Theta’s ability to live stream content with an active internet connection. Using streaming software such as Open Broadcaster Software (free and open source) anyone can broadcast an immersive experience over the web in an instant.

While other 360-degree cameras (see Bubl, Sphericam 2) offer a more sophisticated multi-camera approach, the Theta does surprisingly well with just front and rear facing cameras. It’s also very lightweight, fitting in the palm of your hand. This makes shooting film in public much more convenient, compared to walking around with an awkward cube or ball-shaped camera.

Product aside, 360-degree video is also starting to open new frontiers in the field of education. Students can now document experiences like field trips and studying abroad in an entirely new format. As an example, check out this virtual museum tour produced by one of LC’s very own students.