Digital Video Projects of, by, and for New Teachers: The Multiple Educational Functions of Creating Multimedia

A three year study of digital video creation in higher education investigated the impact that creating short digital videos by university students in their final class of a teacher education program had on those students. Each student created a short video reflecting on the process of how he/she became a teacher. An analysis of the videos themselves, analyses of surveys of the former students soon after they created the videos and also years later, and analyses of the number of views of and comments on the videos show that creating these digital videos served reflective, communicative, and memorial functions for these former students. Creating the digital videos functioned as a novel and powerful form of reflection for the teacher education students as they completed their program, helping them put their preparation for teaching in a broader perspective. The digital videos helped the students better communicate to others why they had chosen to become teachers. The digital videos also functioned as artifacts years later for teachers to remind themselves of why they became teachers in ways that helped them maintain their commitment to continue teaching. These three functions of creating multimedia projects served as powerful supports for new teacher learning