900 GB of classroom recordings - how & why we did it

I've had the privilege of collaborating with some great colleagues on classroom recordings.

Since the start of the school year, our HUB team has supported over 900 GB of classroom video recordings. That's the equivalent of @191 DVDs.

Why record?

• Micro-teaching - teachers want to see themselves teach and how they can improve their practice;


• Recording student presentations - this allows teachers to assess (or reassess) student presentations, have exemplars for upcoming years, and share with students so that they can improve their presentations;


• 360-degree recordings of Socratic seminars - it's hard to record a Socratic seminar with students around a circular table - unless you have a 360-degree camera, which will record floor to ceiling and all around. This allows students to review their performance & teachers to assess. Also, our staff use it to train other teachers in using the Socratic seminar process;


• Sports events - coaches have been recording games and practices and using the recordings to help skill development and team play.

What do we use?

We use a combination of iPads, video cameras, and the Ricoh Theta 360 camera, which I highly recommend.

The Ricoh Theta needs a tripod as it has a small footprint and wouldn't stand well on its' own. We also use microphones to improve the audio with the iPads.

What's the process?

1. Staff discusses their needs with the HUB staff.


2. The HUB team prepare the devices and deliver it to their room or staff pick up the equipment.


3. After the recordings, the staff returns the equipment.


4. The HUB team then uses Image Capture to download and clear the recording device.


5. We use Handbrake (free) to cut the file size down without sacrificing too much quality. We keep the original copy but reducing the file size makes uploading to Google Drive faster.


6. We then share the videos in a Google Drive folder for the teacher. They then share the videos with their students.

By processing the videos for the teachers, it allows them to focus on assessment and teaching.