Videatives - NAREA Conference

The night before the conference I spent a couple of hours reviewing descriptions of the NAREA lunchtime presentations. There were nine topics to choose from and I painstakingly narrowed my selection down to five. As groups were assembling for the lunchtime presentations, I found myself forced to make a decision.
The session I chose was about using rich video clips as documentation to better understand teaching and learning. As practiced in Reggio Emilia, and eloquently described by Project Zero, “documentation makes the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’ of learning visible.”

What are videatives? Videos+Narratives = videatives

David Fernie, Professor, Early Childhood Education, Wheelock College, George Foreman, Emeritus professor of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and President, Videatives, Inc. and Ellen Hall, Founder and Executive Director of Boulder Journey School and Vice-President of Videatives, Inc. shared the following insights:
•Don’t start writing until you have the video.
•With a photo you have to imagine what happened next. Video gives the unfolding of the story.
•Make a commitment to observation.
•Don’t jump without evidence.
•It is good to wonder about “subsequent times.”
•How can I put into motion the child?
•Don’t make a lot of judgments based on one video. It is important to see multiple contexts.
•The really good stuff isn’t in your [standards] manual. If you just look at the standards you can look past the really good, juicy stuff.

Participants were encouraged to do a Google search on “instant video revisiting.” They were also encouraged to explore the Videatives website where over 180 videos are available to increase your understanding of children's thinking & learning. http://www.videatives.com/

Needless to say, I was happy with my decision to attend this session!