Our last post, An online formula for Maths success was about a fantastic website that focussed solely on mathematics. I’ve come across another similar site but this time with a little bit more.
Next Vista's Home page
This site is called Next Vista for Learning, this site differs from the previous one in that, and I quote from their web site-
Next Vista works to make learning more engaging, with a focus on helping students start strong with any topic they study. Its central project is a free, online library of teacher- and student-made short videos for learners everywhere.
Next Vista believes a strong four-minute video could save students days or weeks of frustration by providing a variety of presentations on the topics that give them trouble.
How does it work?
The site has three main categories or ‘collections made by both teachers and students-
- The ‘Light Bulbs’ Collection contains videos in the following categories- Career, Health & Fitness, History & Culture, Literature & Writing, Mathematics, Performing Arts, Science, Technology, Visual Arts and World Languages.
- The ‘Seeing Service’ Collection contains videos in the following categories-Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America.
- The ‘Global Views’ Collection contains videos in the following categories-Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America.
Follow this link to view a video showing you how to multiply fractions.
Overall?
- The clips are generally very good but perhaps more focussed on K-12, not necessarily always at a VET level- have a look and see what may be of value to your particular teaching area and student cohort.
- The site, clips and some content is very American-centric; not a criticism but something that you’ll need to be aware of, particularly regarding weights & measures etc.
- There is ample provision for embedding these clips into Moodle or PowerPoint presentations etc. You can even save the clips to your local drive as Quick Time movies although we recommend embedding them as the best option.
- All clips are nicely categorised which makes searching for clips really easy.
- All clips are under four (4) minutes which makes for quick downloading by your students and even better for their concentration span
This may not be of value to all but I’m sure for some teachers it’ll be just what you’ve been looking for. Please feel free to leave a comment, we’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on this site.
Geoff Young
Team Leader, Learning Innovation
Learning Innovation and Organisational Development
