SWCLC Blog

Adding video to flipcharts in Activstudio 3 is a great way to engage learners. Video can be embedded into a flipchart along with a player and the video can be paused to discuss key points. You can also use the camera tool to capture still images from the video which can be annotated and added to a flipchart for later use.

For example, a scientific process can be paused and still images captured which could be used to sequence the activity.

However, there a few points to keep in mind when using video in a flipchart.

Firstly, Activstudio 3 will only accept .mov, .mpg and .avi as videos which can be embedded within a flipchart. Other file types such as wmv cannot be embedded, they have to be inserted as a linked file (video) instead.

This means that a wmv file has to be viewed outside of the flipchart in a player such as Windows Media Player. I have had some difficulty capturing stills from video with Media Player - I get a blank screen so it may be wise to steer clear of .wmv files.

There are some great websites which are good sources of video for teaching and learning. Some of these offer .mpg files (National Archives) which work fine in flipcharts. Others offer .wmv which ideally need converting before use with Activstudio. Some of these include: Geography at the Movies, Teachers TV and Teachertube.

A useful free converter to turn these wmv files into mpg or avi is Koyote Soft’s Free Video Converter 1.3

We hope over the coming months to use this area as a showcase for exemplary work from student’s of the partnership schools. This could be in the form of video, podcasts, digital imaging or other digital media. If you have any work you would like to share then please let us know through the comments facility.