Key message
Modern devices make it very easy for children and young people to capture, create and share videos on a variety of topics.
As videos become a popular form of communication and entertainment, you might find that children show an interest in creating their own videos. They might want to create a tutorial or review for a game they're playing, an instructional video sharing a skill, a story or animation or just something they've made for fun with their friends.
Making and sharing
Making and sharing video helps young people to:
- connect with like-minded peers
- share knowledge and contribute to conversations
- talk about topics in ways they can relate to
- develop skills in digital media production.
Creating and connecting
With the range of powerful video creation and editing apps available to them, children and young people can easily make professional and engaging videos that allow them to show off their creativity and digital skills. The NSW Department of Education’s digital learning selector has information on and links to several video creation applications.
Creativity is important to a child’s development, as it can help them to:
- build self-confidence and express themselves
- practice critical and creative thinking, and explore interesting methods to solve problems
- explore different parts of their personality
- learn different thinking techniques
- practice resilience in testing and improving ideas to find out what works.
Increasing classroom engagement
Digital storytelling brings to life a student’s experience. Teachers and students can use video as a way to demonstrate learning in original, authentic and meaningful ways.
Video creation covers a range of curriculum-aligned skills including:
- writing, designing, editing and presenting
- features of text types, including informative, persuasive and procedural texts
- understanding and creating for particular audiences
- presenting information in engaging ways
- critical and creative thinking (CCT) and collaborative skills
- digital literacy and digital production skills
- stagecraft, filming and speaking skills.
For more information, consider visiting the University of Queensland's guide to the pedagogical benefits of video for teaching and learning.
Top tips
Additional resources
Related resources
Curriculum and syllabus links
NSW Syllabus outcomes
English S2
- EN2-4A Uses an increasing range of skills, strategies and knowledge to fluently read, view and comprehend a range of texts on increasingly challenging topics in different media and technologies
- EN2-10C Thinks imaginatively, creatively and interpretively about information, ideas and texts when responding to and composing texts
- EN2-11D Responds to and composes a range of texts that express viewpoints of the world similar to and different from their own
English S3
- EN3-1A Communicates effectively for a variety of audiences and purposes using increasingly challenging topics, ideas, issues and language forms and features
- EN3-3A Uses an integrated range of skills, strategies and knowledge to read, view and comprehend a wide range of texts in different media and technologies
- EN3-5B Discusses how language is used to achieve a widening range of purposes for a widening range of audiences and contexts
- EN3-7C Thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about information and ideas and identifies connections between texts when responding to and composing texts
- EN3-8D Identifies and considers how different viewpoints of their world, including aspects of culture, are represented in texts
English S4
- EN4-1A Responds to and composes texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis, imaginative expression and pleasure
- EN4-2A Effectively uses a widening range of processes, skills, strategies and knowledge for responding to and composing texts in different media and technologies
- EN4-3B Uses and describes language forms, features and structures of texts appropriate to a range of purposes, audiences and contexts
- EN4-5C Thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about information, ideas and arguments to respond to and compose texts
- EN4-6C Identifies and explains connections between and among texts
- EN4-7D Demonstrates understanding of how texts can express aspects of their broadening world and their relationships within it
Australian Curriculum content descriptions
English S2
- ACELA1483 Identify the effect on audiences of techniques, for example shot size, vertical camera angle and layout in picture books, advertisements and film segments
- ACELY1675 Identify the point of view in a text and suggest alternative points of view
- ACELY1678 Identify the audience and purpose of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts
- ACELY1685 Use software including word processing programs with growing speed and efficiency to construct and edit texts featuring visual, print and audio elements
- ACELY1682 Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features and selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose
- ACELA1496 Explore the effects of choices when framing an image, placement of elements in the image, and salience on composition of still and moving images in a range of types of texts
- ACELY1690 Identify characteristic features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text
- ACELY1692 Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts
- ACELY1694 Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features
- ACELY1697 Use a range of software including word processing programs to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio element
Media Arts S2
- ACAMAM058 Investigate and devise representations of people in their community, including themselves, through settings, ideas and story structure in images, sounds and text
- ACAMAM059 Use media technologies to create time and space through the manipulation of images, sounds and text to tell stories
- ACAMAM060 Plan, create and present media artworks for specific purposes with awareness of responsible media practice
English S3
- ACELA1504 Understand how texts vary in purpose, structure and topic as well as the degree of formality
- ACELY1701 Identify and explain characteristic text structures and language features use in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text
- ACELY1704 Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience
- ACELY1797 Use a range of software including word processing programs with fluency to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements
- ACELY1711 Analyse how text structures and language features work together to meet the purpose of a text
- ACELY1801 Analyse strategies authors use to influence reader
Media Arts S3
- ACAMAM062 Explore representations, characterisations and points of view of people in their community, including themselves, using settings, ideas, story principles and genre conventions in images, sounds and text
- ACAMAM063 Develop skills with media technologies to shape space, time, movement and lightning within images, sounds and text
- ACAMAM064 Plan, produce and present media artworks for specific audiences and purposes using responsible media practices
- ACAMAR065 Explain how the elements of media arts and story principles communicate meaning by comparing media artworks from different social, cultural and historical contexts, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media artworks
English S4
- ACELY1765 Analyse and explain the effect of technological innovations on texts, particularly media texts
- ACELY1721 Analyse and explain the ways text structures and language features shape meaning and vary according to audience and purpose
- ACELY1723 Use comprehension strategies to interpret, analyse and synthesise ideas and information, critiquing ideas and issues from a variety of textual sources
- ACELY1724 Compare the text structures and language features of multimodal texts, explaining how they combine to influence audiences
- ACELY1725 Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual and audio features to convey information and ideas
- ACELY1728 Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to confidently create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts
- ACELA1543 Analyse how the text structures and language features of persuasive texts, including media texts, vary according to the medium and mode of communication
- ACELA1548 Investigate how visual and multimodal texts allude to or draw on other texts or images to enhance and layer meaning
- ACELT1628 Understand and explain how combinations of words and images in texts are used to represent particular groups in society, and how texts position readers in relation to those groups
- ACELT1630 Identify and evaluate devices that create tone, for example humour, wordplay, innuendo and parody in poetry, humorous prose, drama or visual texts
- ACELT1768 Experiment with particular language features drawn from different types of texts, including combinations of language and visual choices to create new texts
- ACELY1729 Analyse and explain how language has evolved over time and how technology and the media have influenced language use and forms of communication
- ACELY1732 Analyse and evaluate the ways that text structures and language features vary according to the purpose of the text and the ways that referenced sources add authority to a text
- ACELY1736 Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that raise issues, report events and advance opinions, using deliberate language and textual choices, and including digital elements as appropriate
Media Arts S4
- ACAMAM066 Experiment with the organisation of ideas to structure stories through media conventions and genres to create points of view in images, sounds and text
- ACAMAM0681 Develop and refine media production skills to shape the technical and symbolic elements of images, sounds and text for a specific purpose and meaning
- ACAMAM069 Plan, structure and design media artworks that engage audiences
- ACAMAR071 Analyse how technical and symbolic elements are used in media artworks to create representations influenced by story, genre, values and points of view of particular audiences
English S5
- ACELY1745 Explore and explain the combinations of language and visual choices that authors make to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts
- ACELY1746 Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that present a point of view and advance or illustrate arguments, including texts that integrate visual, print and/or audio features
- ACELA1566 Compare the purposes, text structures and language features of traditional and contemporary texts in different media
- ACELA1572 Evaluate the impact on audiences of different choices in the representation of still and moving images
- ACELT1642 Identify, explain and discuss how narrative viewpoint, structure, characterisation and devices including analogy and satire shape different interpretations and responses to a text
- ACELT1644 Create imaginative texts that make relevant thematic and intertextual connections with other texts
- ACELY1749 Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented in texts, including media texts, through language, structural and/or visual choices
- ACELY1756 Create sustained texts, including texts that combine specific digital or media content, for imaginative, informative, or persuasive purposes that reflect upon challenging and complex issues
- ACELY1757 Review, edit and refine students’ owner and others’ texts for control of content, organisation, sentence structure, vocabulary, and/or visual features to achieve particular purposes and effects
- ACELY1776 Use a range of software, including word processing programs, confidently, flexibly and imaginatively to create, edit and publish texts, considering the identified purpose and the characteristics of the user
Media Arts S5
- ACAMAM073 Experiment with ideas and stories that manipulate media conventions and genres to construct new and alternative points of view through images, sounds and text
- ACAMAM075 Develop and refine media production skills to integrate and shape the technical and symbolic elements in images, sounds and text for a specific purpose, meaning and style
- ACAMAM076 Plan and design media artworks for a range of purposes that challenge the expectations of specific audiences by particular use of production processes
- ACAMAR078 Evaluate how technical and symbolic elements are manipulated in media artworks to create and challenge representations framed by media conventions, social beliefs and values for a range of audiences
References
- 'Pedagogical benefits of video for teaching and learning', University of Queensland, accessed 23 January 2022
- 'English K-10 Syllabus (2012)', NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), accessed 23 January 2022
- 'Digital Technologies', Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), accessed 23 January 2022
- 'Media Arts', Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), accessed 23 January 2022