I put quotation marks around “Creating” in the headline of this post because, even though my students use online videos to develop their language skills, it’s mainly through adapting other people’s creations.   I know that there are certainly benefits to students making their own from scratch, but it requires equipment and technical know-how that I don’t have (and I don’t necessarily feel like I need to know).  I think they can learn as much English by doing it this way, especially with the advent of the many online video sites that are linked to the Student Videos section of my Examples of Student Work page.  These include:

BubblePLY allows students to create text “bubbles” on existing online videos.  Cuts does the same, but goes one better — you can actually “cut” scenes from online videos and edit them, along with adding captions and sound effects.

Mojiti is one of the newest one of these online applications, and may be the best and easiest one, though I haven’t spent much time with it yet.  Overstream is another one with similar features. Vuvox is yet one more.  All these applications host your creation so they can be viewed on the web by others.

Softscrub-The Apprentice is one of the more bizarre video “creation” sites.  You can create an ending to one of “The Apprentice” episodes from television.

I’ve only featured some of the sites I have linked to this section on the Student Work page. So, with all these choices, I think students can demonstrate their creativity, hone their technical computer skills, and develop their English without having their own camcorders or other personal recording devices.