Editor's Note: This is the first of a three-part series on the use of video in education. Part Two of the series focuses on the use of streaming video and other applications to enhance instruction. The series culminates in June with an in-depth look at how students are using today's technology tools to produce their own videos. Also in the June issue, eSchool News will announce the winners of our first-ever Student Video Discovery Awards.

By Cara Branigan

From watching films in class to having students produce and direct their own movies, video is taking a stronger foothold in the classroom. And the impact on students is huge.

"Video is engaging, can be edited or segmented for appropriateness, and is familiar to students, but more than any other reason, the content can be managed and entertaining," said Lisa Salmonson, a teacher at Florin High School in California's Elk Grove Unified School District.

Students "are far more engaged, and typically find as much entertainment as they find learning."

With the rise in the number of multimedia-enabled computers in schools, higher bandwidth capability, and lower costs for video editing equipment and software, more and more teachers are embracing video as an instructional tool.

Teachers get their video from whatever sources are available to them. When it comes to showing movies in class these days, it's not just from a VHS tape or DVD. Teachers nationwide are showing video piped into their classrooms via computer from web-based services or educational web sites.

According to Quality Education Data's "Technology Purchasing Forecast, 2004-2005," 38.8 percent of school districts now use streaming video, and 17.7 percent are thinking of offering it.

"We have teachers who get clips off the internet, from Holt Online, from [Discovery Education's] unitedstreaming, from netTrekker, and more," said Michelle Campbell, a technology services teacher at Elk Grove Unified School District. "Once teachers are aware that this is an option, I've found they are very resourceful and determined to find the best of what's out there for their students."

Salmonson says she often uses footage from cable television in her lessons. Some of her favorites include The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, C-SPAN, and PBS.

"I've used 'Modern Marvels' to take a look at computer architecture, 'Twentieth Century' to look at cyber crime, and numerous videos to drive home points about specific people and their part in technology history," Salmonson said.

Depending on the classroom, video is displayed on television monitors, or projected via an LCD projector onto a white board, or shown to small groups of students gathered around a computer monitor.

Video accompanies lessons in all subjects, too--from English, to history, to science, to social studies, to physical education.