Creating Videos As Culminating Performance Tasks

There was a time when every time a student had to communicate new learning, it had to be using pens, papers, and written language.  A research paper had to be written up.  Project work meant a written report.  End of a unit meant a written test.  That is no longer the case thanks to among other reasons, the work of Howard Gardner on Multiple Intelligences. We now know there are many ways to demonstrate new learning. In order to enable those many different ways - speeches, drawings, diagrams, videos, interviews, dialogues, plays, music, poetry - we do our best, or we should do our best, to enable students to choose how they want to demonstrate their new learning. So now we call them culminating performance tasks and these can be narrowly defined so that students have to try create in different ways or they  be left to the discretion of the student. I used to try and provide variety for students to choose from. One of the more recent tasks very popular with students is to create a video of some sort. Just think about YouTube, Tik Tok, and so forth.  Students love to create and if they are able to be creative, you will get more from them than if you force them to struggle in the same way each and every time.