There’s a sense that Ross McNicol and John Frame love their jobs as History teachers at Newbattle High School in Dalkeith, Scotland.

They speak passionately about engaging their students with quality material that appeals to all learners.

They are strong believers in video as a tool to engage, inspire, and simplify complex ideas for their students. “In five minutes, a video can do a better job of explaining something that may take half an hour to explain!” says John.

Like all teachers, the demands on their time mean they can’t afford to waste precious moments on ineffective material or losing teaching resources.

For Ross and John, and thousands of other teachers like them, ClickView is the ideal platform to deliver quality video content in a safe and efficient way.

During recent lockdowns, using ClickView alongside Google Classroom meant little interruption to valuable learning time. Revision and assessment needs were met, and students’ digital readiness was supported in preparation for life beyond school.

With thousands of educational videos, documentaries, and films about significant moments in history, Ross and John believe it’s no surprise that history teachers make the most use of ClickView.

“There could be some quite complex themes or an event that we're trying to talk about, but a film or documentary can make it so much easier for students to understand.”

Being able to search through Freeview TV clips, Exchange videos, and ClickView’s own content gives them plenty of material to choose from.

“There's so much material out there that fits into our course. We do a lot on the slave trade, Nazi Germany, the Cold War, the American Civil War, and there are thousands and thousands of visual resources.”

These history topics are far removed from today’s digital classrooms, but video brings the stories to life.

And ClickView makes it easy. “Every day, something appears on television, so it's very simple for us to contact our link and ask ClickView to record it for us. Then it goes straight into our library,” says Ross.

ClickView also saves time by allowing teachers to create short clips that cut to the point.

The History Department at Newbattle High School relied heavily on ClickView during lockdowns to deliver clips and interactive quizzes.

The resources and clips they created during this time have become a ready-to-use collection of films, documentaries, and shorter interactive videos that they can continue to use well into the future.

“Sometimes you've got links saved from elsewhere within a set of Google Slides, or you've got the video there, and you come back to show it and it's been removed, or it's been blocked, or age restricted. With ClickView material, you know that it's there. It won't be removed from the library without you being notified in advance,” assures John.

Staff at Newbattle High School have integrated ClickView with Google Classroom, and John and Ross have seen firsthand how easy it is to upload content and how it increases student engagement.

“It helps a lot in the sense that you’ve got the students enrolled in Google Classrooms as well. It's a really quick way of getting something up there for the students. They can access it through their school device or the Google Classroom app on their iPhones.

ClickView’s interactive features are also boosting engagement and knowledge retention.

Ross says, “It’s been beneficial to be able to use interactives and give students those quick-fire questions to keep their engagement whilst they are watching the video.”

John adds, “ClickView is helpful when setting homework tasks because interactives may not seem much like a homework task! Also, they have to answer the questions as and when they are watching. If we just shared a video and added questions at the end, they’d often miss them.”

Revision for higher classes has also benefited from Google Classroom integration and the playlists feature. Students can choose from short clips and pre-arranged playlists.

“With higher classes they may not need to revise everything. They may want to pick three to four sub-topics for assessment, so having a playlist built is handy. Having those focused five-to-ten minute clips laid out nicely in Google Classroom is really helpful for students doing their revision for the assessments they did in place of exams last year.”

Ross McNicolHistory Teacher

"ClickView is helpful when setting homework tasks because interactives may not seem much like a homework task! Also, they have to answer the questions as and when they are watching. If we just shared a video and added questions at the end, they’d often miss them."

Ross points to the recent Scottish Wars of Independence series, made exclusively by ClickView, as a highly relevant and easy-to-deliver resource.

The rest is history. And coming to you as a ClickView video soon!