I am not a history teacher who uses a ton of films (Hollywood or documentary or whaty have you) in my classroom, but on the occasion I do, there is often a desire to interrupt the movie with tidbits of facts or commentary. For example when I teach the Civil War, I use the 1989 film “Glory”.

When showing Glory, there are often scenes, lines, imagery, characters, and basic “noticings” I will have. I will often stop the movie and make a comment. However, sometimes it would be helpful to be able to type up a caption or little word bubble, flash it on the screen for a few seconds, and then allow it to disappear. Music videos (I think on MTV?) would often have pop-ups that served that purpose. You’d be watching a music video and listening to a cool song and then pieces of trivia and information about the artists, song, album, time period, etc would come up. Perhaps it’s more of a personal thing but I always loved that kind of thing and wish i could use the same tool when I show a video clip or a film.

I think it would students connect more deeply with the material and content if I could open those quick little doors for them without interrupting a scene or key dialogue. As much as I like trivia and engaging information, I HATE distractions during films. Again, maybe most students would prefer a teacher interrupting as opposed to blob of text momentarily appearing on the film, but personally speaking I’d prefer reading content rather than a vocal interruption.