Perfect Partners: Comic Life and Paper Camera

I can't draw to save my life.  Seriously.  Kids go into hysterics over my stick figures, and I don't even try anything more advanced than that.  So I'm very sympathetic to students in similar situations, and I've been wondering how to help them with my upcoming assignment in graphic novels.

We're starting off the year reading the wonderful  American Born Chinese,  studying the second chapter of Scott McCloud's brilliant Making Comics; the whole thing is great, but that chapter does a very good job of explaining the basics of analyzing comic images.

The obvious summative assignment to go along with these is to have students draw their own graphic "novel," specifically on a time they've experience a cultural misunderstanding or faux-pas.

An assignment like that would have had me in a panic when I was in high school.  Fortunately, it's less anxiety-inducing thanks to technology.

When deciding what tools to use with the students (those who CAN draw will be encouraged to do their own of course!),  I gave ToonDoo a miss because it's too limiting and doesn't allow students to play with angles,  point of view, and framing much.

Which pretty much left me with Comic Life.  It's a good tool, if you don't know it.  Basically, you take pictures (or sketch your own), then upload them into Comic Life.  It has filters that can "comicize" the photos, making them less realistic-looking.  It provides a variety of templates for the frames, and bubbles, caption lettering, etc.

I've never been all that fussed about it, however, because I think the photos still look like photos, unless you filter them beyond recognition.

Well, today I stumbled across Paper Camera on the iPad.  I adore it.  Here's the picture I took of my cat when I first started playing with it.

Isn't that great?  It really looks like someone sketched it!  And at 99 cents, it's not going to break the budget.

Tomorrow I'm giving the students their assignment to read McCloud over the weekend, and here's the handout I put together, to get into the spirit of the unit.

 I've loaded both apps onto the library iPads; after storyboarding, students can check them out, take their photos,  put them through Paper Camera, and create their graphic stories, all on the iPad.

A Little Birdie Told Me...

For those of us who are not only art challenged, but art disabled, but who love telling stories, Storybird could be the answer.

A collaborative storytelling tool, the site features artwork by honest-to-gosh artists that you can use to create your own storybook. It's somewhat limited in where you can place art and text, but this is version 1.0, and I assume it will grow increasingly feature rich as the site develops.

I've embedded my playing around tale Iit's not showing up fully, but you'll get the idea), and I'm thinking of working on a story with my 12 year old niece, who lives in Oregon.

While it's obviously preferable for students to do their own art, face it. For some of us, stick figures are a challenge. This could also be good for foreign language classes and voculabary development.

It might also be a creative way to promote your library--creating quick stories about upcoming events and embedding them on the library or school website.

Sitting in the Catbird Seat by jerihurd on Storybird

EZ (and free!) Pre-Production with Celtx

I'm working on re-vamping my Film Studies class (again) for next semester. I'm going more production-oriented this year, and less focus on the academic analysis. The class is filled with spring-semester seniors who've already been accepted to college. You can imagine how academically oriented they are.

While digging around online, I ran across Celtx, a free tool that integrates the various stages of pre-production into one downloadable application. Whether they're putting together a pitch, writing a script or storyboarding, Celtx provides the appropriate tools.



Here's a link to their overview tutorial, which isn't embeddable for some reason.

I'll let the tutorial explain the various functions. I'm definitely going to use this with my film class. Storyboarding is always an agony for them, and this might give them incentive--I love the way it connects their script with the storyboard.

You do need to purchase the extra clip art set to be able to use the sketchpad for storyboarding, but it's only $5. My biggest gripe is it's somewhat limited in its representation of various camera angles, but there's not really a good online storyboarding tool that I've ever seen.


It does allow students to upload storyboard sketches, once they're scanned, but I can't imagine my students taking the time to do that. If you run a more intense film class than my one semseter class (say the 2-year IB film class), that would be a more usable option.


It's probably best at formatting the various types of scripts, and syncing with the various elements of casting, props, etc. Basically, it helps students organize the vast universe that is pre-production.

I doubt I'd use it with middle-schoolers, but it's a good tool for older students.

C-Span Student Documentary Competition

At NECC last week I was excited to learn about C-Span's 2009 StudentCam video documentary competition. Entitled A Message to the New President, the contest asks students to create a 5-8 minute documentary "on the issue of national significance you think most urgent for the new president."

Details will be at studentcam.org. Right now you'll find results of last year's contest, along with the winning documentaries.

I'm teaching a research/documentary class this summer, so I'll definitely have the students do this as their final project. Very motivating, I would think!

If you're interested, and wonder where to get started, I blogged about creating student documentaries here, and you can find great video resources and all my handouts here. BTW, the link to my documentary handouts doesn't work as the hosting site is down for a while, apparently.





Anyway, while you're on the C-Span site, check out C-Span Classroom, a wonderful collection of primary source videos, resourcesn and lesson ideas relating for teaching Civics and U.S. Government.

Music Videos 2: Lyric Analysis and Planner

Part One

Because a large focus of my film class explored how words are translated into images, I wanted my students to think seriously about the meaning and imagery within their chosen lyrics. The lyric analysis sheet asks them to focus solely on the lyrics' words and intent, without worrying about the video at this point. You'll really need to emphasize that they shouldn't be thinking about the video yet, as they immediately want to start planning how to shoot it.

I realized the importance of this step as I wandered from group to group; several students completely missed the meaning behind some of their lyrics, and even ended up changing songs.

Once they've worked through the lyric analysis, they move on to the planner. This is where they start thinking visually. The planner moves them from the overall mood they want to create to more specific plans for creating that mood. It also asks them to create a story to tell--this can be directly related to their lyrics, or an idea taken from the lyrics.

In the planner, they'll develop the characters and setting, and brainstorm the types of images they plan to incorporate. They also need to describe the effect they think their images, characters, etc will have on the audience. The students struggled the most with this and, to be honest, I wasn't very happy with what they came up with. They're so anxious to get to the shooting, they wanted to rush through this, without putting much thought into the effect.

This should make it more interesting, however, when we do the feedback on their rough cut. As they hear responses from their audience and begin to recognize what does and doesn't work, I hope they'll realize it's worth while to spend more time planning.

Next post: the storyboard a great site for filming/editing tutorials.

"Feeling Not Sound": Creating the Music Video

A few posts ago I mentioned I was doing music videos with my film class. The kids are really into this project, needless to say! I've never seen them quite so eager to do their storyboards. I'm a bit clueless on this myself, as I don't know all that much about music videos, and the few books I've seen are for the professional, not the high school teacher! Online lesson plans have been more basic than I wanted, too.

You can download my handouts here, and I'll describe my tentative phases below.

Because I wanted this to be very much about translating words into visual images in order to create an overall mood or tone, I wanted students thinking more critically about music videos than they tend to, normally. I handed out the assignment sheet, discussed the requirements, then fired up the LCD projector for a little whole-class viewing.

We started by comparing Marilyn Monroe in "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" with Madonna's "Material Girl" and discussing the use of imagery, costuming, etc. (i.e. mise en scene) to create the idea of wealth and luxury. With the Madonna video, we also looked at the contrasting story lines or story within a story--the chanteuse singing a song about material desires, while in real life choosing a "regular guy" as her boyfriend over the high-powered director. Both videos also use great camera work (close-ups, tight framing) to focus the viewer on specific elements.

We then switched to Uncle Kracker's "Follow Me," which has an interesting story line, makes good use of a recurring motif (the truck travels through the different story lines) and has nice little fantasy segments with an easy-t0-recreate special effect.

Finally, we ended with 3 Doors Down and "Loser." The kids were bothered by its rather depressing message, but did a great job of analyzing the use of camera angles and mise-en-scene to create the feeling of loneliness and isolation. The video also is good for discussing the use of establishing shots.

I might add that, in my continuing effort to try to be more copyright-responsible, I bought the music videos on iTunes (except for the Marilyn Monroe clip).

This seems like a good place to close for now. I'll post tomorrow about the next step: having students analyze their lyrics.

Free Moviemaking Curriculum Guide

Apple and movie-guru Marco Torres made this curriculum guide available--for free! It's a great resource (good in conjunction with the guide from AFI), especially for upper-elementary and middle-school aged students, where the focus is more on actually producing a video than on content/style.

I've been teaching a film studies class this semester, which I love. We've combined formal film analysis with students producing their own videos. While we haven't accomplished nearly as much as I'd hoped (I always overplan!), the kids are just beginning their final project--a music video.

Now, I know squat about these, really. So I was excited to see a section on music videos in the Apple guide. However, it was VERY basic--more what I'd use for 6th graders, to be honest. I wanted my students to do a critical analysis of their lyrics, then plan their video in detail. I put together a rough set of handouts; they need fine-tuning, however. As soon as I have a semi-final version, I'll post them!

Video Resource Collection

How's that for a catchy title?

Happiest of New Year's to all! I've posted this video resource link before, but I've bee working on updating the collection, mostly because I'll be teaching a film studies course next semester, in addition to running the library. I'm probably nuts, but I'm looking forward to it. While the class will be partly a traditional film studies class (i.e. analyzing movies), I'm most excited about the production part--students will use what they learn in analyzing actual films as they work to create their own.

Either one of these is a semester in itself, so how combining both will work, I have no idea. It's an adventure! I'm also hoping this will start the school on a long trend towards building media study/production more thoroughly into the curriculum, as students show what they learn through producing PSA's, shorts, documentaries, etc.

With all that in mind, I've worked on upgrading the collection of video resources for the class. I found some wonderful tutorials, student media sites, etc. So take a look, and let me know of anything I haven't found yet!

Animoto: Not your run-of-the-mill slideshow

Ewan McIntosh posted about Animoto this morning, so I decided to play around (I'm in major packing avoidance..). This is about as cool as it gets. I can't stop watching this thing! Upload photos from your desktop, Flickr, MySpace page, etc. Add music (I found mine on PodSafe Audio, a Creative Commons site), then Animoto generates a music-video quality slideshow. Wouldn't this be fantastic for students? Photographers and musicians could get together to create their own music videos.
Other Uses:

• Back-to-school night events--have the show on a loop, featuring pictures of kids-in-action, with student-composed music.
• Advertise student musical productions before the event, especially in districts with morning video announcements!
• Students choose photos to illustrate poems they've written (or better yet, take their own!), use Audacity or GarageBand to narrate the poems and add music. Upload it all to Animoto: semi-instant poetry reading!
• New library books (I need to check copyright issues on this), collect pictures of the covers from new books, put it together with some music, or your own narration (see above), and show it on morning announcements. Great project for your library volunteers!

Shows up to 30 seconds are free, or you can buy unlimited video length for $3/video or $30 per year.

Lights, Camera, Take Action: Let the Fun Begin!

Click here if you missed Part One or Part Two.

The Interviews

While research will probably be ongoing, after three weeks or so, spend one or two class periods discussing and practicing interview techniques, as the interviews are often part of the research process. However, students should have completed enough research to be able to generate intelligent, knowledgeable questions for the interview subject.

Students need a good understanding of the difference between closed and open-ended questions, then practice writing the latter. Talk about questions that elicit stories, (e.g. describe your vision for the next five years), and explain how long-ish answer will make their job MUCH easier than a series of short one or two word responses.

We also talk about good interview etiquette, e.g. how to ask for an interview, etc.

Once they're comfortable with the structure, they write 4-5 questions and practice on each other, before writing 10 questions for their "expert" interview. I don't have them write more than that, because we talk about spontaneous and follow-up questions. If they have a long list of questions, the interview can become just a walk through of their list.

You can find good interview information in this excellent site from Media College,
with suggestions for conducting interviews here and here and here.

The Videotaping

Now the fun really starts! I always spend at least two to three days discussing photographic composition: framing a shot, the rule of thirds, placing the horizon, filling the frame etc. Fodor's provides an wonderful site with good examples that we explore as a class. You may not want to discuss all of the techniques, but definitely explore the ones mentioned above.

Once they've grasped the concepts, if you're lucky enough to work in a district that doesn't block Flickr, have students look through the site in groups to find examples of each of the composition techniques; alternatively, if you want more control of what they're accessing (!), use Flickr's nifty little "add note" feature that lets you drag a box around elements, then label it. The label only pops up when you drag the cursor over the box, allowing students to determine what composition technique the photo uses, before you reveal the answer. (You can only label your own photos, btw, not others you find on the site!)

Uploaded with Skitch!

Once students understand the different elements, give them a few days to take several pictures of each technique, bringing their best examples into class to share and discuss. Obviously, they should be aware of these elements as they shoot the footage for their documentary.

GREAT TIP: Use Saran Wrap or one of those plastic screen covers for a palm pilot. Draw a rule of thirds grid on the plastic, then lay it over the camera's LCD display, making it easy for students to compose their shots. (Thanks, Joe Brennan!)

Other topics to discuss

• Sound: If at all possible, use an external mic rather than the camera's built in mic. It will solve 90% of the sound problems.
• Lighting: Shoot in the brightest light available, since I doubt you'll have floodlights to take around with you. Remind students to be aware of shadows.
• Backgrounds: What is BEHIND their subject? Any lampshades over the heads? Any background noise?
• Camera Angles: Students should strive for a variety of camera angles (see the sheet with the sample script), and avoid zooming and panning without a good reason for doing so.
• Tripods: These are really cheap and will help avoid the Blair Witch effect. Or find something steady on which to rest the camera.
• Equipment: Students need to show up prepared. Here's a good equipment checklist to use or modify to fit your students' needs.
  

Media College provides video tutorials on camera basics and shooting interviews, among others; Adobe also has a great classroom-oriented digital media site. Be sure to explore the entire site--it's a fantastic resource for all aspects of digital storytelling. Here is a list of suggestions for videotaping interviews. Finally, here you'll find 12 guidelines for more effective videos. If you're teaching this as part of a technology class and want links to more technical information about cameras, lighting, sound, etc., I'll provide several resources at the end of this series.

Students will probably need another 2-4 weeks to conduct/videotape their interviews. During that time, they can work on our next post: scripts and storyboards.

Lights, Camera, Take Action: The Planners

Check here if you missed the intro post.

It's All in the Planning

The planners are key to creating a meaningful learning experience for the students. Too often, we see the project and technology as the focus--they're going to create video documentaries--rather than seeing the documentary skills as merely an appropriate tool to enhance student learning. As I posted earlier, I was guilty of this myself when I first started doing these. I wanted a lesson to integrate technology; the focus on persuasion was secondary. After watching students create these for a couple years now, I understand the power lies in the planning, in guiding students to generate inquiry-based essential questions during the planning process that will engage them in real research.

Planner

This sets the overall vision for the documentary, the "Big Idea." Students begin thinking about audience and the best ways to convey their message visually and verbally. They also start building their argument, considering why their issue is important and developing a call to action. They're going to need help with this, especially in focusing their topic and making it specific enough to cover thoroughly in 10 minutes. So plan at least one day to work on these in class.

After that, if you want them working on their own, Thinkature provides a great place for online collaboration and brainstorming (no more "It's too hard to get together" excuses!). Students can work together in real time, with options to either voice chat or IM. After students have received their planners with your comments/suggestions, you're ready to move on to the heavy stuff!

The Research Planner

If you haven't already booked planning time with your Library Media Specialist, do so now. I can't stress this strongly enough! This may seem like a no-brainer to you; if it does, pat yourself on the back! If it doesn't, or if you've never collaborated with your LMS before, take this occasion to learn what a phenomenal resource you have, whose main job is to make YOUR job easier and more effective!

This assignment isn't like researching the causes of the Civil War. Students will need hard to find data and primary sources, much of it on the Invisible Web. This is a great opportunity for students to improve and hone their information literacy and advanced searching skills, one of the best methods for developing independent, life-long learners. Moreover, the LMS can help students frame their essential questions, generate search terms and plan their search strategies.

Essential Questions

This is the crux of the project. If students haven't been introduced to essential questions before, you'll need to spend considerable time teaching the concept and creating several together as a class. Here are a few excellent resources: Jamie McKenzie and David Jakes.

As Wiggins and McTighe explain in Understanding by Design,

These are questions that are not answerable with finality in a brief sentence--and that's the point. Their aim is to stimulate thought, to provoke inquiry and to spark more questions...They are broad, full of transfer possibilities. ..We need to go beyond questions answerable by unit facts to questions that burst through the boundaries of the topic. Deep and transferable understandings depend upon framing work around such questions.

Students created topics in their planner, e.g. pollution, which, through your guidance, they narrowed to 'garbage in Pittsburgh.'

Now they need to turn this into an essential question to guide their research. A normal research question might be "How is garbage managed in Pittsburgh?" This just begs to be plagiarized, as students cut and paste information from point A to point B and simply regurgitate information.

Reframe this as an essential question, "How can we improve garbage management in Pittsburgh in ways that are both environmentally sound and economically viable?"

You can see the difference immediately, the second question requires all those upper level thinking skills in Bloom's--analysis, evaluation, creativity, and there's not one pat, easily available answer. In fact, if students start arguing about the answer before they've even started researching, you know they have a great question!

To quote Wiggins and McTighe again, "The [essential question] signals that education is not just about learning 'the answer,' but about learning how to learn." It's about process as much as (but not excluding) product, about requiring students to consider options, weigh the evidence, support their ideas, draw conclusions and justify their response. It's about helping students make personal connections with their learning as they gain new and meaningful understanding of the questions.

The rest of the Research Planner guides students through planning their research. Specifically, they will generate Foundation Questions, which are the fact-based questions to support their argument, and determine the most likely sources to find information. (Again, think Library Media Specialist here, who can not only suggest sources, but also teach search strategies and appropriate citation.)

Collaboration Tools

I usually give students 4-6 weeks to complete their research. I schedule a few days in the library for them to find text-based resources, but the bulk of it they do on their own, with twice weekly "I have a problem" sessions before the end of class.

A few tools to help them collaborate:

Wikis: Wikis provide an excellent spot to gather and organize their findings, images, etc. If you don't already have a wiki space set up, PBWiki is an easy to use option that provides ad-free sites for educators. WikiSpaces has a slightly higher learning curve, but more functions. Currently, they also offer a free upgrade to the Plus Plan for teachers.

Diigo: I LOVE Diigo. It's a browser add-on (Firefox and IE) that allows users to highlight text directly on a website, then add a sticky-note for comments, which can be published to a group. This would be an excellent way for students to share/discuss websites as they research. Highlighting text creates an archive on the Diigo site, essentially saving all the information (including a shot of the page) and comments in one place. From there students can add additional comments on all the pages, avoiding doing a WWW treasure hunt.

BackPack and Zoho: Both of these sites provide students a space to create to-do lists, calendars, and write collaboratively (which they'll need for their script). Zoho is a one-stop shop for collaboration, BackPack syncs with WriteBoard, and may be more easy/fun for students.

(Access planners and handouts here.)

Next Post: Let the Filming Begin!

Getting To Know You

TechLearning and Adobe Digital Kids Club announced their 2007 "Portraits of Learning" digital photo contest recently. As I read through the information, it struck me what a great introductory lesson this would be for the start of the year.

Usually, I begin each year having my students create personal newspapers, with stories and ads and classifieds all about themselves. It's fun, the students claim it's their favorite project of the year, and it gives me a chance to learn something unique about each student.

This year, I think I'll do the Portraits of Learning instead. Students take digital stills, then write a 50 word commentary on how the photo reflects their point of view. Brilliant! The assignment includes tech literacy skills, personal writing, shows the students early on that I'm interested in them beyond their classwork, and (on a purely practical level) will make a GREAT classroom display for back-to-school night!

Sudden thought: Have the students write their commentary as an extended metaphor that links to the photograph.

Lights, Camera, Take Action!: Introducing the Documentary

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

What Students Need To Know

In order to be most effective, students need a solid understanding of persuasive and argumentative writing and the associated rhetorical techniques (balanced sentences, lists of three, rhetorical questions, etc). I used documentaries in my 10th grade English class; the department introduced persuasion in 9th grade, with commercials and persuasive letters/essays.

I started the 10th grade with persuasive speeches, then began the documentaries. While documentaries don't necessarily need to be persuasive in nature (in Science, for example, they could document the progress of an experiment), it does force students to think seriously about audience, and a perspective that may be different from theirs.

Introducing the Project

I usually start by having students journal or discuss the last thing they watched or read that really made them want to go out and DO something: try a new sport or food, volunteer for a community project. Then they would examine what it was that intrigued or interested them. Now, that type of intro is slanted towards an English class.

Another method could be to have the class brainstorm all the questions they have about X, where X is the topic in science or history or art that you want students to explore. The point is to focus on real questions, and if you don't know the answers, that's even better.

The best projects are inquiry-based, setting aside teacher-as-expert and allowing students to engage in a process with authentic goals and real issues or problems to overcome. While content is important, we are no longer in an age of information scarcity; we have no hope of teaching students all the subject-area content they need to know. Instead, we must give them the tools to find and manage information, then make their own personal meaning.

In Intelligence Reframed, Howard Gardner states that "literacies, skills, and disciplines ought to be pursued as tools that allow us to enhance our understanding of important questions, topics and themes." Documentaries are an excellent tool for doing just that. For a more detailed look at 21st century literacies and education, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach has an excellent post about Learning 2.0, with a great follow up discussion. Or you can read more about inquiry based learning here and here.

Modelling the Final Product

The first year I tried this, I used Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine as an example. My poor kids! I was expecting an awfully big leap for them to extrapolate his film-length style into their 10 minute version. Live and learn. Fortunately, there are many excellent student examples online now, and I'll give you the links to those when I post the resources in a few days. In the meantime, here is a documentary my students in Egypt created last year.





Suffice it to say it is very important to give the students examples early on, allowing them to start thinking and talking about the different elements. I usually have them watch several on their own, then discuss them amongst themselves based on some guiding questions. Nicenet is an excellent online tool to facilitate this. You can post links, create a discussion board and post assignments. Or, if you have classroom blogs, obviously that works well, too.

Once students have watched several examples, show a few in class and talk about what works and what doesn't work. Important topics to consider:

• Content/argument: enough support? convincing? reliable authority? persuasive techniques? appeals to logic? emotion? connection between words, visuals, soundtrack? relevance to audience?
• Visual quality: too light? too dark? focus?
• Sound quality: too loud? too soft? music distracting?
• Camera angles: varied? unnecessary zooming or panning?
• Editing: pacing? any 5 minute talking heads? smooth transitions?

Try to include both good and not-so-good examples of videos, in order to raise students' awareness of video pitfalls!

Finally, the Project:

Now I hand out the introductory packet and review the overall process with the students, in order to give them the "big picture." I've uploaded all of the handouts in a single Word document rather than a PDF, allowing you to tweak them to your own project/ideas. You can download them here. I only ask that you keep my Creative Commons license on the bottom of each page.

Handout Contents:

• Introductory packet
• Documentary Planner
• Research Planner
• Sample Script
• Project Review
• Collaboration and project rubrics
• Blank Storyboard
• Release Form
• Academy Awards Nominations

Once you've reviewed the introductory packet with students, you can either do a class brainstorm of topic ideas or, if you did that earlier, they can choose their topic.



ANYWAY, this seems like a natural breaking point for today. This is obviously going to be longer than the four segments I originally envisioned! Ah, well. Flexibility is key to learning and teaching, eh?

Questions and Musings

I wonder, as I tweak and revamp the handouts, whether I've micro-managed the process too much? Would it be more beneficial for the students to plan out the process as a group, with me acting as guide? Or would that work better once they've actually created a documentary, know the elements they need to consider and include? There is just so much to take in the first time they do these, that maybe it's better if the process is laid out for them, allowing them to focus on content and skills? Their final self-assessment encourages them to think about what worked and what didn't work for them, so maybe that's enough at this point?

Next Post: Planning the Documentaries

Lights, Cameras, Take Action! Producing Classroom Documentaries

A few years ago, while looking around for a tech project my 10th graders could do (Bad, I know! Putting technology before learning. I was ill-informed in those days….), I stumbled across the idea of classroom documentaries. Exactly what I was looking for: persuasive in nature, they involved research, writing AND technology. This was great! Never mind that I knew absolutely nothing about putting one together, let alone editing video… Well, the process was a resounding success, even if the documentaries themselves were less than examplar. I’ve blogged about that here.

Since then, I’ve not only learned to edit film and put together a few videos myself, I’ve developed the various aspects of the project until it runs fairly smoothly, excites and engages the students, and takes a whopping five to six months to complete. But the results are phenomenal, and I don’t just mean the actual documentaries.

I’ve been itching for a chance to help other teachers start using these as a classroom project, and the blog seems a good place to start with that. Thus, I embark on my first series, consisting of four parts:

1. The Process: Stage-by-stage, I’ll summarize the steps for creating documentaries, and include a plethora of handouts starting from assigning the project and ending with the Academy Awards®.
2. The Rationale: In the era of NCLB, what can possibly justify spending five or six months on one project? I’ll tell you.
3. The Standards: Just what standards will this project help you meet? I’ll look at the new NETS-S standards, AASL’s Information Literacy Standards, and discuss how to design the project to meet content-specific standards.
4. Resources: Links to tutorials, audio and image resources, plus a lot more.

Throughout the posts, I’ll be questioning and theorizing. I’m wondering whether I’ve micro-managed the process too much, and need to give the students more control; just when are you giving too much guidance?

So, tomorrow, Part One!

Collaborative Video

I'm always amazed when I find a new tool on what I'm starting to call the Collaborative Web, since it moves so far beyond merely reading and writing. Case in point, Jaycut, a free online video editing site that allows users to upload, edit and share (in multiple formats) their videos and slideshows.

Josh Catone at the Read/Write Web gives the site an impressive review, so I definitely need to check this out. I have plans to include more digital storytelling (through both stills and video) this school year, but collaboration has always been difficult as kids complain "We live too far apart. We can't get together." This may solve that problem nicely.

Research That Rocks

Doug Johnson absolutely nailed it in his latest blog on research projects. It really is a must-read for anyone at all interested in real assessment. Here's why.

A few years ago, after 18 years of teaching English, I was growing bored with the usual persuasive essays, so decided in one of those "fools rush in" kind of moments that I'd have my 10th grade class do a video documentary on a current problem in Cairo (where I was teaching at the time.) I figured it would take, oh, 3-4 weeks, tops. I knew absolutely nothing about filming, or editing software, but when did I ever let mere ignorance stop me? Three months later, the students turned in their final documentaries, most of which were awful (though not all. Not that I can take any credit for that!)

Yet I consider that unit one of the most successful of my career. I was almost as clueless as the students were, so when problems arose with camera or sound or editing, we'd hold brainstorming sessions and I'd often turn the spotlight over to one of the students. They had to work in teams and collaborate and compromise. They researched. They interviewed. They wrote. And then, poor kids, I turned them loose on the filming/editing and said "You have six weeks." I don't know what I was thinking. Live and learn.

Well, after we sat in agony (or laughter) through all of the documentaries, and I was wondering if I'd just wasted twelve weeks of valuable class time, I had the students write an evaluation with suggestions for improving the project next time. I told them I wanted honest comments, thoughtful comments. And they complied. Those evaluations were their real assessment; I was floored by the students' insight into the process, their own strategies, and where my management helped/hindered. They moved beyond mere iteration of content to a profound understanding of what worked, what didn't work, and how they would improve the experience.

That summer I took a class on making videos, which gave my next class a far better experience; they produced good--occasionally astounding--documentaries, and certainly learned a great deal. Moreover, their videos are being used for real audieces: the Sudanese refugee video helps recruit volunteer workers, the animal abuse documentary educates local Cairo children. And yet I sometimes think the earlier class learned more because I was less in control. I also worry that, now that I'm back in the States and tied to NCLB, there will be less and less time for these sorts of authentic projects. For as Doug points out, they are not about correct answers, covering the curriculum, or multiple-choice tests. Few teachers will take the risk.

There are also few teachers willing to take the time. Last year, the documentaries took six months to complete. Obviously, we worked on other tasks; nevertheless, that's a lot of time in an already crowded curriculum. I also took quite a bit of flack from others in my department who said, "These kids can't even write essays, and you're having them do films??" To his credit, the teacher who made that remark came up to me after seeing the Sudanese refugee documentary and ruefully admitted, "OK, I get it now."

Thus, next year, I'll not only do the documentaries again, I'm giving a workshop for other staff in digital storytelling. I'm plugged in to the AFI, which makes wonderful tools available free to teachers, George Lucas's Edutopia website, and Library of Congress' link to primary source materials that can be used in student videos. And I plan to ask Doug if I can open my presentation with his posting. I can't imagine a better way to start!