Thing 13: Attend a “21st Century” Conference
I found Mathew Needleman’s conference presentation for the K12 Online Conference 2008, “Amplifying the Possibilities,” to be interesting, informative and entertaining. Entitled, “Film School for Video Podcasters,” it presented very specific techniques and tools that will allow even elementary students to produce their own videos.
Mr. Needleman made a convincing argument for teaching students critical thinking skills through video production. With the ability to recognize the mechanics of the many moving images that confront them each day, even young students will become more media literate. Teaching media literacy from the “inside out,” as his presentation proposes, can be one of the most effective methods for students to gain an understanding of the way that media images and audio affect them.
This was but one of the higher level thinking skills that creating a video can foster. Synthesizing the elements of the story you wish to present into a storyboard format is essential for creating a logical step-by-step process for shooting a video. Once the production begins, selecting the best shot to tell the story has to be done through an on location evaluation of how each shot should be composed for greatest impact. The entire process of visually telling a story from concept to completion is replete with opportunities to exercise higher level thinking skills.
As a librarian and media specialist, with a background in film and video production, I hope to implement what I have learned through this online conference into my classes. So many stories, so little time…
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I took your advice and watched David Needleman’s entry in the online conference. You were so right – it was entertaining and informative. He would certainly be an interesting person to work with. If you plan to try this out with our students, let me know so I can watch and learn from you! I later listened to an interesting video in the online conference about sites that work well with little kids; it was called Never Too Young. From it, I was especially interested in using Voicethread.com, which would enable us to upload pictures from the kids and add their voices. If you haven’t seen it yet, you might want to check it out. It looks really good and might be an easier venture into Web 2.0 than some other things.
Thank you for your kind words on my presentation. I’m glad that the themes of my movie came through clearly. Please stay in touch. I’d be very interested to see the work you create.