Student Learning through Video Screen Captures

I'm away this week and I am only teaching 1.5 days in the next 9. Students current projects to create a 30 second radio ad and print ad for a 'client' in the school were due today. They have two final projects to complete in this unit.

The problem with being away so much is that the project assigned is is to edit a 90 second demo for a local dentist who flies a stunt plane, and edit it using Final Cut. Final Cut isn't something that you just jump into with students while they have a sub, but that's exactly what I'm attempting to do. Here's what I've got in store for them.

Students will:

1. create their own music in Aviary's Myna

2. learn to import footage into Final Cut

3. create markers and put edits on the beat of the music

4. select appropriate clips from the mass of 8GB worth of footage

5. learn to edit a sequence of clips together

6. add ending credits to their project

What's fun about this is that I get to tell the story of how we got the footage. We literally duct taped the HD cameras to the tails of the planes! I also laid down behind the plane and took a shot of the takeoff while taking several rocks in the face at the same time! Here's what the night version of our edit looked like. My friend edited it for the pilot who submitted it to be approved as a demonstrator at an airshow. I provided some Final Cut assistance with workflow and technical assistance while editing.

With this and one other video of a daytime routine edited for the pilot, I presented them as exemplars for what I was looking for from the students.

The twist on this project was that I am going to be away for much of it. Students will need to do all of the learning on their own. I chose to create video screen captures of the steps using Jing. Many of you have heard of and used Jing. The SWF files it creates are very small, the embed codes are easily copied and the 5 minute time limit on the recordings make sure you are concise and to the point. One drawback is that I captured such a large area on my screen that it's sometimes difficult to see everything that I'm demonstrating on the embedded videos on the class wiki. This is why I just linked the videos. I recommend you get a Jing Pro account, which I do, but was unable to get it to register with my email so I had to use the free side. It is still an amazing video and image capture tool.

Doing all of this took a TON of work, but in the end the final result is a decent series of videos for students to follow which can be used again and again. To assist the sub while I'm away I have also shared the names of 5 or 6 kids who are 'pro' at what they do, with previous Final Cut experience. They have agreed to be assistants to anyone with problems over the next 9 days, and even when I am back.

In the end I'm looking at what portion of the learning can be self directed and then supported with student expertise within the class. No better chance that when I'm away for an extended period of time!

The entire project is covered in detail on the project wiki page. Feel free to check them out. Any comments about the approach and assessments would be appreciated.

http://clhsmultimedia.pbworks.com/w/page/Foundations-Final-Project-1

Arkanada Revived?

With so much of our time spent isolated in our class the power of the PLN has never been so apparent in my life than the Arkanada Project. I've been lucky enough to collaborate with Jim Billings from North Little Rock High into this, our 3rd year. As part of the project we also worked with another great ADE, Eric Moccio from St. Catherines. The first year was great, last year as quiet (I take full blame for this) and now I'm excited to get things rolling again.

The main communication method for sharing projects, ideas, forum, etc was our ning. Now that Ning is costing us money it's not an option. (I need more than the basic level of Ning because of all the video content). I'm decided that Youtube is going to be the medium of choice for sharing which cuts out another level of signup and account creation for students.

I'm on my way down to Arkansas this coming Friday. Luckily I've been able to get the funding for my flight and sub costs to go and participate in some of the best PD that I will ever get. It's what amounts to job shadowing but with a twist: I'm going to be put to work in everything that Jim does. They've even sent out a press release about my arrival!

September 7, 2010

North Little Rock, Arkansas......Jared Nichol, a teacher and rugby coach from Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada is coming to visit North Little Rock High School to work with North Little Rock television students and Jim Billings, television instructor at North Little Rock High School. Jared wrote a grant to fund his trip so he could experience first-hand, a high school television program from the lower 48 states. Jared and Jim Billings, both Apple Distinguished Educators, have been corresponding for the past two years. During his research, Jared located the North Little Rock School District website and the North Little Rock television students. Mr. Billings has been working with Jared and his students via blogs and video exchanges.

Jared will be in North Little Rock from October 15-22, 2010 to experience students at North Little Rock television produce a football game, the daily news, and The Good News show. He is excited about engaging students in a joint Arkansas/Canada (Arkanada) project.

Here are a few things that I'm told I'll be participating in:

1. Broadcasting a high school football game to local cable

2. Supervising and experiencing Homecoming at a US High School

3. Commuting 1hr + to school each morning

4. Touring CBS affiliate TV stations

5. Taking part in the students' television news broadcasts

6. Taking a Final Cut Pro Exam

7. Faculty staff meeting

8. Teaching students how to talk with a Canadian accent! :)

I'm sure there's more in store as well! Every couple of days Jim has been emailing me to tell me of another opportunity he's arranged with me. I plan to blog daily while I'm there including video for my students back home.

Stepping back for a moment it's amazing that we've been able to connect. It's really all because of the willingness of both involved to use technology available to us to SHARE our ideas. Jim has been a great mentor to me and hopefully some of what I've been doing has rubbed off on him too!

See you Friday Arkansas!

Connecting to Experts in Multimedia

One goal this fall that I have is to connect to experts in the 'real world' with everything our multimedia class does. Recently we had an awesome experience with James Schutz from Transcend Coffee. In previous Language Arts classes I have invited a poet to talk to my students, but this was the first time I've done it with multimedia.

James in the Marketing Director over at Transcend. I am a big fan of the coffee, and after I had tweeted that our class was looking to connect with people about advertising and promotions, it was suggested to me that James was the one to contact. We skyped a week in advance about what our class was up to and set up a time for him to Skype into my 2 media arts classes. He generously shipped us up a couple pounds of Transcend coffee (yum!) so our class could drink the coffee as we Skyped! (Is Skype a verb now? I think so....)

James and the Transcend crew believe in the power of SoMe. They are active users of Twitter (@transcendcoffee), maintain an extensive blog and have great video blogs that James shoots and edits. They are passionate about their product.

Students asked questions in advance on a Google Form and came up with pretty good questions related to advertising and design. Some were not on task, but hey, this is a high school option class after all. This little tool help gather all questions quickly and students were safe to ask anything without feeling awkward.

With caffeine pumping through our veins, we enjoyed hearing from James' story, about how he came to be the marketing guru at Transcend, what his educational background is, and the projects he has initiated since he joined the team.

The highlight of the session was when James spoke about the importance of identity, brand identity and the idea of having a great logo. In his words perhaps the greatest challenge of a marketing group is to come up with an idea for, and design a logo. Case in point is his description of how the Fedex logo is a lesson in simplicity as well as the importance of negative space. Take a moment to watch the "a ha" moment my students had with him!

It was one of those great teaching moments to see the students make the connection between what they had learned in class with something that is actually used in the real world. It truly made my year so far.

Now that we have successfully invited an expert into the class via Skype, I am thinking about where this should go. Without a doubt, I want each project we do to have a connection to an expert that can help us with a greater understanding or 'real world' picture. Even the phrase 'real world' has a catch. It implies that what we are doing in my class isn't a part of the real world. Maybe we need to stop thinking of our classes as something so separate and isolated from the outside world. If I was trying to learn about advertising as a professional and I needed help in designing a logo, I would do just as our class did: find an expert who did and ask them to consult with me and assist.

That's a whole other can of worms for another post....

Perhaps my next challenge will be for students to make a connection to someone or some company to get expert opinion and support into our classroom. Any ideas as to how to approach this?

Thanks again to James Schutz from Transcend Coffee for his time and expertise. I look forward to working with him and sharing over a cappuccino soon!