When I was in graduate school at the University of Georgia I took a class from Dr. Hugh Gardner on Educational Television Production. I enjoyed the class, but in 1992 I could not imagine using my video production skills outside of graduate school. At the time you needed large amounts of studio space and thousands of dollars in specialized equipment, and I could not imagine using these skills ever again.
Boy was I wrong.
What it is
Today’s computers are all capable of creating digital video. Digital video, as a description, is when you shoot your video with a digital video camera and then download the video from the camera to the computer for editing. Digital video cameras work exactly like analog video cameras. The only difference is that
the digital video camera captures the signal in a format that can be moved to the computer for editing. Digital video is moved through either a USB connection (USB2 is preferred because of its speed) or through an IEEE 1394 connection (this is also called Firewire or iLink. You then use specialized software on the computer to edit the video. Video editing on a computer allows you to delete parts of a single scene or to delete an entire scene. Editing allows you to remove live audio recorded with the video and to put a new audio track over the video and to add background music to either live audio or voice over narration.
Video editing also allows you to add titles, credits, or subtitles to a video. While professional video editing for long format video (like the movies) is
done with software such as Apple’s Final Cut Pro, or the Window’s based Adobe Premier Pro, consumer level video editing software is available for free on all new computers. On the Macintosh iMovie is available for
free on every new computer, and on the PC Window’s Movie Maker is available for free on every new computer. Both pieces of software work pretty much the same way: you have a clip window where your video scenes show up, a time line for organizing and editing your clips or scenes, and a preview window where you can see what you have done. When video is completed it can be saved as a file that can be seen on a computer, such as a Quicktime file (.mov extension and the Macintosh default) or a Windows Media Video (.wmv the Windows default), be exported to video tape, or, if the computer has a DVD – burner, be written to a standard DVD disc.
How it relates to learning with technology
One reason to use video in the classroom is not for students to create award winning movies (even though they might), but rather to provide the students with another way to show that they have met the curriculum standards. This relates to the issue in Universal Designs for Learning (O’Neill, 2001), Multiple options for
expressing knowledge. Another reason for doing a project like digital video is that it helps us move further to the base of Dale’s Cone of Experience (Dale, 1969) to create direct purposeful activities in an attempt to make learning less abstract and more concrete.
Video production requires a lot of work before anybody can shoot a single scene. Video can be time and resource intensive, so it is best to have learners working in groups. Research must be done on the topic, scripts must be written, costumes and props, if needed must be researched, located and created, and the production schedule must be set up. Even a short video of five to ten minutes can require a great deal of planning. Therefore, the creation of the video means that learners must spend a great deal of time with the content as they plan the movie, as they create the movie, and as they edit the movie for final distribution. Learning by creating video may be more constructivist in nature than learning from a video. By this I mean that when creating the video everybody will learn something, but everybody may not learn the same thing. Video production moves further down the Cone of Experience (Dale, 1969) to be more enactive (Bruner, 1969). Because digital video can take a long time to do, it is best to use it with projects where you can meet multiple curriculum standards from multiple curriculum areas.
General Technical Issues
1. When shooting video it is good to have a shot list written out in advance. This allows learners to track what has been done and it helps teachers to help students create something that is a meaning representation of human learning. And on a practical level, it helps us manage the length of the video so that it is not too long or too short.
2. It is preferable to shoot videos in short scenes. With most cameras and most software a scene is created every time you start and stop recording by using the pause button.
3. When you are filming, take a notebook and pen with you to write the information like Scene 3 take 2 on it so that you can shoot it at the beginning of the scene. This will help you find the scenes quickly when editing.
4. Use a tripod to hold the camera. Shaky video doesn’t look good, and nobody can hold a camera still for very long.
5. Use an external microphone if you need live audio. The built in microphones on most consumer quality cameras are not that good beyond five or ten feet.
6. Keep videos as short as possible. Student produced video will not have the same production values as professionally produced video. Three to five minutes is a time length that my classes have found to work pretty well.
General Class Management Issues
1. Spread the project out over a period of time. Do the research first and let students write the scripts. Then take a week off before letting them shoot the video. Breaking the project up will provide perspective to the students and time to think through various problems.
2. Remember that the goal of the project is a learning goal: they are to create a representation of what they know about the topic. Students will want great production quality, and that is ok, but you need to help them balance a desire for a great production with the goal of creating a representation of what they know.
3. Work in groups and use as many curriculum standards as you can. If possible, work in conjunction with other curriculum areas. For example if your students are creating movies based on the South Carolina 6th social studies curriculum standard such as 6.4.2 Summarize the features and major contributions of China, including its golden age of art and literature, the invention of gunpowder and woodblock printing, and commercial expansion and the rise of trade. (H, G, E) combine it with a 6th grade language arts standard such as 6-R1.10 Begin recognizing when statements of fact are not documented and when opinions are not adequately supported.
4. Plan in advance for time to edit video. Seek additional help from other teachers or parent volunteers to help manage the process. Use handouts to help you answer questions about video editing.
An Example
This QuickTime movie demonstrates how to use the Web 2.0 site http://www.pikikids.com/. (A free site to let you create comic books out of digital pictures.)
Handouts and Tutorials
References
Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Dale, E. (1969). Audio-visual methods in teaching. New York: Dryden.
O’Neill, L. M. (2001). Universal designs for learning: Making education accessible to all learners. Syllabus. April, (pp. 31-32).
PAL Home | Podcasting | Video | Digital Story Telling | PowerPoint | Claymation
First posted
10/01/2008. Original material copyright Marshall G. Jones, Winthrop
University, 2008.
Use with permission of the author.
http://coe.winthrop.edu/jonesmg/lti/pal