Looks like the American Film Institute realized they caught schools between the end of the year and beginning of summer school. New deadline for the ScreenNation Hometown challenge is July 14th.
NECC, here I come!
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JULY 14TH
Submissions for AFI ScreenNation’s 1st Challenge, Hometown Claim to Fame are now being accepted through July 14th, winner announced July 15th. Young filmmakers age 13-18 are challenged to produce a documentary about what is special, historic or noteworthy about their hometown. Videos must be 3-5 minutes in length and have interviews with at least 3 people. Summer session teachers and film camp administrators are encouraged to incorporate the ScreenNation Challenge into their programs.
Finally getting around to thinking about packing for NECC San Antonio. Looks like plenty of digital storytelling sessions for us to be inspired at (including the American Film Institute, of course). Wes Fryer over on “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” has put together a Ning and a Wiki for people interested in projects and tools. There’s also a birds of a feather gathering to get an ISTE Storytelling Corps special interest group started. As Bernajean Porter puts it in her announcement email:
This summer’s Birds-of-a-Feather session at NECC (Monday 4:45 PM Rm 103B) will be organizing the future ISTE SIG group for digital storytelling. This group will be actively launching an ISTE Storytelling Corps as their first community service project for engaging and leading others in becoming StoryKeepers™ for NECC’s 2009 Exhibition of how technology has made a difference for our world-wide kids over the last thirty years. Join us in shaping the logistics and timelines; developing the story prompts to craft storytelling rather than digital stories; identifying resources including vendor support; gathering examples of 2-4 minute videos, enhanced podcasts and other digital storytelling modes to be posted at TeacherTube.com. And there is a wiki where you can share your thoughts - http://digitalstorytelling.iste.wikispaces.net
I know, I know. I said I was going to run through the last school year’s contests and festivals, but we still have two open.
AFI’s ScreenNation Hometown Challenge has just a week left to get your middle or senior high school students’ 3-5 minute story in. Surely, there is something worth saying about your town. Old or new? Interesting name or one of many (just how many Lincolns and Columbus’s are there?) Beautiful locale or at the “crossroads?” Hit the books, talk to the mayor, get at least three interviews, you’re in!
And the Set to Screen contest comes in waves. This wave, however, doesn’t have a creative challenge. Since most of our school videos are “on location,” there’s a lot to take away here for even the simplest education learning story. Whether it’s mountains or the cinderblock wall in the cafeteria, an eye to background and controlling what the camera sees can make a big difference in your stories.
On location in San Antonio next week. Great memories of the last NECC there: first stay in a B&B, the River Walk, Hall Davidson’s keynote. Among many other things, I’m also looking forward to a digital storytellers’ birds of a feather gathering on Monday afternoon.
I suppose this is only tangentially related to digital storytelling, but it certainly seems handy enough to pass along. Thanks to an English Apple Distinguished Educator in my PLN, I have just started to play with this new online slide creation program, 280 Slides. Since I’ve only toyed with SlideShare (which I believe does not have a creation option), I don’t have much to compare it to. But I do like the look, feel and versatile options. You can publish on the web, send to SlideShare, embed on a site, and download as a PowerPoint. Also, it looks like it’s pretty darn simple to add media from the likes of Flickr and YouTube. Their demo presentation brings the new Batman trailer right up. So, take the tour and take it for spin. I think I may try to make my “Makin’ Movies” (minus all the copyrighted goodies) presentation available with this.
So, if you were the associate director of the American Film Institute’s Screen Education Center and had to make a ~90 second video in order to apply to attend the Google Teacher Academy, wouldn’t you bring all of the resources and talent you have access to at AFI into your entry clip? Of course not, Silly - Keep It Simple! And that’s just what Frank Gutler did to become one of the chosen 50. He even filmed himself using only the built-in iSight camera on his laptop. And Frank didn’t keep it short and to the point just in production either. In a little over a minute he explains that the research tells us WHY making videos with students is so beneficial. But let Frank tell it…
And if you’re a film fan and have Encore in your cable package, there is a great 2 hour special paying homage to film editors and film editing. I stumbled across it last night and it will be rebroadcast on June 21st at 4:35 Eastern. Did you know that movies weren’t edited until the Wright brothers took to the air in 1903? Oh wait, I think I do remember a few students’ videos where they hit record and just let it go. But that was after ‘03, I think…
…you! As the summer “break” is a time to rest, recharge, and gather ideas for the upcoming school year, I thought I would take the next two months to reflect on the contests I have mentioned by looking at the winners and exemplary entries from each. Since imitation is the highest form of flattery and also a great way to learn about making student videos, I encourage you to join me this Tuesday at 7pm Eastern for a Discovery Connect webinar. In the coming weeks I will be attempting some in depth analysis of winning videos, but on Tuesday we’ll take a preview tour of just some of the sites. You can register here.
Here are the contest websites I’ve mentioned during the past school year. You can check my Contests/Festivals archive under “Categoties” for more details on each.
I have always thought that one of the greatest benefits of students making their own videos was that they get viewed by an audience. Not only is the learning shared then, but the preparation and production value goes way up (see Hall’s post on the CA festival). It’s hard to generate that same amount of enthusiasm for those private transaction assignments between teacher and student like tests and written assignments. And I was happy in the mid 80’s to have that audience just be my Spanish students’ classmates. On occasion, I would even hear good things from parents who “had to watch” their child’s performance speaking Spanish. The days of just passing that VHS tape around are long gone as the Internet and the plethora of contests and festivals have made abundantly clear. (BTW, have you tried to buy blank VHS tape lately?) So whether you have competed, plan to compete, or are just lurking in the wings, you can learn a lot from contest participants’ videos. From the simplest stories done with still cameras to full blown school studio productions, any class level and subject area can benefit from watching and/or creating their own cinematic mini-epics.
To get my summer review of contest content kicked off, we will have a Discovery Educator Network webinar next Tuesday, June 10th at 7pm Eastern. Click here to register.
P.S. Don’t forget there’s still a week to get your student or teacher entry in for the Discovery and 3M Young Scientist Challenge (must be in by Fathers’ Day, June 15th). And you have just over three weeks to show off your own locale in AFI’s ScreenNation Hometown Challenge (June 30th deadline).
Picture Citation (Chicago Manual of Style) IRC. “Leni Riefenstahl at a motion-picture camera..” unitedstreaming: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
(Remember streaming also has a large collection of clip art, sounds, speeches, etc, along with stills like this.)
When I heard our Young Scientist Challenge lead judge, Jake Jacobs (aka Mr. Wizard IV), talk about “whelmers” in his webinar (archived here) my linguist heart went all a flutter. I just love a good play, twist or tweak on a word and that one does it nicely to describe his attention getting lead-ins to science topics. Just last week, I found myself using the term as I attempted to describe my philosophy of digital storytelling to the director of life long learning at Wilkes University in PA. He is in the process of guiding me through designing an online graduate course in digital storytelling that I will eventually teach. I was trying to explain that rather than show technically overwhelming, super, studio created examples, I like to find clips that make teachers and students say, “We could do that!” So, as we head into the summer break (I know, I know. Some of you will be teaching and working during the next 10 weeks or so) and as the video contest season winds down, I hope to do a bit of whelming as I review last school year’s contest winners and finalists. Hopefully, you will be inspired to say, “We could do that!” whether you actually enter a contest next year or not.
BTW, there is still time to enter AFI’s ScreenNation Hometown Challenge (June 30th deadline) and the Discovery and 3M Young Scientist Challenge (must be in by Fathers’ Day, June 15th). The YSC website has added a few more features to its Check It Out section that are worth a look for competitor and non-competitor alike. There are whelmers from balloon electroscopes to triboluminescence and science trips past finalists and winners have taken, learned from, and are now sharing.
Now my inquiring, linguistic mind just has to find out if a teacher teaches, does an usher ush?
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