Last July, as part of my NECC summary, I mentioned sitting in on two of Rushton Hurley’s sessions. As the school year starts up, it seems like a good idea to elaborate on what you can learn and share at Next Vista. But first, let me share their own explanation of what they are about:
An online library of free videos for learners everywhere - find resources to help you learn just about anything, meet people who make a difference in their communities, and even discover new parts of the world. And Next Vista for Learning wants to post your educational videos online, too. Everyone has an insight to share and yours may be just what some student or teacher somewhere needs!
They have three categories: “Light Bulbs“ is the how-to section. Want to know something? Have you learned something you’d like to pass along to others? Rushton’s latest email update even has fun comparing what and how you can learn math through student produced videos on NextVista, YouTube, and TeacherTube. Use their math “smackdown” survey to vote for your favorite. “Global Views“ strives to show students around the world just how close they really are. Students produce videos introducing not just their country, but their home community. Four of the seven continents have pieces so far “Seeing Service“ highlights good deeds going on around the world. Watch and be inspired. Add your own and do some inspiring.
Unlike many of the contests and festivals I write about here, there is no deadline or prizes - just a good opportunity to learn and share.
As the new school year gears up, I thought I’d take a few more looks at past festivals and contests that might give you ideas for projects with your students. Though this is only open to high school and college students, the FYI challenge would be a timely model for any age group in this election year. Looking at last year’s winners, they ran the gamut of issues on young people’s minds and came away with a variety of awards from the impressive list of sponsoring organizations.
Remember, you don’t have to enter any of these festivals and contests to learn from them. As always, I recommend you look at them for ideas to spark timely projects with your own students and with your own parameters. Then, when you find yourself saying, “We could do that,” jump in.
I know I won’t get any sympathy with this post, but after two years of retirement and twelve years as a facilitator with no classes of my own before I retired, I’m back in the classroom. Sort of. With Discovery and Wilkes University’s recent partnering to offer an online Master’s in Instructional Media, I was tapped to design and teach the Digital Storytelling class. I have to share that it has been an amazing and exhausting process so far. For one, I got to choose the textbook: no committee, no pilot project, just my choice. We’ll be using Jason Ohler’s Digital Storytelling in the Classroom along with two free manuals: the downloadable 21st Educator’s Handbook (the Teacher’s Guide from the American Film Institute video sections in Discovery Education streaming) and A Curriculum for Digital Media Creation by Marco Torres and Ross Kallen which is available from Apple Computer’s education website. Of course, there will also be a number of online videos to watch and comment on as well as a few websites that will need to be visited. The “tests and papers” will be video creation, discussion, and commentary. It has been a challenge to think the seven units out and write them up in a comprehensible format for Moodle. It actually reminds me of (shudder) writing out detailed sub plans. I have to send a big thank you out to Wilkes University Grad & Professional Studies Assistant Dean, Bill Jones, who has been most helpful and patient as I’ve struggled to get my take on digital storytelling into words and into a logical sequence. Jason Ohler has also been a big help and doesn’t seem to mind that we will be jumping all around in his book as I fit his chapters to the units I’ve structured. Looks like there will be special class sections for DEN members too, so don’t be tardy or you’ll need a note from your mother, spouse or significant other.
We’ve been getting a unique chance to get behind the camera of a major motion picture this summer and fall through Apple’s partnership with Baz Luhrmann and his upcoming movie, Australia. The latest installment deals with cinematography and the partnership between director and the director of cinematography. You don’t have to be a master movie maker or a Mac user to appreciate the planning and attention to detail that they describe in this latest podcast. You also don’t have to have Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, the production crew, and all the fancy equipment you see in this podcast to apply the principles described to your classroom projects.
Listen as they describe the planning process and ask themselves what mood or emotion is being conveyed here, where is the light coming from, and what scene/image comes next? Regardless of onscreen talent and equipment, those are questions any good visual storyteller should be asking.
A little over a year ago the local FOX outlet sent the general manager, some tech staff and two on-air sports anchors out to our local Chicagoland television educators meeting to introduce us to their student video upload program. As an afterthought, the manager showed us an iPod sized camcorder they were considering for on the spot interviews and breaking news when they couldn’t get a whole crew into the field. It looked interesting enough, but nothing that would replace my 3 chip camcorder. By this year’s NECC the buzz had grown and rumors I had heard about import problems for the PC and Mac were dispelled, so I took the plunge and bought a Flip Mino. In order to give the best overview possible, I thought I’d do some serious field testing in Disney World. I got the grandbabies along with their parents and convinced two younger brothers to bring their families along for some serious comparison and field testing (and if you REALLY believe that was the reason we all went down to WDW, I can get you a good deal on a couple of bridges in the NY area).
It was no contest. The Flip was so convenient from the moment we got on the plane in Chicago that the mini-DV camcorder never even made it out of its case during the trip. There is no doubt that my 3 chip camcorder gets a much better, near broadcast quality image, records good stereo sound with its built in mic, and can gather hours of footage depending on the number of tapes I have and how long my two batteries hold their charge. That said, the Flip’s quality is more than adequate (surprisingly even) for my home movies and just about any school use.
With great convenience comes some trade-offs. The Mino model I have can store up to 60 minutes in its 2G of flash memory. You can erase clips to make space just like you can dump any photo at any time from a digital still camera. And like a digital still camera, you can watch what you’ve recorded immediately. That was a great feature for keeping my granddaughter occupied in line a couple of times. It has a built in rechargeable battery that, like an iPod, can only be charged through its flip out USB plug connected either to a computer or an iPod charger. In full days of park visits the battery never went below half and the only time I filled up the memory was when I forgot to delete the previous day’s footage after saving it to my laptop. The two original models take AA batteries, but still need access to a computer for saving video.
There are three models to choose from. All have a 60 minute video capacity, but the Flip Video (MSRP $129) saves it to 1G of memory while the Ultra (MSRP $149) and Mino (MSRP $179) have 2G internal memory. I found my Flip Mino for less than $150.
Educators can get a $15/unit rebate when buying at least three Ultras or Minos at a time by September 30th.
I have to think this would be a great, economical way to equip a school for basic movie making without the hassle of tape or mini-DVD disks. Keep in mind too that the Video model can’t be mounted on a tripod and none of the models can take an external mic. But other than that, it’s basically point, shoot and plug into any computer to import into your editing software or the software supplied (Mac and PC) right on the camera. Here are a few examples. The quality suffered a bit converting to Flash for YouTube. Outdoors Indoors
Even occasional readers of this blog know that I hold the resources that Frank Guttler and Mitch Aiken have assembled for the American Film Institute’s K-12 Screen Ed program in very high regard. So, you too will probably share my sorrow on learning that the grant funded outreach has lost its funding and Frank and Mitch have been let go. Bob Jennings, Xander in the “Xander Anders Show” ScreenNation Learn videos, has been reassigned within AFI. It looks like the digitized assets will remain available and student film makers will still be able to upload to ScreenNation, but any further challenges and innovations are in doubt-> good news on this, see Bob Jennings’ comment below. The “Lights, Camera, Education!” videos and teachers’ guide/manual are also still available on Discovery Education streaming.
I hope you’ll join me in thanking Frank, Mitch, and Bob for all they’ve done to bring Hollywood magic into digital storytelling for any classroom and subject area by leaving a comment below.
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