So, I'm feeling a little burned out, so I'm not going int o a lot of detail. I'm excited about making the movie for the class. The workings of I-movie seem easy enough that I can assign a movie project for a class, and it would be fun. I am happy that I can use the knowledge I'm gaining here. A movie project would be an excellent way to get students involved and interested.
I was talking to different MAC graduates, and they talked about how any use of alternate technology and different projects excited the students. So, I'm really happy that I feel proficient in different forms and will look forward to creating different projects.
Creating movies allows students to bring a lot of creative energy into a project. They are allowed to plan and work on their own and set goals and realistic time frames. If the final product is placed on the web somehow, then students will put more time and effort into them with the knowledge that people will be viewing it.
And now, my laptop is running out of juice, so I'll end it here.
An overview of my time at the Secondary MAC Program at U of M. No, don't go! Come back!
Some Links
Sudoku
I had a bit of fun adding customizations and links to my blog. Although, maybe I should be working on its actual content. Hmmm.....
4 comments:
When I was taking some education classes at GVSU last fall, we were assigned various projects that involved using art to talk about books we had read. I ended up making short movies about them. Nothing fancy, I just took some photos from the internet, lines from the text, and moved them around with Motion (a Mac animation program) while setting them to music. This took a night or two of work, but the finished product looked pretty good. Mind you, the other people made slapdash collages and posters that probably took about five minutes of their time, so I'll leave the debate on deciding the smarter person--or at least the one with more free time--unanswered.
I did two of these, and both times thought that this could be a good way to introduce books to students in an English class I taught. Since I'm making them, I can tailor the videos to my student's needs, and while they take some time to make, I could easily reuse them year after year, and even edit them if necessary.
However, after realizing how much work teachers have to do on a daily basis, I'm thinking what you're thinking--if you have a tech-savvy school with the resources to pull it off, let the students do the videomaking. They'll learn a lot about the tech of it, they'll look at a text from a new perspective, and, best of all, I can just take their movies and use them next year. Muwahahaha!
Teachers have to be resourceful and savvy, so I'll start with an endorsement of Stewart's comment that the sooner you get into the modality of letting the students do the creating, the better. I kind of like the symmetry to Stewart's point, because one of the values (to my mind) of having students do creative stuff like videos and podcasts is as a way of showing (and thinking about HOW to show) what they know about something. Learning by teaching, in other words.
Mark, have you had any contact with Emily Mills, your predecessor? I know that she did a lot of inventive stuff, some of which made use of technology, largely because my daughter was in her class and LOVED it. If you're not in touch with Emily, let me know and we'll fix that. You'll have a great time working with Marion.
Oh...you might find it interesting to read an article that Marion did with another of your predecessors, Richard Mora. I find it inspiring and maybe it will open some doors to interesting conversation:
www.kdp.org/pdf/publications/Mora.pdf
Hi Jeff
Thanks for your comment. I looked through the pdf, and it was very informative, and I'd like to look through it and make notes of some things I'd like to do. Actually, I feel like it would be a good thing for each MACer to read, because it does offer good advice for mentees.
I am not in contact with Emily,, and I would like to be. Thanks for all your advice!
Mark,
I think your video was evidence of your excitement about movie making as an excellent creative tool for education. You guys did a really nice job enacting and filming a totally original idea. Movie making has so many dimensions which could be valuable to a classroom. Just having the students record themselves and their work is usually sufficient enough to motivate them to do an assignment well. If all our efforts to inspire our students fail this year, at least we know to put a camera on them!
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