Week 4 Reflection - Digital Video

This week we were immersed in a number of technologies including use of images, podcasting and digital video. As I was trying these out I decided that I would be able to use digital video to get students to make their own safety videos for the workshop. I would possibly get each student or small group to choose a tool or machine in the workshop and ask them to produce the safety video based on research they would undertake. These videos would be shown to the class as a whole and discussions would be encouraged among the students. Each of the videos could be uploaded onto a class website that could be started for resources that the students find when researching or just looking around on the internet. This would encourage students to carry out their own research and enable independent learning.

‘How to’ videos could be made to remind students of the next step in a project, this would again, hopefully, enable students to become more independent. A student or group of students could be videoed while working on a project and then this could be watched and analysed by themselves to help individuals gain greater insight into their work. This can also increase motivation, self-directed learning, increase confidence and motivates learners to find their own solutions to problems.

In fact, an assignment could be written that each of the technologies could be used, so that many learning styles could be catered for.

 

Strengths Caters to different learning styles Most software is easy to use Encourages independent learning Many digital technologies to utilise Ability to combine media Collaborative information discovery and  sharing	Opportunities Enhances learning and teaching Engaging Relevant and convenient Accessible to all students Content Creation
Weaknesses Internet safety Software and Hardware Compatibility Costs of cameras may be out of reach for some students Time consuming	Threats Available technologies Reliability of information gathered by students Effective use by students Need to be aware of copyright and plagiarism Accessibility from home by students

 

 

I made a very simple example of one way to use the program “Movie Maker” in the Manual Arts classroom. Movie Maker is very simple to use. To create this movie, I downloaded some pictures, however, in the classroom I would expect students to take their own photos. It was very simple to add the pictures to the timeline and once added it was a matter of dragging them to put them in order. I was able to add a title which was customisable, I was able to change the font style, colour and size. I then proceeded to add animations or transitions. I realised that the pictures were being played for far too long so I simply adjusted the speed until I felt that it was correct. Then it got a bit more difficult as I wanted to use royalty free music, I found that many websites needed payment for the use of the music, eventually I found some free ones, however, I was having difficulty with WinZip, I updated it and then I was able to open the zip files. I added the music (and the credits as requested) and was finished!

Follow the link to view the final project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evO_RXRuPLg&feature=youtube_gdata

Movie Maker has many more options to use that I didn’t even go near. Some of the options that I didn’t use were adding videos, snapshots and webcam videos. You could enhance your video by using an auto movie theme or adding visual effects. There is the ability to format the credits, change background colour. It is a great beginners editing tool.

One downside to using this type of technology within the classroom setting is that some computer networks can’t cope with all of the students trying to access and manipulate video images simultaneously. I discovered this a few weeks ago when class was trying to make movies and it crippled the network. We were able to work around it by storing individual students clips on USB’s.