Creating Lifelong Learners

Video in the Classroom Carnival #4 comes a month early.  There were just too many good tips and examples to hold off another month.

Video Production Examples from the Trenches

Mr. Moses’s middle schoolers’ productions.  I particularly enjoyed The Clumsy Ninja for its dry sense of humor and well thought out shot selection.

Los Angeles County Digital Voice Award Winners

6th Grade Puppet Shows from Kevin Hodgson’s class.

Kelly Dumont’s elementary film festival winners.

Professional Examples

Alec Couros posts a list of tons of great Youtube videos for teaching technology and media literacy including my own, Mr. Winkle Wakes.

Theory

The Substance of Style. A series of film essays on the influences of Wes Anderson.  Watch these to help train your eye on what to look for in teaching and evaluating film.

Literacy Status:  Its Complicated, Tom Woodward asks us to think about how we’re teaching literacy.  Have we redefined it?  Have we let tools take over technique?

Let the Beat Build.  Dan Meyer explains why this music video rocks.

Tutorials

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About iMovie ’09 (But Were Afraid to Ask) from Yours Truly.

The Best Cinematic Tutorials Online from Smashing Magazine.

Normalizing Audio in Final Cut Pro by Larry Jordan (also check out his free FCP newsletter)

Lesson Plans

Case Study:  Video Production in Elementary

Frank Guttler lets us into his planning for his class at Poly High in A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words and reports on his journey to Doha to see How Flat the World Is.

Christina shares her classroom holiday movies.

Joe Brennan presents the best resources for Making Movies on the Web:

Every youtube video has it’s own url. Go to the video you want. Make sure you see the video you want. Go to the address bar and type pwn after the www. like this:

www.pwnyoutube….

It goes to another page. Download as an mp4 and save.

Submit an article for the next Video in the Classroom Carnival here.

I have renamed the Digital Storytelling Carnival to the Video in the Classroom Blog Carnival with this which would be edition #7. As before, the carnival spotlights blog articles on using video production in the classroom which includes digital storytelling and general video production. I’ve come to understand that digital storytelling refers to a specific genre of movies and think it’s time I stop confusing the two (sorry about that).

And now, on with the show…

Classroom Examples

Kevin Hodgson presents his students clay animation projects cleverly written to show examples of literary elements such as foreshadowing and characterization.

Christina shares an Alphabet Movie made with Animoto and shares the process of making the movie as well as some thoughts on Digital Storytelling and Shel Silverstein.

Spooky Book Trailers from Sonja Cole.

Mr. Mayo presents Short Films by Middle Schoolers.

Steven Kimmi shares A Day at Schilling Elementary.

Professional Examples

Esquire Magazine presents the Five Most Misleading Propoganda Films of the 40′s, 50′s, and 60′s.

Oral History: Telling Their Stories
Survivors of wars, the Holocaust, and Japanese internment camps share their stories.

Geography at the Movies, non-profit site for sharing movies of different locations around the world.

Instruction

Wesley Fryer presents Research Based Suggestions for the Digital Storytelling Process as well as Examples of Digital Storytelling Projects.

A Research Report on Student Generated Videos in the Classroom.

Resources

Larry Ferlazzo gives us the Best Ways for Students to Create Online Videos (Using Someone Else’s Content)

Royalty Free Music and Images Resources

Tutorials

Film School for Video Podcasters. My own presentation on how to make better classroom movies.

How to use a green screen by way of Alec Couros.

I frequently get wonderful e-mails from teachers who’ve discovered our class films. They have some questions in them so I decided it was time to answer a couple of them.   If you have questions after reading, please post those questions below as a comment. -Mathew

1. How did you get started?

My Filmmaking Background

I just turned 31 and I’ve been making films since fifth grade. My junior year of high school I made my first feature, a ninety minute tale of unrequited love.

I went to NYU film school for a year but left over fears of spending too much for a degree which might not have career possibilities. I took any tuition money I had left after freshman year and bought a digital video camera and the top of the line Apple G3 and made my movie. (You might say there was a theme to my films).

Video in the Classroom: My Start in the Ed-Biz

I have been a teacher for seven years but have been integrating video in the classroom for twelve years.  I began working in the after school program at Community Magnet School right after high school. There I worked with Martha Melinda who taught me how to direct children and about how they like special effects.

When I had my own classroom, I spent my first two years making sure I knew what I was doing in terms of teaching the curriculum and completing coursework to obtain a teaching credential. I advise new teachers to do the same, make sure you know your curriculum before you start integrating technology. But once I had a credential, I didn’t feel like I had any excuse not to start integrating technology.

How Should I Get Started?

I compiled some links here to tutorials and film tips.  There’s a lot to know but you don’t have to know everything to get started.  Just get started, begin to play and work out your technique as you go.  I recommend the book, Film Directing Shot by Shot for help when you’re ready to start planning your shots and a one-to-one membership at the Apple Store if you’re using the Mac and want software lessons.

How Do You Get Your Audio So Clear?

Proximity is number one rule.  If you record from across the room, you can’t hear, particularly with younger students who talk quietly when they’re nervous.  Get the microphone close and practice projecting before filming.

My microphone cost $300 five years ago. It’s a BeyerDynamic MCE86 shotgun microphone. I also have a microphone stand ($30) which holds in place in a shock mount of sorts. For “Tales from the Yard” students sat right under the microphone as they recorded their voices into Garageband on my iBook. That’s my only secret. Also turn up the volume as loud as you can. Today, there are other microphones that might be much cheaper and give you equally good sound. The cheapest microphone would be better than using the built in mics on your camera or computer.

Links for iMovie ’08 Bootcamp Class at LACOE.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Apple’s Shortcuts

Macworld article on getting back iMovie ’06 features

iMovie ’08 Tutorials

Apple’s Tutorials

Movie Making Tutorials

Flickschool
San Fernando High School Teacher, Marco Torres

Video in the Classroom.com
My site for elementary filmmaking

AFI Screen Education

Storyboarding

Storyboard Template

Storyboarding Movie

Screenplay to Storyboarding Movie

DVDs with Storyboards:

Monsters Inc.
Shrek I

Recommended Reading

Film Directing Shot by Shot by Steve Katz

Copyright and Fair Use

Hall Davidson Chart

Royalty Free Images

http://www.morguefile.com
http://www.pics4learning.com
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons

Royalty Free Music

Scroll down for list

Web Sites

Zamzar.com for downloading Youtube videos

VersionTracker.com for free and shareware software

VoiceThread
quasi-movie making web site and visual voicemail

Programs Mentioned

PulpMotion
not free but makes cool titles

TubeTV
free program for downloading Youtube movies

Handbrake
free program for getting media off of DVDs

Downloads

Download iMovie’ 06 (if you’ve bought iMovie ’08 and don’t have it)

Networks

professional networks for teachers

Classroom 2.0 video group

Subscribe to this blog by e-mail

Inspiration

Digital Students/Analog Schools

Ira Glass on Storytelling

SFETT San Fernando Valley Student Film Festival

Welcome to the bi-monthly Digital Storytelling Carnival. Lots of new posts to check out if you haven’t already. Thanks for stopping by.

Classroom Ideas

Caught On Video, Bob Sparnkle suggests several ideas for integrating video production in the curriculum.

Wildlife documentary filmmaking by Scott Floyd.

Split screen inspired by Radiohead by Dan Meyer.

Let Them Remix Videos by @Edu.

Clay Animation

Sir Kevin Hodgson presents several articles on clay animation in the classroom. If you haven’t subscribed to his blog, you may want to:

Behind the Scenes of Stop-Motion
Lego Animation experiments
Creating with Clay
Clay animation in the classroom
PIvot Animation

Practice

Gail Desler explains the importance of storyboarding in digital storytelling.

Tools

The Best Ways for Students to Create Online Videos Using Someone Else’s Content by Larry Ferlazzo and the Best Ways for Students to Create Online Animations.

Converting VoiceThread to video by Kevin Hodgson

Making Youtube Videos a Little Clearer from TeachEng.us

Web-based animation by Wes Fryer.

Digital Storytelling, online moviemaking site.

FlipVideo

Experiments with the Flip by the TechChicks.

An alternative to the flip by Susan Sedro.

Theory

Digital Storytelling as a Disruptive Change Agent by Wesley Fryer.

The Art of Digital Storytelling from TechLearning.

The Power of Digital Storytelling by Alix E Peshette.

100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner by College@Home.

On EduPunkism by Educatorblog.

Reflection

Bonnie Kaplan reflects on her participation in digital storytelling workshop.

Examples

The Piano, teaching film narrative from Clif’s Notes.

Three Cheers for Tacky by Nicole Green, a first grade readers theater production.

Terry Shay’s first animations.

Steve Kimmi’s Storm Stories Voicethread.

NEA Video Project: I Am An Educator

World Domination from the Horizon Project.

Literacy Institute Digital Storytelling by Angelea Maiers using Animoto.

Roll it Gal animation by JakeT.

News

Education Week reports on states’ funding or lack thereof of technology in the classroom.

Contests

AFI’s Hometown Claim to Fame contest.

Opportunities

Apple’s summer camp is free and available to students.

Apple’s downloadable Moviemaking Curriculum.

The April edition of the digital storytelling carnival has arrived. Thanks for visiting and contributing articles. The next edition arrives in June.

Submit to the next carnival.

Latest News

The American Film Institute rolls out its Screen Nation site which allows students to upload their own videos.

Film Techniques

3 Styles of Acting

Apple Computer presents Baz Lurhman’s podcasts on all aspects of film production.

Digital Cameras in the Classroom by Craig Nansen

Movie Maker

Mark Wagner’s MovieMaker Wiki

iMovie ’08

Flickschool presents this movie on how to create a documentary using iMovie ’08.

Ken Pendergrass explains how to use your Flip Video Camera with iMovie ’08.

Collaboration

Larry Ferlazzo talks about a VoiceThread collaboration, the ESL/EFL Sister Classess Project between seven countries.

Copyright

Soundzabound which offers royalty free music that I’ve used in a couple of projects, offers this podcast on copyright and digital music.

Carol Simpson’s copyright page with downloadable guides.

Theory

Paul Allison asks whether digital storytelling has changed writing?

Gaping Void presents, “How to Be Creative”

Wes Fryer explains the power of digital storytelling

Movie Making Examples

Ann Mirtschin presents some examples of digital storytelling from her students in Austrailia, including a seven year old’s impressive animated depiction of dogfights.

Springfield Public School’s page of moviemaking examples across the curriculum (there are many here though some of them are dead links).

My latest project, and a chance to learn Apple’s Motion, Mr. Winkle Wakes.

Viral Video Corner

Nicolas Pernisco of Understand Media tells us Why Viral Videos Become Popular.

The Awareness Test, a simple yet clever short film that’s gone viral.

Viral videos for use in professional development.

Links

Frank offers the perfect moment to jump into digital storytelling as well as tons more links on digital storytelling.

Also See Previous Digital Storytelling Carnivals

I’m excited to premiere a brand new short film here on my blog. It’s three minutes long and I created it in the hopes that it can be used to generate conversation about the use of educational technology and project based learning in schools.

It is based on a dark joke that has been around educational circles for some time, imagining Rip Van Winkle waking up one hundred years later and visiting a school of today to find not much has changed. I’ve heard the story repeated but wanted a visual representation to show to others.
I created the movie to use in professional development that I conduct and welcome you to do the same to encourage dialogue about the need for the modernization of schools, inclusion of technology, project based learning, and culturally relevant teaching. Education has not changed with the times as it should.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/lm1sCsl2MQY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

If you cannot see the movie above, youtube may be blocked by your school district. The movie is also on Teachertube and you can view it there as well.

On a personal and technical note, the movie was also an excuse for me to learn Apple’s Motion software and I thank Anthony and Miles who assisted me as part of my Apple One to One membership. I ended up completing 90% of the project in Final Cut with the remaining 10% in Motion and Photoshop. The longest part of the process was searching for and compiling images.

My youtube channel now includes links to other great professional development movies I use when I conduct trainings.  Take a look at my favorites. Enjoy!

At the CUE Conference I presented two sessions, my favorite was “Digital CPR: Bringing Your Reading Series to Life with Digital Video Podcasting.”

I opened the session with “Camouflage Jones, Private Investigator” which is one of my more successful classroom movies in terms of balancing curricular demands and cinematic concerns. I must say it was the best audience the movie ever had as they laughed in all the right places.

I then gave nine ideas for video podcast projects which you can find on the hand out.

Rather than just giving a list, I provided examples of each kind of project and interspersed the ideas with information on how to plan projects given the restraints of a standardized curriculum, namely time management, classroom management, and effective planning. You can see a PDF version of my Keynote Presentation here though the movie examples can only be seen at http://www.videointheclassroom.com

I placed barriers to using the technology early in the presentation to address what I believed teachers concerns were before they came up. I like telling people that I’ve worked in a one computer classroom to show that technology can be still be integrated even with limited resources and equipment.

Audience response was good. I know a few participants wanted more technical information on how to create a podcast and I think I will include that next time. However, I believe that is the easy part and can be found through a simple Google search. My goal of the workshop was to show how the video production could directly be applied to the classroom instruction already going on rather than simply be another tool that we’d use if only we had time.

I’m thankful that a few people blogged about the session. (Incidentally, being blogged about is a new experience for me. As a literacy coach, you never have your session on vocabulary development written about and reflected on). I think their posts about the session are more meaningful than anything I can say about it.

Please see these posts:

• Alice Mercer (who posted about every session she visited and single handedly doubled my conference experience)
• Jose Rodriguez (who live-blogged the session, kinda cool)
  
• Gail Desler very succinctly got at the essence of the presentation as well as others she visited
• Messier (who I don’t know, but I like)

It’s that time of the month again for a round-up of the latest articles, examples, and theory behind digital storytelling and video production in the classroom brought to you by Video in the Classroom.com

Thank you to everyone who contributed articles. And thank you for visiting.

It’s not too early to submit an article to next month’s carnival. Enjoy!

Assessment

Jess Laccetti addresses the issues of grading and assessment digital storytelling in a search for digital storytelling rubrics.

Examples from Classrooms

John Woody shares some of the work of his college students from the around the world. These are quite polished and award-winning. They are all created using Apple software that is affordable to public schools.

Tons of digital storytelling examples by content area from the Digital Directors Guild.

Star Wars Episode XXIV from Video in the Classroom.com

VoiceThread wiki with examples from elementary classrooms.

Ejourneys with 6th Grade TechnoKids.

Making Connections for Kids from the MST Portal shares a fourth grade project for students to reflect on winter shipping on the St. Lawrence River.

The Quick Chill by Kekoa expores the atmosphere of a nearby dam, accelerating a 7 minute walk to 7 seconds.

How To

Kevin Hodgson shares this YouTube film on How to Stop Motion Animate. For a professional example, see Peter and the Wolf in clay.

Queen Elizabeth Public Schools shares a Marco Torres video on how to storyboard scenes from a screenplay.

Marco Torres shares how to use iMovie ’08.

Professional Photography

Sometimes digital storytelling is synonymous with sloppy film making. Let’s avoid that.

Here’s some inspiration in the professional photography of Chris Jordan and Vincent LaForet.

For more about composition, see this page on the Rule of Thirds.

Educational Theory

Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling by Bernard Robin from the University of Houston.

Langwitches posts this study on Digital Storytelling as a Literacy Tool.

Anne Davis shares how to use iMovie/MovieMaker as a visual timeline tool.

Copyrights and Royalty Free

The Springfield Township Virtual Library provides these resources for copyright and fair use guidelines.

Kate Olson posts these royalty-free music resources.

Presentations on Digital Storytelling

Video in the Classroom interview with yours truly on the EdTech Talk show It’s Elementary hosted by Alice Mercer, Jose Rodriguez, and Lisa Durff.

Digital Storytelling by David Jakes at Cue Conference 2008 live-blogged by Jose Rodriguez.

Notes from Presentation on Digital Storytelling and Another Two SITE Sessions: Digital Storytelling in Using Technology to Tell Stories.

Ted Lai posts his powerpoint from his CUE 08 presentation on everything you ever wanted to know about podcasting (but were afraid to ask).

Contests

Film Your Issue contest by way of Dangerously Irrelevant.

Reflections

Thinking About Ed Tech reflects on learning MovieMaker and other Microsoft Movie Making tools.

Jeff Utecht learns iMovie by posting A Day in the Life.

Links

JakesOnline, David Jakes’s digital storytelling links.

Jason Ohler’s Digital Storytelling Cookbook, most of which is available free online.

More links about digital storytelling by Chris Smith.

Submit an article to next month’s carnival here.

Related Posts:

• Digital Storytelling Carnival #1
• Digital Storytelling Carnival #2