These chapters were great -- exactly what I was hoping it would be. First, I love the Ohler began by soothing the worried teacher and assuring that teachers don't have to be digital whizzes to do a DST project with their students. I feel fairly confident with making (ameteur) videos since we've been in this class, but I know tons of teachers at my school who would be terrified to give their students such a task. I like that the author wants teachers to know that it's OK for this to be a learning process for the teacher as well. He also mentions that our students will be more knowledable than we expect, and I hope that's true.
I love the idea of giving students a schedule of the media production process, and allowing students to use it as a self-assessment guide through the video-making process. This puts more responsibility in the hands of the student, and requires them to check in less with the teacher. They won't attempt to check in with the teacher until they first believe that they have met the requirements of the teacher.
I thought that Chapter 11 did a good job of laying out all of the basics of the process and what the teacher will encounter during the production process. My favorite part about this process is the possibility it creates for students to edit their work. Before students begin with the media production process, they must first record their writing and perfect it. Students must record, then edit and re-record. This forces students to constantly improve their writing before they begin making the video. Love it.
In the next chapter, I liked the emphasis on creating a media list. Students should have their media decided upon before they begin to compile it and begin creating their video. This means that students will not be thinking of ideas for their video when they're on the computers, but rather assembling the ideas that they already fully developed. I thought Ohler was very clear about the process of assembly and post-production -- the order in which things need to be done and which parts take priority. The best part of Chapter 12 was the list of media elements. It provided so many great ideas for how students can get sound, images, video, and animations!
I was also seriously happy that Ohler took this direction in the book. While a lot longer than last week's reading, these chapters definitely got me more interested. I feel like I am learning something I can use again.
ReplyDeleteI too thought the idea of writing, and recording, and listening and editing, and then re-recording woudld assist students. I think Natty said as much from a project she did with iPods (I think) and her 6th grade students from last semester.
ReplyDeleteHi April,
ReplyDeleteI too, thought this was a very helpful couple of chapters. "I love the Ohler began by soothing the worried teacher and assuring that teachers don't have to be digital whizzes to do a DST project with their students." That was nice especially this week as we began working on our stories. I also found the information about focusing on the story before ever beginning to search for media helpful! It is easy for me to get distracted and want to begin searching for things before I am ready so I can only imagine how distracted one of my students would be too.
Teachers don't have to be whizzes...keep the students far far away from the technology until they do the planning or, by nature,they will jump right into production.
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