My first movie - a group effort

This video was created using a digital camera, which could not make the speech link with the visual of talking - so the voices are out of sinc !Movie maker is basic to use, could be more user friendly in the size of the editing pane. A great experience that I envisage to use in the classroom as it was easy as pie to implement -although using it in a classroom would have it's challenges.
Individual movies or group work? how long it might take to individually film, edit, and add transitions, text and music? How long would it take to learn to do?

Movie Maker has been one of my favourite digital tools to use on this journey through technological landscapes. I am investigating the pedagogical requirements to facilitate learning through this medium and hope to convince you of its worthiness and functionality in the classroom.
Movie maker was fun to use – and when learning is fun , knowledge is connected to that emotive perception and is more easily accessed. Karppinen , 2005, corresponds to this notion that through experimentation and playing , students are developing their own productive and constructive abilities
Rapidly changing technology has developed to such an advanced extent that new teaching and learning ways and opportunities are available in our homes and classrooms through a computer.
Digital videos can be used in classrooms in many informative and inspiring ways. Information can be presented to engage interest in a topic, represent different opinions and influences, to inspire creativity and to assess what students know and can do. Teaching students how to generate their own digital movie can foster engagement, art, creativity, literacy, and uncover unidentified intelligences and learning styles.
Using Movie Maker, (a program downloaded from the internet for free) some colleagues and myself made a short movie for an assignment. As I am a novice to most technology, I was surprised at the basic and straight forward directions, and the help button was always available.
Once pictures were uploaded they could be placed easily where you wanted them, text could be inserted in many styles and sounds could be placed in at any time. As with all learning, the student (myself) has previous experience with watching content in films which is something I unconsciously used when designing the layout and accompanying features. All students have seen a presentation in a digital form and will have this at least, as prior knowledge to draw on.
Movie maker is a learning tool and is used in conjunction with KLA outcomes such as Literacy, ICT’s, Mathematics, Science and Sose. Researchers suggest teachers incorporate “student centered video to develop and share stories in fourth and fifth grade, with benefits of supporting structure and development of confidence in writing (Banaszewski, 2002,cited in (Kearney & Shuck, 2006). Video production to develop and justify reasoning processes used within a science class have also been observed . (Thode, 2001,cited in Kearney & Shuck, 2006)
Students in lower year levels might find the sequencing of images , sound and text a bit overwhelming. Lessons in computer skills require scaffolding to align with developmentally appropriate learning abilities and be informed by curriculum documents and assessed using appropriate criteria.
Using digital video to present knowledge and understanding of a topic also implicitly fosters students understanding of the digital learning format, enabling an new method and tools to present an idea, topic or concept . Teachers need to be cognisant of the learning frameworks that underpin technological and digital literacies and construct these understandings through pedagogical practices. Kearney and Shuck (2006) articulate that “student centred digital video is now being used in classrooms to support, extend or change pedagogy or curriculum outcomes”.

Teachers may be challenged by the constructivists approach to digital learning and learners may find the alteration from content outcomes to higher order thinking skills (which endow lifelong learning skills), a huge change in skill and ability required. Hedberg (2006)


Reference:

Hedberg, J. (2006). Searching for Distruptive Pedagogies: Matching Pedagogies to The Technologies. [on-line]. Retrieved 10 July, 2010, From: Curriculum Leadership Website; http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/default.asp?id=18898

Karppinen, P. (2005). Meaningful learning with digital and online videos: Theoretical perspectives. AACE Journal, 13(3), 233-250.

Shuck, S. and Kearney, M. 2004. Student's in the Directors Seat: Teaching and Learning across the School Curriculum With Student Generated Videos. [on-line]. Retrieved 20, July, 2010. From, Central Queensland University, http://www.eddev.uts.edu.au/teachered/research/dvproject/pdfs/ReportWeb.pdf
To return to my synopsis