In The Classroom (and the School)

Although the title of this section is "In the Classroom," the wonderful thing about video production is that it gets your students out of the classroom, and into the world! It also utilizes a lot of student interests and abilities at once - that class clown who never did any work for you may catch fire and participate if it gets him on camera!

However, just as PowerPoint can be abused horribly ("OK, class, your project this week will be to go to the computer lab and do a PowerPoint on the rain cycle. Any questions? No? Good!"), so can video projects. Care is required!

1) Give the assignment structure! Storyboarding is a wonderful way to organize projects. All of the below websites are examples of storyboarding - the process of pre-planning video shooting and editing using sketches or text. Kids don't like to pre-plan, and the results is often lots of wasted time and disorganized video projects. These links can help! 

• http://www.chumpchange.com/parkplace/Video/Storyboard.htm (text-only story board examples [good and bad] posted by consultant Laura Ricci)
• http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/TechHelp/Storyboarding.html - (from the San Mateo County, California-based Problem-Based Learning with Multimedia site)
• http://www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/bhs/bryan/bryan_story2.html (An example from a real video production supplied by Sarasota County Schools)

3)  Allow a lot of time for the project, but force a deadline. Video takes time, but not as much as our young producers would want! Limit video shoots, and make sure they've organized what they are shooting before they start.

4) Don't assume that a video must be an end in itself - video clips do well on web page projects and other presentations! It is quick and easy to capture and shoot to file video clips if a lot of editing isn't involved.

Giggle Poetry (December TIPS)

Petroleum Products (January TIPS)

Animations (February TIPS)

PD on Windows2000

Stop-action animation (February TIPS)

Video PowerPoint (March TIPS)