Moodle

I have been using Moodle for about four years now, but I still feel like I have not taken advantage of all the features. I also have not been active in promoting the Moodle system to other teachers in my department and at my school. Since all teachers have access to the Moodle I think they should know what can be accomplished with a little maintenance. Even if they decide to not use Moodle, there are plenty of other Course Management Systems that can be implemented into the classroom. While I would like to get other teachers in my school involved, I would really like to get other video teachers in my district involved so we can help each other build a curriculum online with resources attached. This presentation is geared toward the other video teachers in my district, but it could be modified to be presented to teachers from all different subjects in my high school.

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=dfh9q3g_63hskh2kdc

Differentiation Station Reflection

The Differentiation Station my group created is a great resource for me to use while planning my technology-enriched lessons. While some of the resources would be difficult to use in my classes, many of them that are designed for other purposes can be adapted for use in my video and film courses. Some of the websites are a little overwhelming, like the Learner's Link site, but a little exploring reveals valuable resources that can help me to differentiate my instruction. I liked the RTEC Exchange site, because it had a variety of resources and also gave some good links for free educational videos that I can use as examples. I was a little discouraged that some sites require some type of payment, but I cannot blame people for wanting to make money for their extra efforts. If I create a really cool resource one day that is used by teachers all over the world, I would probably try to find a way to make money off it as well.

The best tool I have for keeping track of resources is my Moodle. I can link to surveys and also give tests online. I think this will help my students a lot because many of their standardized tests in the future will be on computers, so I can help them practice. This year I plan to use more features of my Moodle, especially the discussion forum, and see which features students enjoy using the most. My Moodle is a great place to share resources specific to what I am teaching, because I can post them within a topic with the presentations I post.

Reflection

The GAME plan I have developed throughout this course gives me a great basis for many lessons as I start a new school year in my video and film classroom. Concentrating on improving the creativity of my students is something I should have done more of in previous years, but now I have a better plan of attack. Previously I assumed that creativity was either something kids had or they did not, but there are plenty of things I can do to help spark creativity and create an atmosphere that fosters creative thinking.

Suggesting ideas and asking questions are good methods to help my students become more creative, but I also am going to use our discussion boards much more to help students give input and feedback to each other about their video projects and ideas. These discussion boards will also allow me to give suggestions that the students can refer back to later and extend my classroom outside the walls of the building and the hours of the school day. The more students interact with one another online and the more their videos are shared digitally the more ownership they will take in their projects.

I am also going to start teaching more about respecting the rights of copyright holders. I know movie piracy and illegal downloading are big problems, and since my class focuses on creating media I should also include more about the rights of the creators and the laws my students need to know. I also need to do a better job modeling appropriate use of media and proper credits in my productions so that students understand they can make quality productions while abiding by the rules.

By focusing on the NETS standards for students and teachers I can teach my students not only about video and film, but also about skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in a 21^st century workplace.

NETS-S in My Classroom

This week I looked at the NETS-S standards for students. The NETS-S standards do align nicely with the NETS-T standards, and I think they also align really well with the curriculum in my video and film classes. My GAME plan strategies for developing the first NETS-S, my students’ creativity and innovation, will probably make a big difference in my class next year. By seeing the NETS-S standards my students will hopefully make them think more about the importance of creativity. Teaching and developing creativity will be an ongoing process and will differ from class to class and group to group. If I have a group with outstanding, creative videos I will still spend time with them developing their creative skills, but I will not have to spend as much time on creative strategies as I will with an uninventive, uninspired group.

NETS-S numbers 2-4 are integral parts of my class required to complete a quality group video project, so my students will definitely have some practice in these areas. NETS-S number 5 is another focus of my GAME plan, and I plan to have my students not only demonstrate digital citizenship in their projects, but I will also have them do a separate project on the subject during the second semester. I am not sure how my students will practice leadership in the digital citizenship aspect outside of the classroom, but I would like to figure something out.

NETS-S number 6 is always covered in my classes out of necessity, but I need to walk through solving technology problems slowly with my students so they understand my thought process rather than just quickly solving their problems for them. I also need to give examples of similarities between different software programs and post common keyboard shortcuts on my wall somewhere.

GAME Plan Revisions

So far I have learned a lot about copyright law and digital citizenship that I can take into my classroom. I have a new presentation about respecting the rights of copyright holders and gives examples of appropriate and illegal behavior. I am also going to make a new category in my video grading rubric that addresses respecting copyrights, abiding to the fair use guidelines for education, and giving credit to media from other sources.

I still need to find some more copyright-free music, pictures, and sound effects for my students to use in their productions. I have also considered purchasing a library of stock HD video footage, but I think it might be overused.

I also have set a goal of learning how to better teach my students to be creative in their videos. I have spoken with other video and film teachers in my district and we did decide to add a development stage prior to our pre-production stage of video production. Now students will have to brainstorm and decide on a basic idea just as they normally do, but the teacher will have to approve their concept and make suggestions before they begin to write their script instead of after the script is already written. I will also help boost their creativity by contributing more in the scriptwriting process instead of letting them write their scripts totally on their own.

GAME Plan Progress

One of the best resources I have found to help me become a better model of digital citizenship and responsibility is a book about the public domain and copyright law from our school library. The book had many tips and links to websites that could help me find resources and media to help my video and film classes abide by the law when making their videos. While I usually let my students use whatever music and photos they can bring in I should be directing them to some of the sites that contain public domain works or creative commons works.

Public domain works are not covered by copyright law for one of many reasons, and my students can use them in their videos without any restrictions. There are many songs, videos, and photos that fall into this category, it is just a matter of finding the material and verifying that it falls under the public domain. There are sites with photographs that fall under the public domain, like PDPhoto and Uncle Sam’s Photos that I can show to my students next school year.

I have also found some sites with works that fall under the Creative Commons that can be used for free as long as the original author is credited. I found out that Blip.tv has a search that will find video that falls under this license and Google allows filtering of image searches for creative commons media. I also have used a site for music called Imcompetech and I found another one named Jamendo that has songs that can be used in our videos.

I have learned a lot about copyright law, but I need to find some other good sources for free content that my students can use. I especially want to find some good video and music that we can use for projects, but I expect I will have to pay for a library of material to get really high quality works.

Progress Toward GAME Plan

Right now I am having trouble making progress on my GAME plan for my video and film classes because of end of the year responsibilities, but I look forward to developing my GAME plan this summer before the next school year begins. There are plenty of resources to help students think and write creatively, but I have to sift through them to see which are most helpful. One I really like is http://www.makemovies.co.uk/stories/p1contents.htm. This site breaks down storytelling in a manner that anyone can understand, and it can help to remind my students of what they learned about writing a good script from their language arts classes.

I also need to help my students pick up creative shots and B-roll. Often students just shoot video from eye-level from 8 feet away zoomed all the way out. I want my students to get a variety of shots to make their news stories in particular more visually appealing. My students also forget to pick up shots that help tell a story visually to put on the screen while dialogue is spoken. I think the best way to make sure they pick up creative shots and B-roll is to take a newsmagazine program like 60 Minutes and break down some of the camera angles and B-roll and show some scenes from a few movies and emphasize the variety and creativity shots.

Resources Needed for My GAME Plan

To carry out my action plan I will need to look at student projects early and often to help with creativity. Once a group films a concept it is too late, so I need to make sure students have a good plan before I give them a camera. I will also need websites and possibly help from Language Arts teachers to help the students learn strategies for thinking creatively and how to write creative stories.

For the digital citizenship plan I need to learn more about copyright law and study recent cases to see the reality of the situation. Reading news stories is a good start, but I might want to talk with lawyers I know to get a better idea of what is acceptable and what is not. I need to also do a better job explaining copyright law to my students, because many do not think there is anything wrong with piracy when the companies and talent make so much money anyway. Many do not understand the problem with including copyright works in their projects, and I need to look for some more resources to help me explain the effects of piracy and copyright infringement.

NETS-T Standards

As a high school video and film teacher the NETS for Teachers are especially applicable to my classroom. One thing I think is interesting about the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers is that there are so few standards. Most of the standards are broad in scope, but it seems like collecting feedback from so many different teachers would result in a long list of standards instead of just five.

The NETS standards I am not as comfortable with and I need work on are numbers one and four.

Standard one states that teachers should "facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity." I think I do a good job teaching the content in my classroom, but I need to do a better job of inspiring creativity in students. I have always been a creative person, but I do not think I have modeled this enough in my classroom. I am always disappointed by the lack of creativity by most of my students, but I have not done enough to model creativity and push them to be more creative. I am not sure how much one can teach how to be creative, but I can do a better job of pushing my students to think outside the box when creating their projects.

One example is when my classes make their instructional videos. Usually I have three or four groups that just want to teach how to cook something. Those videos almost always end up boring the classes to death when we watch. It meets the technical requirements of the project, so it usually gets the group a decent grade after I hack off some points for lack of creativity and originality. Instead of letting groups slide through into production with a lame script I am going to start requiring groups to revamp their script until it meets a certain level of creativity. I will help the groups come up with more creative variations or options for their stories, but I do not want for all the stories to be my work instead of the students. To inspire creativity I will instead ask questions of the students to get them to come up with better ideas and scenarios.

Standard four encourages teachers to "model digital citizenship and responsibility." This is very difficult for me as a video teacher in one area in particular: music. Music is so important to video and can change the mood entirely of a short film. Opinions vary depending on who you ask, but many lawyers say that any unauthorized use of copyrighted music in a video production is copyright infringement. This is difficult for even big budget films to comply with because there are contracts that need to be signed by record labels or artists, negotiations for royalties, and sometimes screenings to make sure the song is being presented in an appropriate manner. I am not a lawyer and neither are my students, so we do not have the time and resources to ask for permission for a short student film that probably will not be seen by more than 150 people anyway. We also do not have the resources to hire composers to write original music.

What we can do is use royalty-free music that is available on the internet or through purchasing libraries, or we can use original music produced by our music classes at school. I have not done a good enough job of collecting copyright-free music or directing students to sites that operate under Creative Commons licensing because it is so easy for students to bring in an mp3 and put it on their soundtrack. I also have not made enough effort to create a collaboration with the music department so that they can add music to projects, but it never seems like I have the time to support such efforts. A collaborative effort with our music tech students would be much more indicative of what happens in the real world, and students would probably make better video projects to avoid disappointing these students and embarrassing themselves with a poor video.

Information Literacy

One striking revelation I had on teaching new literacy skills to my students during my last course was that students need to be taught how to search for accurate, timely information. I think I learned how to use the internet for research on my own because I am naturally a very curious person and I have a love of learning. I realized that the majority of my students use the internet at home for mostly social and entertainment purposes, so research skills need to be taught by teachers. I also realized that many of my students will believe anything they see on the internet, and I was amused by some of the websites highlighted in the course. The website I really liked was about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. I showed the site to many of my high school students and some of them believed the hoax.

Going forward I would like to use my gained knowledge to structure lessons early in the year so that students learn how to better use the resources available on the internet. This knowledge is valuable for my class, but it will also help the students in their core classes. As a teacher of an elective class it is always good to give the students a reason to take your course, and if the students know they will learn a variety of skills that will help them in their other classes it could help enrollment. I am also going to give more research projects in my class, because there is a lot of information relevant to the television and film industries on the internet that is not up to date in any of our textbooks.

Another change I am going to make is the use of Google Docs with my students. I believe that with the increasing levels of mobility in technology this type of model is going to be mainstream by the time our students get to the workforce. Storing documents on a computer is usually stable and convenient, but documents shared on a server can be accessed and edited from any computer with an internet connection and can be great for collaborative projects.

I would like to more fully develop my website to include more collaborative activities and I would like to spend some professional development time learning how to better share the videos created in my class. I would like to use my video class as a way to help market the many activities and accomplishments of our high school, and I need to find some good forums that are not blocked.