I thoroughly enjoyed every step of the video making process. This project touched on two of the most engaging elements of my personality, collaboration and creativity. The project mimicked one of the best experiences of my life, which was making an album with five other musicians in a professional-level studio.
I found that Mandy, Joe and I worked well with one another; bouncing various ideas off of each other at every step of the process and choosing the one that best suited our needs. We also exhibited, on several occasions, an ability to adapt quickly and modify our original plan to suit new situations.
I would say that we genuinely had a lot of fun working on this project over the entire course of the process. Because of the high level of fun we had as a group, this did not seem like work that we had to complete. Rather than a project, this felt like an activity.
Also, because we were able to choose our topic, we felt as though we had ownership over our work. I can say that I now feel that the results of this project are an accomplishment for myself and something of which I can be proud.
Ultimately, I feel as though I’ve not only learned a skill that I can apply professionally, but one that I can also apply personally as well. I plan to take on several video projects in the next few months not only for myself, but also for my band all the while honing my professional skills.
I feel that the question of whether video has a place in the classroom is rather moot since video has been proven to have educational value over the past several decades. The real question should be what is the value of video in the classroom produced by the teacher and/or the students?
As a tool for teaching students, teachers have a world of possibilities available to them thanks to video. Things that a teacher cannot do in real life standing in front of a class can be done in a video, thus possibly conveying a difficult concept in a new and more understandable way.
For students, a video project can be an extremely engaging way, much as it was for me, to provide them with ownership over a project and the make use of the Web 2.0, possibly. Students can create a video to accompany certain projects and then those videos can be shown to the class. The teacher could even adjust the class to be like an actual movie premier.
I think video could be applied for any language arts lesson in which students are all taking part in the same reading. Various scenes could be acted out to aid in student comprehension of the text, which would then be reinforced by subsequent screenings of the video. The most obvious challenge to such a project would be access to the necessary equipment to produce such a video. Second to this would be the students’ background knowledge of how to operate such equipment. This project could quickly turn into a project on creating a video and lose sight of the original essential question.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Week 6
In learning how copyright applies to the classroom environment, I was surprised to learn that copyright applies to the classroom environment. Prior to this lesson, my, obviously inaccurate, understand of the situation was that educational purposes were exempted from copyright issues. However, while I was wrong to assume this, I was also correct in some applications. There is leniency in copyright in the educational setting, such as the amount of the material used, the frequency with which it is used and how it ties into the curriculum.
Despite the ever-present danger of copyright infringement, I’ve found that many schools and teachers are completely unaware of the issue. Fortunately, the demands of the modern educational system, coupled with a general lack of technological savvy amongst teachers, keeps many educators from making mistakes. This lack of misstep seems less tied an understanding of copyright and more to an inability to make use of things that might invite infringement.
However, the same cannot be said of the public at large. American society does not seem focused on concept of intellectual property. Ideas, thoughts, concepts and art all seem to exist within a cloud of public domain. The best example would be music. Rather than being seen as a commodity produced by oftentimes several people who would not survive without financial remuneration, songs, by virtue of the mp3, are often seen as apples hanging from a tree of public domain; ripe for the taking. That they exist for people to propagate through folksy means without commerical concern.
I absolutely feel that it is the job of teachers to educate their students about copyright since it is a teacher’s responsibility to foste responsible citizens. In a classroom environment, I would treat copyright in much the same way that I would classroom management. At the beginning of the school year, the groundwork would be laid through informing the students as to what copyright is and how it will affect their classwork. Then, throughout the year copyright issues would be applied to students’ work in order to get them thinking about it on a day-to-day basis. It must be an omnipresent aspect of their ongoing education. The NETS-S standards that would apply here include all under 5. Digital Citizenship, including “a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology; b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity; c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning; and d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.”
With regard to Chapter 7 in Educause, I would say that the survey results were in line with what I would have expected. Communication, such as email, instant messaging and cell phones; gaming; social networking and downloading are things that have appeal outside of the classroom environment. As such, I would expect them to be the biggest uses among younger students. However, once students move further and further through their educational experience, it only makes sense that they would become more familiar with other applications. Additionally, it’s my informal experience that technology still has a long way to go in the educational setting. Because of this, I’m not surprised that some students make use of technology more than others.
If I had been a party to writing this survey, I would like to explore how students brought the use of technology to bear on their education of their own volition, without regard to whether technology had been integrated into their classrooms. What is their sense of innovation in how technology can help them achieve their own success?
Despite the ever-present danger of copyright infringement, I’ve found that many schools and teachers are completely unaware of the issue. Fortunately, the demands of the modern educational system, coupled with a general lack of technological savvy amongst teachers, keeps many educators from making mistakes. This lack of misstep seems less tied an understanding of copyright and more to an inability to make use of things that might invite infringement.
However, the same cannot be said of the public at large. American society does not seem focused on concept of intellectual property. Ideas, thoughts, concepts and art all seem to exist within a cloud of public domain. The best example would be music. Rather than being seen as a commodity produced by oftentimes several people who would not survive without financial remuneration, songs, by virtue of the mp3, are often seen as apples hanging from a tree of public domain; ripe for the taking. That they exist for people to propagate through folksy means without commerical concern.
I absolutely feel that it is the job of teachers to educate their students about copyright since it is a teacher’s responsibility to foste responsible citizens. In a classroom environment, I would treat copyright in much the same way that I would classroom management. At the beginning of the school year, the groundwork would be laid through informing the students as to what copyright is and how it will affect their classwork. Then, throughout the year copyright issues would be applied to students’ work in order to get them thinking about it on a day-to-day basis. It must be an omnipresent aspect of their ongoing education. The NETS-S standards that would apply here include all under 5. Digital Citizenship, including “a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology; b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity; c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning; and d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.”
With regard to Chapter 7 in Educause, I would say that the survey results were in line with what I would have expected. Communication, such as email, instant messaging and cell phones; gaming; social networking and downloading are things that have appeal outside of the classroom environment. As such, I would expect them to be the biggest uses among younger students. However, once students move further and further through their educational experience, it only makes sense that they would become more familiar with other applications. Additionally, it’s my informal experience that technology still has a long way to go in the educational setting. Because of this, I’m not surprised that some students make use of technology more than others.
If I had been a party to writing this survey, I would like to explore how students brought the use of technology to bear on their education of their own volition, without regard to whether technology had been integrated into their classrooms. What is their sense of innovation in how technology can help them achieve their own success?
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Week 5
For a person who may have never seen a computer before, the basic operation of PCs and Macs would probably be difficult to distinguish. After all, both consist of, generally, the same hardware, excluding the tower vs. CPU-in-the-monitor feature, and operate in the same basic manner with a series of on-screen windows, icons and menus allowing access to various storage spaces and software.
However, this is where the similarities end. From an angle of aesthetics and feel, Macs are sleek, fast, refined and cool while PCs tend to be slow and clunky. PCs also require a greater understanding to operate since many functions are still performed in a very "computer-speak" way. Conversely, Macs are extremely user-friendly for individuals with a limited knowledge of computers. In other terms, PCs require prior knowledge to successfully operate while Macs tend toward a common-sense style of operation.
I personally prefer Macs, however, in my 16 years as a commonly accepted computer user, I have used a PC for all of about three or four years. And those years were fairly recent. So, to be fair, I am probably biased in my opinion.
Having said that, I find that Macs tend to facilitate my creative flow rather than impede it, as I have found with PCs. This may be due to the wider range of factory installed software, such as GarageBand, found on Macs or it may be due to the speed with which the common-sense operation of a Mac allows me to realize my thoughts. The truth probably lies in a combination of these factors.
So, for me, the advantage lies with Macs because, as a creative person working in a variety of different mediums, Macs allow me to process my thoughts and ideas into a tangible form with such speed and efficiency that my stream-of-consciousness pattern is hardly ever broken. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for PCs.
To note, however, I would appreciate a world in which various format types were compatible between both platforms.
However, this is where the similarities end. From an angle of aesthetics and feel, Macs are sleek, fast, refined and cool while PCs tend to be slow and clunky. PCs also require a greater understanding to operate since many functions are still performed in a very "computer-speak" way. Conversely, Macs are extremely user-friendly for individuals with a limited knowledge of computers. In other terms, PCs require prior knowledge to successfully operate while Macs tend toward a common-sense style of operation.
I personally prefer Macs, however, in my 16 years as a commonly accepted computer user, I have used a PC for all of about three or four years. And those years were fairly recent. So, to be fair, I am probably biased in my opinion.
Having said that, I find that Macs tend to facilitate my creative flow rather than impede it, as I have found with PCs. This may be due to the wider range of factory installed software, such as GarageBand, found on Macs or it may be due to the speed with which the common-sense operation of a Mac allows me to realize my thoughts. The truth probably lies in a combination of these factors.
So, for me, the advantage lies with Macs because, as a creative person working in a variety of different mediums, Macs allow me to process my thoughts and ideas into a tangible form with such speed and efficiency that my stream-of-consciousness pattern is hardly ever broken. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for PCs.
To note, however, I would appreciate a world in which various format types were compatible between both platforms.
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