Friday, July 4, 2008

Who Can Make a Video in 10 Minutes? Us!

Who Can Make a Video in 10 Minutes? You!
Rushton Hurley, Nextvista for Learning
You and your students can use free software to do powerful projects with video—learn how, and receive resources and project ideas. Using Windows Movie Maker on PC or iMovie on Mac.
Who is Rushton Hurley? He introduced himself as Rushton Hurley…teacher…trainer…non-profit guy, however he is so much more.
This idea of helping students become more engaged in and confident with their learning is one that drives his passion and resources to make his project succeed.
NextVista

Oh my goodness, I was truly in my element when I walked into this room. Mr. Hurley opened his session with such a dramatic flair and of course hooked all of us. He simply started out showing a video. Click on the link, after you watch the video, come back and read on. Trust me, you feel like you there in person.

His point : Video has power! I’ll say.
Video production pushes a student to go for excellence where in other projects it is like pulling teeth to just have the student turn an assignment in. He believes kids need to know each one of them have something to teach to others and this is a great way to establish that. The process of video production allows the exceptional student to shine. Rushton shared his personal experiences of his students who were ranking at the bottom of the class completely turned their peers’ opinions around about themselves through video production. They felt they had something to offer the class. Isn’t this interesting?

To begin to use this powerful tool all that you need is the following:
Windows Movie Maker
or iMovie
Computer w/ the free software
Still camera
Camcorder with firewire and an microphone input or a Flip camera
He suggested a great supplier-BHPhotovideo

Microphone
Planning is the key when using video as a teaching tool!
For example:
  • set 1 minute time limit
  • no violence or martial arts
  • start small (ex. Podcast/slideshows)
  • present the option of working alone or 1 or 2 others
  • even give alternatives- (they could create a poster)
    Always look for the free options for video production like Photostory for PC
  • Garage Band-Mac
    He told us to encourage the students to use their own creation of music using Audacity used on a PC or Garage Band used on a Mac if not using a copyright friendly site.
    Copyright friendly sites:
  • Partnersinrhyme
    Why should an educator use this powerful tool?
    1. It is another way for a student to say, “I belong in this class too”.
    2. To build confidence.
    3. Improve quality of student work
    4. Great for LD students
    5. Impact it has on their lives as an accomplishment
    6. They produce for an audience
    Remember when a kid produces a video he is saying “this is my world”.
    He was most impressive when he started the timer and he literally completed a project in 10 minutes right before our eyes and you can too.
    I hope that you will consider using this amazing way to engage student learning.

3 comments:

dayle timmons said...

I would LOVE to do more of this!

KK Cherney said...

dayle, this is something that we all can do. The moviemaker is on all of our computers and iMovie and Garage Band is on all of the Macs. All we have to do is to download free Audacity and Photostory. If our team did nothing with it except an open house video or an end of the year video, it would engage the kids.
Video has power.

Melissa Ross said...

Have I mentioned how much I love mac? :)