Video Resubmission Blog #3

I have made quite a few introduction videos in my time as a college student and teacher. Almost all of them are made with the same type of quality and aspects. Below is an example of one that was made only a couple of months ago for a college course. 

The task I was most recently given was to re-evaluate my video and make changes or make a new video. I did some reading and a little research in preparation of being able to improve upon my original. As I was watching this original video, I began to realize just how much better it could have been. As you can see, there are no transitions and a boring background scene and no sounds. Hicks says that things to consider when editing should include: narration, panning and zooming, repetition, time effects, film effects, transitions, sound effects and music, captions and text. (2013) Below you can compare my newest version of my introduction. 

 

As you can see, I added a fade in and out to make the beginning and end look smoother. I also included a soft background music to drowned out the ambient sounds and keep it from being awkwardly silent. This video could still have improvements. There is a quote from Spike Lee in the book, Crafting Digital Writing. It goes like this, "I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten." (Hicks, 2013) To me, that means that every time we watch films we can notice something that may be missing. I am not sure if that is what he meant or not, but that's I interpreted it that way. 

You could have students make these types of videos at the beginning of the school year and then have them re-evaluate and edit later on. This would be a great way to teach them about video elements and what is important. You could have them use storyboards to write out what they wanted the video concepts and order it should be. This would be a way to incorporate technology into language arts. 

In the article, Making Videos as a Way of Learning, Bolisani talks about moving away from teaching as a lecturer or teacher focused classrooms. He says, "Students are required to demonstrate academic knowledge and abilities, and to connect various sources (i.e.: course materials, personal readings, independent research, etc.) for addressing a practical problem by critically reflecting, evaluating, and presenting the results of their own analysis." (2019, p. 49). Basically, he is saying that students will learn better if they have to do all the research and find the information for making their video on their own. Teachers will be there as moderators or facilitators in a structured way.

We have to eventually move all learning to this approach to stay relevant to students today. It is a total transformation of our methods and how we deliver. This is something I strive to achieve in the near future. 

Bolisani, E. (2019). Making Videos as a way of Learning: A Project at the Engineering School of Padua University. Proceedings of the International Conference on Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management & Organizational Learning, 48–56. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.34190/IKM.19.071

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts. Heinemann Publishers.

Troy, H. (2013). Crafting digital writing: composing texts across media and genres. Heinemann. 

Infographics Blog #2

I cannot remember the first time I encountered an infographic. I'm sure it was even before the internet made them popular. We have been using infographics for years to share information. You can read about a history of infographics here. The idea of sharing information through pictures is definitely not new. We have been using images on posters, TV screens, and computers for years now. All this leads me to think that humans respond well to seeing visuals. We already know that some people are visual learners. Just think of the benefits of instruction with infographics to those students in your class. 

The web-based world we live in now has so many ways to make this an easy task to complete. We can now research, plan, and create infographics in very little time. We can put out surveys to colleagues or students to collect our own data. Teachers need to now begin teaching students how to compose their own infographics. The ways in which students could use infographics to be assessed in their learning is so great. 

In the article, Dealing with Data: Instructing with Infographics in an Undergraduate Sociology Course, Anderson et al. (2019) talk about the need for this type of instruction. It states:

Advancements in digital imaging and network technology have increased the ease in which we are able to create and disseminate information and visual displays of data, but instruction in analyzing and understanding these images hasn't kept pace. We see at least two challenges that arise with this increase in data display. First, as members of the 21st century, our students are increasingly exposed to infographics as a means of information delivery but may not have the quantitative reasoning and visual literacy skills necessary to accurately read and understand these images. Second, as they pursue their education and prepare for careers, our students would be well served to understand how to design and create infographics as effective communication tools. (p. 37)

This is what we have to strive for in our classrooms. It is our responsibility to prepare them for the world of today and not the world of past generations. Even 20 years ago, students did not have the need to learn skills in this type of technology. The infographic I created below is a basic example with guidelines to making your own infographic. 

 

If you would like to learn more about creating your own infographic, check out the short introduction video below to Piktochart. I used the website to create my infographic.

The world needs infographics to deliver quick and easy instruction or information to people. The article, Visualizing the terror threat: The impact of communicating security information to the general public using infographics and motion graphics discusses a study of how design principles and visualization impacts the communication of terrorism information. (2019) Being able to use color coded visual displays helps break down the barriers of language around the world.

Infographics have impacted our lives in so many ways. We will continue to use visuals to help understand new materials and information. We have just discovered more ways to do that using technology for educational purposes. I will be making infographics for a lot more things in my classroom from now on. 

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts. Heinemann Publishers.

Anderson, E. K., Bishop, R., & Cross, N. (2019). Dealing with Data: Instructing with Infographics in an Undergraduate Sociology Course. College Teaching, 67(1), 36–49. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.1080/87567555.2018.1518890

dos Santos Lonsdale, M., Lonsdale, D. J., Baxter, M., Graham, R., Kanafani, A., Li, A., & Chunxinzi Peng. (2019). Visualizing the terror threat: The impact of communicating security information to the general public using infographics and motion graphics. Visible Language, 53(2), 37–71.