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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. 

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