The Media Spot

Collaborative, educational multimedia production poses many challenges. In a given learning environment, many factors must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, including the range of technical savvy among educators and youth, available technology resources, and the degree of technical support. This prevents a "magic bullet" prescription for media education through production, but it also provides opportunities for creative new media applications in virtually any situation!

Below are a few of our own basic production outlines adaptable to various learning environments, along with examples from our past experience. For each type of production, we also list relevant teaching opportunities in traditional curricula (literacy, social studies, etc.), technology skill-building, and media education.

Digital List Poetry

As part of a poetry unit, students create lines of poetry through free writing in response to a teacher-selected poem with a specific theme (e.g. “Nature”). On the class blog, the teacher posts the original poem (e.g. There was a Child Went Forth, by Walt Whitman) and the assignment directions. In response to the original blog post, each student's favorite five lines are added as five separate "comments", resulting in a "list poem" with infinite lines of poetry allowing for unpredictable connections to the selected theme. This project can be opened up as a "multimedia pen pal" activity as well.

As a follow-up exercise to demonstrate the editing process in media production, classes create multiple poems by selecting and resequencing favorite lines from their "list poem". These poems can be published to the blog as individual student posts, illustrated with embedded images, or turned into videos (see "video poetry") to be posted to the blog.

Media education lessons: emphasizes awareness of how the meaning of a line (or any element of a production) can change through its relationship to other lines when editing; discuss the results of collaborative production through social networking -- what was under an author's control, and what does one give up control of in this medium?

Curriculum support: literacy; poetry writing, emphasizing the importance of sequence and tone; diction practice

Technology integration: typing practice; Internet publishing; blogs/social networking

TMS production examples: PS 124 list poetry

video poetry

Youth adapt written poetry into a multimedia presentation using digital video and/or still images downloaded from the Internet, recorded voices, and computer-based video editing software. Youth producers blend the rhythm of their reading voice with their editing style. Video shots or still images must be concise, and will affect the meaning of each author's words. Youth video editors decide whether or not to include music, sound effects, transitions or other digital effects -- decisions with great impact on the tone of each production.

Media education lessons: emphasizes awareness of the decision-making role of the director and editor in representing the written word using images and sound -- each decision greatly affects the overall meaning of the words; approaching traditional literacy through video -- a "way of knowing" 21st century students are comfortable with

Curriculum support: literacy and composition; diction; demonstration of poetry comprehension through interpretation of tone, theme, and meaning through each video

Technology integration: digital video production; Internet searching and publishing

TMS production examples: PS 124 video poetry

Digital Journal Writing

Basic blog use: youth create online journal entries related to subjects in their traditional curriculum, or to a specific assignment created for the blog (see "TV Turnoff Blog" example). Other youth and educators respond to the entries online using "comments".

Media education lessons: demonstrates the "openness" of Internet publishing; demonstrates the interactivity of social networking; youth become aware of audiences outside of their learning environment

Curriculum support: literacy and composition; creates a history of youth writing that is easy to track and critique with "comments"

Technology integration: typing practice; Internet searching and publishing; blogs/social networking; web account and file management

TMS production examples: Heritage (CO) TV Turnoff Blog, PS 124 writer's notebooks, PS 124 math notebooks

MultiMedia blog posts

An amalgamation of many production types from this page: students link digital images to blog posts to compliment their writing. Students can search the Internet for "fair use" images, or digitize (scan or photograph) original artwork and add the images to their posts. Multimedia blog posts can be printed and presented as handouts or bulletin board presentations which serve to promote their corresponding blog.

Students or educators can also add audio or video files to their posts (see: "Video Illustrations"). Multiple such postings could even be delivered as "podcasts" or "videocasts".

Media education lessons: increased media literacy through analysis of how different media communicate and compliment each other; source validation for Internet research

Curriculum support: literacy and composition

Technology integration: typing practice; Internet searching and publishing; blogs/social networking; web account and file management

TMS production examples: 3rd grade cook book and video illustration, PS 124 African animal photos and captions

Multimedia Pen Pals & collaborative production

Students engage in blogging assignments in order to connect with other online schools to exchange journal writing, audio and video journals, and photos.

With coordination and funding, a wonderful culminating activity is to have the two groups come together to collaborate on an on-location video production (see example below).

Media education lessons: awareness of Internet authorship and social networking; encourage students to establish a voice in the media environment beyond the classroom, and by writing for an audience that is distinctly different from them; awareness of representation in media by analysis of students' own representations of themselves, and the expected audience interpretation

Curriculum support: literacy and composition

Technology integration: typing practice; Internet publishing; blogs/social networking; web account and file management

TMS production examples: Atlanta/Bronx collaborative on-location video, PS 124 (NY) 4th graders post video for Forehill Primary School in Scotland (UK)

The Remake (deconstruction/reconstruction)

Students remake a portion of a favorite film or video production using video cameras and video editing software. Students learn the craft of filmmaking by deconstructing the existing media into lines of narration, dialogue, music, number and type of shots (wide, mid, close-ups) and camera movements (zooms, pans, tilts), then recreating the necessary media and rebuilding the movie themselves making changes to the original if they decide to.

Media education lessons: media literacy through critical analysis of film or video, identifying and questioning the decisions a professional producer made; awareness of decision-making processes inherent to video/film production through participation in production generally, and specifically having to make changes to the original scene due to different locations, actors etc. -- it will always be a new, and original piece, even if it's a remake

Curriculum support: literacy practice through transcription and rewriting of dialogue and narration

Technology integration: digital video production

TMS production examples: GSS remakes a chase scene from Collateral (link coming soon)

Video Illustrations

Students create short videos (3-6 "shots") to illustrate written points made on their blogs. Students isolate a point in a written blog post and adapt it to video using storyboards, then produce the video in class. This is a great way to introduce adaptation of writing to a video script, the video production process, and publishing a video to the Internet in a few class periods.

Media education lessons: media literacy through side-by-side analysis of how written language and video communicate differently; supports critical analysis of media by encouraging students to produce their videos in a way that strengthen's points in their writing using the language of video; increases awareness of decision-making processes in video/film production

Curriculum support: literacy and composition

Technology integration: typing practice; digital video production; Internet publishing; blogs/social networking

TMS production examples: PS 124 Video Illustration to Persuasive Blog Post, PS 124 cook book and video illustration

Show and Tell ("How-To" Blog Posts and Videos)

An extention of a traditional "how-to" writing unit where students study a process and write a step-by-step narrative script. Students sketch storyboards to decide how to best represent each step visually, then shoot video demonstrations of each step and place them in sequence in a video editing program, recording their how-to script as narration, and possibly adding music, effects and titles. The video can be posted to a blog along with the written how-to steps, and links to related instructional resources.

As an optional activity, students can measure the effectiveness of the written how-to piece versus the video representation by having two groups race through the described process -- one group using the written piece, the other using the video. Time the two groups and check the quality of the results. Then ask what was difficult to understand, and more/less clear in each.

Media education lessons: media literacy through critical analysis of visual communication vs spoken/written words

Curriculum support: literacy and composition; diction

Technology integration: typing; digital video production; Internet use; blogs/social networking

TMS production examples: PS124 Making Guacamole (Password: mole)

Book Trailers

Students create video "trailers" (a.k.a. previews) for books they are reading to "sell" them to prospective readers. Students deconstruct various types of movie trailers through streaming online resources like Apple's Movie Trailer page. In a style that fits their book, students script and storyboard narration and a sequence of shots or images that presents a synopsis of the book, along with persuasive language and tactics aimed at "hooking" a target audience. Students record narration, film scenes, and produce a trailer for their book.

The video could include interviews with students and teachers about their favorite parts of the book, reenactments of scenes, passionate readings of selected passages, and so on.

Media education opportunities: media literacy through connecting a student of the digital age's "way of knowing" (video) to the traditional demonstration of reading comprehension (a book report), and persuasive writing; increases awareness of decision-making processes in video/film production; supports critical analysis of media by consciously using that decision-making process for the students' own purpose

Curriculum support: literacy and composition; persuasive writing; reading comprehension; diction

Technology integration: digital video production

TMS production examples: PS 124 blog notes, video script, and lessons for "The Giver" book trailer