Meeks, Melissa and Alex Ilyasova. “A Review of Digital Video Production in Post-Secondary English Classrooms at Three Universities.” Kairos 8.2 (2003). Web. 12 February 2014.
“digital video has the qualities we are looking for to engage students in combining design, production, and literac(ies) in the classroom”
Finally found an explanation of why video isn’t linear, even though we watch it linearly.
“non-linear video production in digital bytes allows for the deleting, adding, moving, and repeating of clips”
Iowa State U
Students are required to create a communication portfolio their sophomore year that includes written, oral, visual, and electronic communication.
Upper division course requires an interview and a presentation of the interview in three ways. These are as text, as an audio file, and as a video file, which combines both audio and visual elements.
Also requires a 2-minute video for a professional audience, describing an object.
Finally requires a “promotional commercial for a product, organization, or idea.” This might be an idea for business and professional writing class.
Graduate course there requires productions, to apply the theory to the application. Two assignments involve digital presentations.
1. Create video as a tutorial using screen captures. –tutorial for software
2. Digital presentation that focuses on exploring the uses of iMovie. Has groups create videos in two weeks on the history and use of buildings on campus. Video is two to three minutes.
Michigan Technological U
Describes the strong culture of support for technology application at the uni.
Introduces Cynthia Selfe and her foray into digital presentations. Says she has only been doing two years [now 13], but won’t teach again without multimodal assignments.
UG Adolescent Lit class
students will create enrichment assignments for ages 11-18, focus on engaging with books
1st show own, focus on sound
shows videos with and without sound
discuss how sound adds or subtracts from work
Then iMovie
students use 10-20 photos and a sound file
Goal is to choose photos that cluster around a theme or topic
royalty free source of photos: American Memories Collection
Has students save a song, too. Then create a video.
Says important to remember that things will go wrong
Erin Smith
Says students not engaged in traditional reading practices, but practiced in film and television.
She has the students write their own assessments, explaining why they made the choices they did.
Alison Crockett
Says digital presentation and a written essay share similar processes.
First, the concept or a thesis/main idea is created.
Then a treatment or brainstorming occurs – a more developed and detailed idea coming out of the concept.
Next, an extended treatment or an outline might follow.
Research or getting your elements – which might include interviews, film and video footage, music, stills, graphics, etc. – is next.
Then, depending on your elements, storyboarding or a more developed and complete outline follows.
The script or draft is developed around this time.
Finally, post-production or possibly a second/final draft occurs where you blend the elements together to tell your story.
UNC Chapel Hill
Daniel Anderson has been teaching video production for twenty years, beginning in 1994.
He “focuses on teaching students to think “in” non-alphabetic literacies, making use of rhetorical strategies in multimedia compositions.”
In his graduate classes students wrestle with and think about non-alphabetic composing.
His advice to those interested in using the technology in their classrooms is to “play with it” and “don’t over think it.”
Scott Halbritter
using video for the first time this fall in a remedial writing class
students produce a 5-minute video talking about honor, integrity, and ethics in the uni
Having remedial students creating digital presentations “infinitely complicates and enlarges the strategies they have learned to ignore when they sit down to compose text.”
Very important to find a “legitimate rhetorical goal” before assigning video production.
Heather Ross
uses a PSA group project, students are producing cultural artifacts
collaborative environment
five weeks
Student excitement comes from competitiveness and seeing the videos as creative acts.
Todd Taylor
students in his class must complete community service work
1. intro case study of documentaries
2. “The second move addresses the rhetorical and technical aspects of each of the following media individually: HTML, texts, photographs, and audio; this sequence culminates with a consideration of the rhetorical and technical aspects of video, which combines all of the previous media. This pairing of technical proficiency and rhetorical savvy prepares students for integrating media in sophisticated ways.”
3. establish audience: judges of contest, classmates, public at competition
4. turn class into workshop
Conclusion
Digital production challenges multiple literacies, encourages collaboration, shows composition as a process, and requires more than a single person.
Authors note that the relationship of digital presentations to academic discourse remains problematic, as essays are still important collegiate exercises.
RrNm
