Using digital video in the classroom
January 2007
Jack Kenny
When you walk into a classroom in Cookstown Primary School, Co Tyrone that has been turned into a media lab, you know something special is going on. The bulk of teachers Joanne Murray and Paula Rolston’s work is built around the visual arts to motivate their class of 11 year-olds by using digital video. Both Joanne and Paula are anxious to point out that their work is not play: literacy targets are met and other subjects such as history, geography and science occur quite naturally. ICT skills are gained by learning how to use the equipment and to edit the materials. You only have to see the involvement of the children and the quality of the results to realise that this is a way of teaching and learning that many could usefully adopt.
The main characteristic of Paula and Joanne’s digital video production is that it is all integrated into normal classroom work. The Cookstown Primary School pupils made ‘Snowy’s Spotty Adventure’. This came about through the literacy work on story writing in the English scheme of work. It follows a set framework including character descriptions and scriptwriting. Ideas are initially brainstormed individually and then shared. Through discussion, children decide on one storyline to develop and so the process goes on. Elements of research and empathy with characters are considered and aspects of setting begin to introduce the cross-curricular nature of the project. Skills in numeracy are highlighted through spatial awareness and understanding of tiny amounts of time. The potential for cross-curricular work is vast and Joanne has the documentation to prove it.
Joanne and Paula believe that digital video is an exciting way to learn and teach. “It enables the children to think about how they think and plan, work together and individually, think imaginatively, communicate and develop their ideas and thoughts visually and orally, and how to think critically and reflectively in evaluating their work. This is what we love about digital video – the fact that children become more responsible for and motivated through their own learning. They push themselves to achieve a standard which they set themselves, and it’s a high standard. We have confidence in their ability to do a great job and they always seem to rise to the challenge before them.”
When they were awarded a camera and a computer to create animation, Joanne and Paula knew little about it. Joanne attended a course with the British Film Institute and brought the skills back to her colleague. Joanne said: “We had to figure out how to use the Apple and the camera. We fiddled about with video clips and transitions until we felt happy enough to take it into the classroom. We weren’t expert at this point; we were just a few steps ahead of the children and that is all we needed to be in order to bring the children along with us.”
They needed to experiment so they each set up mini tasks. “The next move was into plasticine because we had realised that is what we wanted to do. We said to the children: ‘There is your plasticine, make a character and work out some movement.’ They came up with a plasticine cat and dog approximately 10cm long. The cat was put on a skateboard because we had not worked out how to do the movement of the legs. The children were problem solving!”
When it was time to add the audio, the computer was treated like any other computer in the room - with free access at appropriate times. By this stage the children were experimenting with transitions and sound effects and working well together to make decisions.
Another important aspect was the children’s attempt to vary types of shots. “They made a fair attempt at using the different shots but the movie’s most beneficial purpose has been as an aid to help us as a class to review the whole animation process and to learn how to improve techniques and to create smoother movements in future.”
The ‘Very Green’ storyline revolved around Earl, a scientist who realises that the polar ice is melting because of global warming, and his friend Sam the Snowman is melting. Aided by the penguins, Earl attempts to save Sam and the world. “The whole idea we knew had to be relevant to the curriculum. We wanted to develop the children’s story writing skills as well as their ICT. It had to start in literacy.”
Finally, what do they feel that the pupils gain from this way of working?
A sense of accomplishment, pleasure, play, childhood, excitement, confidence, self-esteem, able to take risks without fear of failure – they all understood it was part of a process to learn from and build on things that didn’t work, setting an achievable challenge but not an easy one, the ability to express themselves confidently, able to express themselves individually and as part of a team, able to express their ideas visually, building new friendships.
Now they have started to produce Podcasts.
Joanne’s PowerPoint essay available on the link below details clearly how the work that they do meets many targets. The idea that creativity has to be done at the expense of other things is shown to be a fallacy.