NYT Learning Blog - Ethnography Curriculum

Photography is a really wonderful tool for teaching art, science, and humanities.
"How do writers create or defy popular images of settings? What is ethnography, and how can it be used to reveal the meanings of places? In this lesson, students consider the power of place in their own lives, and then execute an ethnographic research project that dispels clichéd notions about where they live."
Click here for the curriculum
and
Click here for a similar curriculum over at the California Council for the Humanities.
Both are great.

MEDEA Awards Deadline is July 31

MEDEA Awards 2010

The MEDEA Awards competition is an international event which recognizes excellence and creativity in media in education. MEDEA aims to highlight the educational environments that reflect the media-rich world in which our learners live nowadays.

Learn more here.

Past winners here.

This year, the MEDEA Awards 2010 and prizegiving ceremony will be incorporated into a new conference entitled Media & Learning: towards the era of digital fluency, taking place in Brussels from the 25-26 November 2010. This conference will bring together practitioners and policy makers and will highlight the latest developments, services and digital and media competences in education and training. Proposals for presentations, demonstrations and workshops at this conference must be submitted before 1 June 2010.

Movies for Young Urban Filmmakers

The first step to becoming a filmmaker is to watch great works then analyze and critique them. I have found these films to be especially effective when teaching storytelling, composition, and editing. Some of these films are Oscar winners, some are not. Many of them are urban cult classics. You can even ask your students to let you know which music videos have been influenced by these works.

Blood In, Blood Out - Three brothers, their choices, the consequences. (also called Bound by Blood)
City of God - Gangs in Brazil. The documentary about Favelas that's on the US dvd is also very educational. A nice contrast is to show this film with Black Orpheus.
The Conversation - A sound tech regrets the job he's done. Coppola directs.
Cooley High/Boyz in the Hood - An African-American High School story. Cooley High is set in Chicago in the 1970's and written by the same guy who co-created Good Times. Boyz in the Hood is essentially a remake/modernized version set in LA in the 80's.
Made in America: Crips & Bloods - This documentary by Stacey Peralta presents valuable perspective and also shows some great CG (After Effects, Motion, etc.) technique.
Do the Right Thing - Great example of issue filmmaking and also had a huge influence on music videos. Shows a wide range of camera angles and moves.
Klute - 1972 Oscar winner about prostitution. Deep. Shows how the camera can be used effectively when NOT moving.
Mi Familia - LA's Chicano history told in a classic Hollywood structure.
Requiem for a Dream/Trainspotting/Gridlock'd - Movies about drug addicts. Three very different takes. A good question to ask is which one is the most realiztic and why?
Scarface - If you have to ask, you'll never know.
To Be and To Have - A beautiful documentary about a group of schoolchildren and their teacher in rural France. In filmmaking, many times simple is better.
Visions of Light - Documentary about the job of the Cinematographer/Director of Photography. Dials in detail that students didn't realize was there.
The Warriors - Cult classic. Everything old is new again.

Be sure to screen all of these films in advance, many of them contain adult language or themes that may not be appropriate to your school/program. However, you can also show a less offensive scene or portion of the film for discussion.

Video Geotagging

I've been doing research for an idea/project I'm putting together and thought I'd share a couple of links. This project won't happen until the fall, so the technology is sure to change somewhat between now and then. This makes for interesting research. Usually I'm looking for the current/future trends, but this time I'm trying to look at what's been done in 'recent' history.

The topic is basically mapping - how are people using mapping to present photos and video? (The deeper question becomes, of course, why would you? I should have more answers once my research is done.) There are some fascinating mashups, some helpful technologies and also some things that have not happened yet, but should. Here's just a few links:
A nice list of geotagging definitions and some lesson plans and other resources to get you started is here.
Flickr shows up on google maps, but Panoramio is another company doing more landscape and beauty shots.
I love this project, which sought funding at donorschoose.org last year. It won't be completed until May.
I went to a presentation earlier this week by FoundSF.org which is using MediaWiki to collect resources and design it's site. Should be even more and more exciting stuff over the next few months. It also looks like an excellent site for a class/after school program to use for research and then add their own contributions. And MediaWiki is an EXCELLENT tool with lots of potential for those willing to do their open source homework.
Actually, I've been quite surprised to see all that Google* is doing and others (like Wikipedia, sadly) are not. A lot of the information I'm finding is from 2008 all the way back to 2006. I wonder why these technologies aren't more widely used? Maybe it's just too much time and research!

* Google geotagged YouTube in 2007, Flickr added video geotagging in 2008, for example.

Taking the Bridge to the Next Level

I've been swamped lately, working on a contract to help design a statewide contest for young filmmakers. It's been wonderful work - merging many of my interests (filmmaking/video, youth/education, health education, research, and more). Most of all, I have been working to address digital divide issues that are specific to video and youth I've worked with in the past.

For example, many of my students don't check their email. They prefer to keep in constant contact via myspace - and see their yahoo account as just something you sign up for so that you can get a myspace page. So we're building an rss feed (via twitter) into the contest page. It will allow us to post everything that goes into email blasts onto the site - in an abbreviated form.

Another example is the submission requirements and rules. I've been working on that a lot - researching what technologies *most* youth are using now. (This is in comparison to what technology the experts and magazines recommend, but kids can't always afford.) So I'm making room for kids who might want to shoot a film on a cell phone and edit online because they don't have a computer at home.

Today I found a really helpful list that gives a wonderful 'big picture' view of this sort of troubleshooting. It applies directly to my current project, but also applies to many many more.

Blogger the explicit posted Simple questions to ask when planning a contribution-based project back in January and then added an Installment #2. He also writes about setting expectations for contribution-based projects and then revises his thoughts. All of the links contain wonderful food for thought - for projects big and small. It's kind of cool how much consultants and teachers have in common :)

Learning Film Making Online

Courtesy of Ken Radio
Great site that provide a real-world education of the complex world of motion picture production through a series of easy-to-understand, yet comprehensive videos, workbooks and resources. By partnering with industry leaders in the creative and technological fields, we strive to teach real, cutting edge techniques to filmmakers around the globe. We also seek to build an online community of filmmakers to help forge long-term connection between filmmakers from all disciplines.
http://www.powerfilmmaking.com

Replace Cameras and Laptops with Smartphones?

Industry Pitching Cellphones as a Teaching Tool:
"On Tuesday, Digital Millennial will release findings from its study of four North Carolina schools in low-income neighborhoods, where ninth- and 10th-grade math students were given high-end cellphones running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software and special programs meant to help them with their algebra studies.

The students used the phones for a variety of tasks, including recording themselves solving problems and posting the videos to a private social networking site, where classmates could watch. The study found that students with the phones performed 25 percent better on the end-of-the-year algebra exam than did students without the devices in similar classes."

This article is mainly about the (potential) benefits of smartphones. However, self-evaluation through VIDEO has long been proven effective. This component could certainly be executed with many different phones - and would not require Windows Mobile.

Langwitches � Best Web 2.0 Applications for Elementary School

Langwitches � Best Web 2.0 Applications for Elementary School: "Thanks to an amazing list of “The Best Web 2.o Application for Education-2007” from Larry Ferlazzo’s Website, I decided to create my own list of the applications that have been the most useful or promising in the Elementary School scene."

It's Not Just About the Software

Adobe has an excellent suite of resources for iTeachers. Not only is there a wonderful gallery of work, but white papers, curriculum, and direct links to an employee volunteer program and software donation and training for educators and non-profits. Phew! Definitely worth checnking out.

Adobe - Adobe Youth Voices Gallery - Resources: "Adobe and its founding Adobe Youth Voices partners — Educational Video Center, Listen Up!, What Kids Can Do, Arts Engine, and iEARN — offer a variety of free and low-cost resources to help you integrate youth media into your classroom or out-of-classroom programs."

Barnes�&�Noble.com - Book Search: The Daily Spark Series

According to the publisher (Barnes & Noble) "The Daily Spark Series gives classroom teachers a dynamic way of delivering stimulating and effective exercises to get students motivated at the start of class."

I think they're also a great resource for media classes. I especially enjoyed the one focused on Poetry - many of the ideas would be perfect for short films. They could also work in a music/songwriting/beats & rhymes curriculum.

You can flip through them online with a membership or head into a B&N to look at the hard copies. But these books are only available from other vendors (like Amazon) as second-hand copies.

Meant to put this up long ago...

If you teach photography or your video class includes lighting, Strobist is one of the best resources available online. Here's their basic 101 video.



I've seen plenty of sites try to do the same for filmmaking 101 - and fail. They all seem to be too advanced or too juvenile. What do you think? If you have a resource to recommend, add it in the comments.

Strobist: Lighting 101

When You Have Some Time...

I know it's hard to make time as a teacher to do more than just plan and teach. But if you have a chance, sneak on over to this very helpful site. Here's what Techlearning has to say about it:
Storytelling 2.0 "It turns out a very busy person named Alan Levine created an online resource for a series of workshops that lists (at the time of this writing) 57 different Web 2.0 tools that can be used for digital storytelling. That in itself isn't unusual, of course, but what he did that was different was he took the time to retell the same story with each tool!

The site is at http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools, and is wonderfully comprehensive. In addition to his own oft-retold story, almost all of the titles also include examples of stories told by others. He also has a shorter list at the end of tools that he's tried that weren't successful for one reason or another, so you can see what sites to avoid (at least for now). Be sure to budget a lot of time for exploring!"

My New Playground

We have a student who needs their own, individual project. So I'm building a series of exercises that will allow him to explore some of the issues going on in his life - inspired by the film Tarnation. Part of the plan is to have him use the built-in camera on one of our iMacs to make a self-portrait using stop motion. So I went hunting to find an example and found this instead...Boinx Software - iStopMotion 2 - Examples

Fun stuff. Now I have lots of ideas for projects for all ages!

Otherwise known as Participatory Video

Journalism in the Hands of the Neighborhood - New York Times: "After a free-flowing discussion about the kind of news they see and read in mainstream outlets, the group of about 15 was encouraged by the class’s three teachers to suggest their own story ideas, a few of which they will turn into five-minute video segments by the end of the eight-week class. A pattern quickly emerged: proposed topics included gun control, violence in schools, as well as crime against cab drivers."

Limiting Their Choices

One of the keys to being a GREAT photography/video teacher is to help students manage their creative process. I find that one really effective way to do that is to limit their choices.

Now I know why: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors - New York Times

(By the way, I should give credit where credit is due. Years ago Director Robert Rodriguez, taught me this trick. Thanks man!)

Social Networking and Education - The Debate Rages On

Currently my advanced students are working on a controversial documentary. As part of their work on story, I had them cut a trailer just before the winter break. We decided to post the video on youtube, because that's what everyone does nowadays. I also thought it would be fun for the filmmakers to be able to show their work to their friends and family over the break.

This small act has had a huge impact. In two weeks, over 500 people watched the video. Youth in the neighborhood embedded it in their myspace pages. And young people who were nervous about the project before Christmas, are now begging us to be in the movie.

This is just one example of some benefits of social networking in an educational setting. But there are downsides too. As we all know, once you publish something on the web, you really don't know and can't control what could happen with it.

The Economist magazine has been hosting a series of debates on various topics. Their latest debate is about Social Networking specifically. "Social Networking: does it bring positive change to education?"

Ewan McIntosh is the 'Pro' speaker. Here's what he has to say about the debates on his blog, edublogs: "The Economist debates have stirred a great amount of intelligent debate, both on the Economist site and on others' blogs. While the groundswell continues to show over two thirds of the general public (or Economist readers, at least) believe that social networking can have a positive effect on educational methods, it's the comments from within the blogosphere that pour both healthy and unhealthy water on the embers."

What do you think?

Pre-Production Means Research

In my classroom, video pre-production includes research. Back in the day, this meant hitting the pavement and heading down to the library. Now, students have so much at their fingertips - but I find many of them don't know more than the basics. Here's an article with some tips for taking your google searches to the next level. I pasted the article into Word and made it into a handout that I give to the kids - and keep one at my desk too.

12 Quick Tips To Search Google Like An Expert

See It Map It Learn It

A short but inspiring article about innovative approaches to applying new media in traditional subjects like English and Social Studies. Using Digital Place-Based Storytelling To Teach Geographical Thinking

After reading this article, I had my documentary students open up Google Earth. The characters in their story have a real connection to a specific place, so we used that spot as our starting point. And now their shot list is so much richer!

How To Make Student Films Better...the Basics

In his article, Adding Impact to Digitally-Filmed Stories
Jon Orech gives some basic definitions and strategies to make student film & video projects better. For example
"Movement (panning and zooming) can add a dynamic feel to still shots and can aid in developing plot, revealing character, or creating a dramatic effect."
and
"Transitions can be a real trap. Remember those Powerpoints with a different transition for each slide? The truth is, most transitions are distracting. The key is teaching the purpose of the "Big Three" and show students how to choose. I tell students to think of transitions as punctuation marks."
There's some good advice here and the language he uses is helpful for classroom application.

A Site To Get Lost In

Thanks to a visual artist in my family, I recently became aware of Rhizome.org

Here's how they describe themselves:
Rhizome is based in a wide and diverse community of new media artists, curators, critics and enthusiasts. Our commitment to open-access structures, our community's shared interest in new media and their utilization of Rhizome as an on-line forum for exchange, combines to create an environment that naturally encourages the development of connections and understanding between people from a wide range of backgrounds, geographic areas, and disciplines.

Here's how I would describe them: An infinite source of ideas.
Not only have I seen some projects here that I would like my students to put their own spin on, but also some ways to add web 2.0 elements to projects already in process. (I found the Active Terms Word Cloud very helpful in my searching around.)

Yeah, it's a very thinky-thinky site, based on all the rhetoric of the art world. But some of the ways artists are combining old and new medium are just amazing. Example 1, Example 2, Example 3...