20 replies to this topic

[Roy Huggins]

Hi Guys,

I've been playing around with digital video for some time and would like to say many thanks for some of the inspirational ideas in this seminar.

Actually ripping video clips has been really easy for a number of years. I've merrily used Windows Movie Maker with my students to produce Virtual Tours of sites lie Conisbrough Castle and Hadrians Wall. Some of the most innovative uses of digital video that I've seen have been very simple and effective. On clip still stands out by Neil McDonald, who got his students to produce a BBC news report using video clips and pictures of the assassination of the Arch Duke.

One key question that I have film students doing role play or some of the activities listed above rotates around the human rights and copyright issues surrounding film children. Our school sends out a letter asking parents to sign and return a form that objects to their child's image being used or stored digitally. If they don't reply we assume that they have granted permission. So far we have had one letter back in three years, but I wonder if it would stand up in a court of law?

I agree with Andrew's point above about using clips as a hook. I personally feel that there is very little justification for using a video clip for more than 5 to 10 minutes maximum with a class of students if you are going to make your lessons interactive. The majority of the clips that I have ripped from films or public broadcast are no more than 2 to 3 minutes long and are normally linked to a key question. I do something very similar to Dan on why was the Roman Army so successful. The only problem as ever is curriculum time although we have been given more freedom to be creative and innovative by QCA ....

Anyway, if anyone fancies swapping video clips I've got 19 Gigs worth?

Kind Regards

Roy

[Tom Morton]

This discussion forum also encouraged me to dabble in video editing this year, although it has been much more of a challenge than some of the postings suggest. It's been comparable to house repairs: I can do them but they always take twice as long.

I used Remberance Day commeration as my focus and asked students to a narration about either of the world wars and explain how and why we should remember these stories. I was able to get the National Film Board of Canada to donate footage of Vimy Ridge (Battle of Arras) and WW I and other footage of Dieppe from the national archives. I also added some still photos.

When considering how we should remember the past, I asked students to choose one of four different ways of considering the past based on Jorn Rusen's work. You can read a description of Rusen's work at http://www.cshc.ubc....tract.php?id=93

Following the advice of this forum I used MovieMaker. Narration was a challenge but a university grad student who helped me and I both bought a MP3 player/microphone called Kangaroo that let us record a digitilized track that we could load back into the computer.

The results were good but the biggest flaw was a common one. The students who did not submit to me the "paper edit" or draft before making the final copy made much weaker videos than those who did so and received feedback from me. I should have stressed the importance of this stage much more.

Time is always a barrier and more so now that the maudit government has imposed a year end exam on us.

Nonetheless, I will do it again and better next time.

Tom Morton
David Thompson Secondary School
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada

[Richard Jones-Nerzic]

One key question that I have film students doing role play or some of the activities listed above rotates around the human rights and copyright issues surrounding film children. Our school sends out a letter asking parents to sign and return a form that objects to their child's image being used or stored digitally. If they don't reply we assume that they have granted permission. So far we have had one letter back in three years, but I wonder if it would stand up in a court of law?

This is also really strict in France. If you ever see the French news, most background faces will be blanked out. Since four years ago the parents of every new student who has joined the school has signed a document giving their consent for the images to be used. We follow some common sense guidelines of not including full name and pictures together and we have never had any problems as far as I'm aware.

Of course the school opened six years ago and for those 'pioneer' students we have to chase them up individually. Using this approach parents were much less likely to agree. For sometime we had classlists where two of three kids could not be used, with this sort of consequence on our website:



Eventually, all parents were worn down, usually because their child had done something they wanted to share with family and friends.

[JohnDClare]

Every year, we require all parents to sign an indemnity form, giving permission for their child to go on any schooltrip that they may sign up to, and detailing the necessary next of kind/ medical conditions etc. It also contains a sentence promising to inform us of any changes occur to the relevant information.

We used to do this for every trip, but - as Richard pointed out - it got really tedious doing it every time, so we took advice and got a 'one-at-the-start-of-the-year fits all' version.

Recently, we added a sentence automatically allowing us to use photos of pupils in newspapers and on the web, unless the parents actively signed out, refusing us the right to do so. Very few parents do this, but we keep a list of the pupils we cannot use.

We, too, tend to keep photos to group, long-range shots, from behind where possible, and never put names with faces.

Nevetheless, where the photo does involve a close-up, or where it is going to be in a newspaper or journal (ie other than school publicity), I STILL tend to go to the parents and confirm permission.

[Richard Jones-Nerzic]

Comments elsewhere on the forum have encouraged me to add a little update on this seminar which was originally produced four years ago...

Four years is a long time in ICT terms but nothing has come along since to lead me to change the main ideas of the seminar. It has certainly become a lot easier to do many of things described. Students are less likely to need teaching the techniques and cameras are more than affordable and much better quality. Apart from the power of PCs to cope with big video files and USB/external hard drives to transfer data, the main technical innovation in this time has been the ability to share your work through YouTube or better, Vimeo. Four years ago I was hosting video on my website, now it can all be embedded pretty much anywhere. Vimeo allows video of any length and has stunning HD quality for those that way inclined/equipped.

I recently did some work for Terry Haydn on his website at UEA. One of the things I included was an update to the Cold War documentary activity I described in the seminar. This webpage includes examples of video embedded from YouTube and Vimeo, so you can compare the quality.
Cold War Documentary
These last 12 months I have had to work in a traditional classroom, with limited access to PCs and one video camera, so it was good to know that the activity was still doable. From one thing in the discussion above, I'd recommend the use of MovieMaker simply because the students will invariably have a PC at home to work on. The examples on the UEA site were all produced using MovieMaker.

[Richard Jones-Nerzic]

I was setting up my Cold War Documentary Video activity today and I remembered this seminar. It seems like ancient history now. Recently I put the activity up online (International School History) I now do it in a school with limited ICT resources. The difference these days is that the students have the facililties at home and they don't need teaching the [ICT] skills. I sometimes forget how much they suddenly come alive when you propose an activity that doesn't involve paper and pens.

There is an explanation of how and why I do this activity on Terry Haydn's site here