Week 2: Monday Digital Movie Making ***Edited***

Digital Movie Making

The challenge: Work in groups to produce a storyboard - this will from the basis of our movie (to be filmed next week)

The background: Three of the four members of our group had previously worked together. 

The group dynamics: the benefit of having worked together previously is that as a group we tend to have reached the 'performing stage'.

The plan: Integrate technology to help with planning process.  The reasoning behind this is that all members will have the opportunity to contribute, ideas can often be communicated more easily when written, it will be evident if any member becomes lost or confused as it is easy to track contributions, there will be a record of the brainstorming process.  A group member who was ill was able to join in from home and this also provided an introduction to Etherpad for other group members.  It was explained that Etherpad has been bought over by Google and alternatives suggested: PiratePad and PrimaryPad.  We are also all able to work from home to develop the project.

The plan worked very well, the novelty of Etherpad mirrored the reaction you see in pupils when they are given something new and exciting to try.  Very quickly we began working on brainstorming, proving the theory that using is the best form of tutorial.  This was an excellent insight into the things that you would need to monitor, as a teacher, if using this with a class.  The first thing to make clear is that chat should be in the chat section.  Our pad was created for brainstorming purposes and is quite messy to look at, but, the main content is exactly that: brainstorming as a group.  The evidence of tangents is there, the refocusing by different group members at different stages shows that everyone was aware of the end goal: to create a storyboard.  Most importantly the evidence of task engagement is there.  This brings into question the use of language when brainstorming, when do you pick pupils up on their language use and when do you not.  This is a difficult decision and we need to remember not to stifle creativity when addressing this.  

The use of Etherpad was not necessarily ideal for the task itself but it was effective for the structure on this occasion.  Another tool could have been a mindmapping tool but this may have taken longer to use than Etherpad and can be less flexible than the style we used in the pad.  It is important to remember that a tool can be useful for one group on one occasion but that does not mean it will be useful for another group or indeed the same group on a different occasion.  

As an addition I shared Tom Barrett's @tombarrett Interesting Ways to use a Pocket Camera presentation with the elective group.  This was added to our delicious tag ICT_elective.

Next Steps: Complete storyboard (task for today) and prepare for filming next Monday.

Some excellent examples of how digital movie making could be used both within a classroom and on a  lager scale can be found on Sharon Tonner's Voices of the World page.  Further background to this project can also be viewed in The Story of the Voices of the World.  This project shows that uses forr digital movie making, among many other tools, extend beyond the confines of a classroom, school, town, region or even country.