Making Digital Video using the INTEL DIGITAL BLUE

Why use Digital Video?  The benefits of shared writing  Focuses on speaking and listening (September 2006 Literacy Strategy changes)  Tune-in to pupils’ “home literacy”  Multi-modal texts  Shared work – builds skills of co-operation, communication, discussion and management  High motivation factor – particularly boys (?)  Real opportunities for Assessment For Learning (pupil self and peer assessment)

Why use Intel Blue?  Not expensive: £85 (now cheaper?) gets one camera and a site licence  Very child friendly camera and software  Can do complicated things very easily  It is the children’s work - not the teachers (as often happens with expensive £400 digital cameras)  Whilst the video quality is a little grainy, and audio on camera is very quiet – I think this is outweighed by benefits

What the Pupils say  “It is fun”  “It makes you feel like a real director, like you are in control”  “The cameras and the software are easy to use and you can do complicated things really easily”  “Your class won’t moan when it is literacy time”  “It teaches us to work in groups, not argue as much”  “Lets us show our expression, it is creative”  “It’s a reward after doing all your planning and scripting”  “We could actually see where our writing could be made better”

Types of Video I have done  Non Chronological Report: Documentary on Global Education for a visit by our MP  Explanations: Survival guide to Y5, How to write a myth, Top Tips for spellings  Report: What life was like for Victorian street children  Narrative: A ‘creation’ story from West Africa, Re-writing the Nativity story using animation  Persuasive / Script writing: An advert for any product  Poetry: Animation of their own version of “On the Ning Nang Nong”  Just for Fun: Making a pop video in lunchtime club

Other instances  Summer term I will experiment with ‘Voice- Overs’ – using language for effect: Using ready made films, pupils create own narration  Primary National Strategy: ‘Learning and Teaching using ICT’ (CD Rom box). Y2 DT lesson (clearly literacy Sp&L) – opportunities for AFL are obvious  DFES: ‘Learning Platforms, Primary, Making IT personal’. Images of pupils using the Intel Digital Blue

Health Warnings  Need to be really well organised: pupil groupings, supervision, TA’s, timetabling, managing different ‘locations’ for each group.  The topic / context needs to be right: pupils can become silly very quickly.  ICT skills: will need to build the pupils skills.  The first time you do it you may get a lower standard of writing than you are expecting (you may not). Like anything, it needs practice.  ‘Problem Boys’: Naively, I thought it would ‘cure’ their immaturity – it didn’t (but they were more motivated than usual). Solution - more supervision or different grouping.  Don’t expect movie quality – AVI file transfer is not the best. Whilst image is great on each machine, it will be a little grainy when showing on Windows Media Player. The microphone on the camera is quite poor.

Some Examples  Narrative Fiction: African creation myth from Y6, Term 1, mixed ability group. African creation mythAfrican creation myth  Persuasive playscript: A TV advert A TV advert Y6, Term 2, L5 & L4 boys but ‘adolescent’.  A narrative re-telling: The nativity The nativity A bright Y6 girl working with a struggling Y5 boy  The software

The Process  Look at examples of text type  Rehearse particular GFW skills as appropriate  Use planning sheet for ‘slides’ of video making  Script / narrative writing  Filming (on-going self assessment necessary)  Editing the film (on-going self assessment necessary)  Presentation and assessment

Example of planning sheet for ‘slides’

How long does it take? THE LITERACY  Literacy input: 1-2 lessons (of course dependent on literacy aspect)  Slides:1 lesson  Scripting:2 lessons  Editing Script:1 lesson THE ICT (but don’t forget all that hidden literacy)  Filming:1-2 lessons  Editing together (splicing):2 lessons  Post Production (narration, music, etc):1 lesson  Of course this is dependent on class skills and the type of movie you are making SELF-ASSESSMENT (easy to forget – with time constraints) “We could actually see where our writing could be made better”: 1 lesson

Digital Video – Put the ‘ace’ back into Literacy