One Best Thing iBooks
This week, I was introduced to the iBook series of One Best Thing which is a collection of books created by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) to help share and teach about using Apple technologies in the classroom. Each book demonstrates a different unit, lesson, or technology to help other teachers implement it in the future. In order to explore this resource more, I chose a book entitled Cinematic Storytelling: A Social Cinema Project.
This book was written by Michael Hernandez, who teaches film and broadcast journalism at both high school and college levels. He speaks at conferences about film, broadcast journalism, photography, and integrating technology into the classroom. He believes "cinematic storytelling is a universal language applicable to all academic, creative, and professional endeavors, and is the key to success in our visual, online world."
This book was written by Michael Hernandez, who teaches film and broadcast journalism at both high school and college levels. He speaks at conferences about film, broadcast journalism, photography, and integrating technology into the classroom. He believes "cinematic storytelling is a universal language applicable to all academic, creative, and professional endeavors, and is the key to success in our visual, online world."
The book was a very informative guide to a project that has students use mobile devices to create their own film and then publish it on a social media. This project is only a simple, uncomplicated video production to encourage students to tell a story that conveys ideas effectively and can be done in groups or independently or in groups. The only things you need are: a mobile device, a video editing app, and a social media account with either Instagram or YouTube (although other sites can be used according to preferences). The rest of the project is very flexible and can have a time frame of one class period to several weeks, depending on how complicated you want it to be and how long the video itself is.
Hernandez recommends a basic workflow outline for the project:
1. Teacher Pre-planning: Know what your goal for the project is and keep it simple. Make sure to create a prompt for the project so the students have direction but also have room for creativity and originality. Showing examples of other videos may be helpful. 2. Student Pre-planning: Have students download and learn about the apps, set up social media accounts, and practice shooting and editing videos to become familiar with the process. The time needed for this may vary. Finally, have students brainstorm and create an outline and script for their film. 3. Production: Shoot footage and have students record multiple takes. Depending on how professional you want it to look, you may want students to try out different filming techniques. then, have them edit the footage and encourage them to experiment with sounds, graphics, and filters. (Be careful of copyright violations with music!) 4. Post to Social Media: Export the project to the Camera Roll on the device. From there, upload it to your social media of choice 5. Assessment: Depending on what class this project is for, assessment may vary. However, some good areas are content and style - does it contain what it should? Is it interesting and engaging? Maybe include the whole class by having them watch the films in a screening, then providing constructive comments. Personal reflection and peer feedback work well. |
I personally think this is a great project to engage students with something they not only are familiar with, but use daily. I can think of numerous ways that this could be used in the classroom. For example, one of the most important ( and hardest) parts of a foreign language is speaking and being able to not only comprehend but respond. Having my students create a video would be a good to work on synthesizing language in an original way. In addition, it could help with practicing certain vocabulary or common situations such as ordering in a restaurant, asking for directions, or creating an new interpretation of something we read in class. This project would give students more room for creativity and fun, which is a sure way to get students more engaged and invested. Not only that, but having a film screening at the end of the project time would be a great way for them to show off their accomplishments in front of their peers.
For more from Michael Hernandez: