Here it is — a true labor of love! When I was asked to Keynote this event, I simply asked Vicki Davis if it mightn’t be a better idea to have the kids create the keynote? (note to self – be careful what you pray for!) My Tech Club took up the challenge. I outlined the project and showed them Wikinomics and Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott. Then we watched his video, The Dumbest Generation, and that really got them talking! I started writing everything they said on the Promethean board–and prompted them with things like “You sound angry – are you? What would you change? How would it look? As the kids brainstormed the script – and that is a post unto itself… I kept taking them out to resources like the Net Generation Education Project Website, at Don Tapscott’s video about education and then we went out to You Tube to look at some others. We looked at other videos about education in Canada- and about 21st century learning. They had already seen videos from Mike Wesch and offshoots- and they were already pretty well versed in discussions of this nature – After all, they are my pilot audience whenever I have to create a presentation – and they always tell me straight when something is off.
I might also add that I spent a great deal of time with Bernajean Porter and after watching her coach my kids last year and attending her storytelling camp last summer, I had learned quite a few skills to really coach kids to get to the heart of the story – or the message in this case. Echoing back to them what I heard them say – would get them to revise it – fine tune it and make it clear and hopefully powerful. It was really easy for them to generate a list of “complaints” and to talk about what they didn’t like but I kept reminding them that we needed to be part of the solution. So when they contributed something I would ask what the solution might look like – and we’d do some word play with it – That prompting seemed to get them on track with some of the positive comments. At one point I remember saying, “this reads like you think that your teachers wake up in the morning and start thinking of ways to make your life miserable!” What’s the flip side? — What are the teachers dealing with?
Then we started the arduous task of filming. The script was in a “rough cut” sequence and every student recorded every line. Hours were spent in the TV studio where we all learned quite a bit about filming, lighting, sound, etc.. and if you knew what landed on the “cutting room floor” (or, in this case, the trash bin in iMovie!) it would amaze you. The whole “future simile” section got wiped – (*the future is like a ball rolling down a hill- if you don’t grab it right away you might never catch up” – ” “the classroom shows us yesterday but the computer shows us the future” “the future is a bright white light shining outside” and many many more just didn’t make it into the script we ended up with because we just couldn’t fit it all in. We were aiming at 3 minutes and were already way past that. The creativity of my students amazed me! The kids started to ad lib- and I let them. “School should be more like a game…” was an ad lib— But, as always, we were under an enormous time crunch (and I take full responsibility for that as I had NO idea how time-consuming the process would be-duh!) so we had to keep it as simple and as “uncluttered” as possible. This was probably a blessing in disguise as I feel we would have ended up with a full length epic had we not had a deadline.
Then it was time to start the editing and we solicited the remarkable talent of Marianne Malmstrom- you may know her as the rainbow-winged samaritan in Second Life, “Knowclue Kidd”. We started chopping up the raw footage until we had every line grouped and listed in an excel sheet. We starting pulling them in and moving them around – trying to make sure that reach student was represented and that the stronger lines were used repeatedly. The kids wanted their Second Life footage used as well and always up for a challenge, Knowclue started inserting the machinima that her students at The Elisabeth Morrow School had filmed in Quest Atlantis and coached my kids in Second Life to film theirs. Putting it all together came down to (and slightly past) the wire. A snow day came to our rescue and we were able to devote some uninterrupted hours editing, and filming last minute footage with my kids logged into Ramapo Islands on their “day off”. Finally, we added original music, “Harpsicord” created by a former Suffern Middle School student, Larry Bordowitz. Seeing the power of their film, and their message, the kids are already asking to start a new video-this time about Second Life and video games!
The Net Generation wiki cn be found at: http://netgened.wikispaces.com
Most importantly, the kids reported feeling empowered, and that they had stayed true to their original message: The future belongs to them – and we are charged with the grave responsibility of getting them prepared for it.
Thanks to all of those who take up the torch each day—you know who you are! Keep the fire burning!
8 responses so far ↓
[...] more about “No Future Left Behind“, posted with vodpod Thanks to Angela Maiers for the heads up on this amazing video. To learn more about Peggy Sheehy and the Net Generation Education Project, click HERE. [...]
[...] past week, thanks to Peggy Sheehy, Jim Gates, and Kim Collazo, I also discovered the “student voice” video “No [...]
Great work on the video, please pass along my compliments to your students for their super work!
Many teachers are wondering how to apply social media in the classroom (http://eduspaces.net/csessums/weblog/608319.html). This production demonstrates an excellent example of how . . . and why . . . it should be done.
I’m curious. Was there a skills assessment done after the production? It seems to me that the work done here would meet learning standards with alacrity and effectiveness. I just wonder if any measurement was done and what was the result. Another blog posting for us, perhaps?
Hello Andrew- There was no formal skills assessment done for this project, as it was an after school, Tech Club endeavor-and it was strictly voluntary to participate. When asked to create the Keynote, I was the one who volunteered my students, assuming that they would relish the opportunity to speak their minds as well as to get their hands on the TV studio. This was our first video, and as such, the learning curve for all of us was pretty steep. Generating the script, although the most familiar portion of the task for me, took took the kids a good chunk of time (about 4 hours across three days.) The filming was really just point and shoot with occasional zoom. The kids liked that! We actually lost a lot of footage because of poor audio and lighting-and therefore some of the lines were lost– we all were learning together by trial and error. Without the expertise of Marianne Malmstrom (Knowclue), the editing would have taken weeks instead of days, and we just didn’t have weeks. The kids had the vision – but Knowclue had the skills – so I was in charge of “dicing & splicing” the rough cuts and she fine tuned everything until we were able to look at it in a cohesive framework and get down to the hard work of putting it all together. Then working with the kids inside Second Life remotely was super fun- and now they are learning how to film their own machimima with her . We are starting with a machinima response to the comments on the You Tube site. Time constraints prohibited us from letting the kids do all of the editing this time…that is one thing I would change. So a project that took two weeks of kids coming in during lunch and after school and two teachers spending an entire three-day weekend holed up in iMovie should probably have taken a few months – and been totally kid produced down to the last cut. That is how I will do it next time. As far as what they learned- they learned some tech skills sure- but more importantly they realized the grave responsibility that comes with having a voice- and the power of media to get that voice heard. that’s enough for me!
Congratulations to all involved! The piece is memorable and engaging.
You are also very kind to provide such an indepth response to my inquiry. Thank you for the time you devoted to answering my question.
I remember when I was involved in film and television production that some of the best times were those long, intense days of creativity during post-production. It can be grueling, and it can be fun too. How was it for you?
Your club members could not have accomplished all this without other instructors noticing something different about their work. Have you heard any anecdotal stories of how this affected either their classroom participation or studies?
What’s it like for you and for them to have had such a rousing reception at the conference and on the Internet?
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing piece of work. Congratulations to you and your students. In my position, I help teachers integrate technology in their classrooms. Seeing these types of pieces from the children’s perspective really puts it all in place for teachers. I will definitely share this with my coworkers.
[...] No Future Left Behind Video (made by Peggy’s students) [...]
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