Vision of the Future: Sharing and Looking Back
Link here to watch my video on PowToon.
The Process & Challenges
One of the
challenges that I faced while completing this project is deciding which pieces
of information are important to present to a student audience. I needed to
include some research to back up my claims, but I didn’t want to get too
technical and have most of it fly over the students’ heads. Finding that
balance was somewhat tricky, and adding the factor that my audience is intended
for ELL students increased the challenge. In the end, I opted to keep the
research and terminology to a minimum and focus on simpler language to get my
point across. In my credits, I supply the teacher with my bibliography so that
they may access the materials I used to inform my opinions and decide how
in-depth they wish to share the details with their students depending on their
English proficiency.
The video format
also proved to be quite a task because while I have created videos before, most
of it consisted of live, unscripted recordings that I later went back and
edited. This was my first time planning out a scripted video and creating a
video from scratch. I spent a lot of time watching various styles of scripted videos
on YouTube to get a sense of the pacing and flow of successful scripted videos.
I am not sure if I succeeded on that front, but I tried to keep the video as
concise as possible to not lose student interest. I also supplemented a lot of
what I was saying with images in the video so that students with lower
vocabulary can still get the gist of what I said. The video format was also
chosen with the student audience in mind, as I have personally found students
to be more receptive to learning from videos (it is, after all, just a product
of their generation).
PowToon also proved
to be a bit of a challenge to use because while it was fairly intuitive for someone
who has video editing experience, the website tends to glitch out often with my
subpar Internet connection. The final product may contain some minor hiccups,
and I could have spent even longer editing and perfecting it to be the absolute
best it can be, but every time I fix one mistake, another pops up. While I
appreciate PowToon for having such handy features to help me make an animated
video that otherwise would be impossible for me, I do miss the stability of my own
video editing software.
Sharing
Unfortunately, due
to issues I encountered in the completion of this project, I haven’t yet had
the chance to pilot my video for a student audience yet. Once I get around to
fixing the imperfections in the video and demo it to some adult audiences
first, I aim to forward the video to my previous school in China and see how
receptive the students are to the video.
Follow-Up & Conclusion
There are still so
many ideas floating around in my head that can tie in with this project. An
immediate follow-up goal that I am considering is writing a lesson plan for
teachers on a shareable and editable document on how to use this video as a
part of a lesson. This video can even be just one part of a series of videos,
but that would be for future consideration.
The course overall
really helped me to stretch the limits of my digital and creative abilities. I
have never challenged myself to try something like this before, and I am very
thankful for this opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and blow my own
expectations out of the water. Despite my OCD dissatisfaction at some of the
technical glitches in my video, I am proud of myself for producing something
that looks fairly professional. Of course, I haven’t had the chance to demo it
yet, so I could have rose-coloured glasses on, but it’s definitely a huge
accomplishment for me. While simplistic on the outside, my passion for literacy
promotion and having students to recognize their capability to become strong 21st
century learners will continue to drive my vision forward. I hope to support
and empower young learners by celebrating their strengths and improving their
weaknesses so that they may take their learning experiences with them into our
working society.
References:
Bavishi, A., Slade,
M.D., & Levy, B.R. (2016). A chapter a day: Association of book reading
with longevity. Social Science &
Medicine (1982), 164, 44-48.
Clinton, H. [CNN]. (2017,
June 27). Hillary Clinton full ALA conference speech. [YouTube]. CNN.
Gaiman, N. (2013,
October 15). Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming. The Guardian. Retrieved from
https://ww.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming
Krashen, S. (2012,
April 5). The power of reading. The COE
Lecture series. University of Georgia. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSW7gmvDLag
Li, R. (2016, September 28). The power
of reading. Youth Are Awesome. Retrieved
from https://www.youthareawesome.com/the-power-of-reading/
Robertson, K.
(n.d.). Motivating ELL student readers. Colorin
Colorado. Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/motivating-ell-student-readers
What are the Nine
Essential Skills? (n.d.). Skills Competences Canada. Retrieved from
https://www.skillscompetencescanada.com/en/essential-skills/what-are-the-nine-essential-skills/
Wick, S. (2018, May
2). The 4 C’s for 21st century skills. Fab Lab Connect. Retrieved from http://www.fablabconnect.com/the-4-cs-for-21st-century-skills/
Wilhelm, J.D.
(2017, October 30). The benefits of reading for pleasure. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/benefits-reading-pleasure
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