Well, I must have gotten a little distracted reading everyone else’s musings on the very last NECC (it will be the ISTE Conference from now on). I can’t believe it’s taken me a week to put together a few thoughts on Hall Davidson’s “8 Things You didn’t know you could do with Video (and 2 You did).” Of course, Hall had a lot more than ten tips to share and you can get the whole list from his Discovery Education Speakers’ Bureau handouts page (the PDF is a quicker download). On the list (for both Mac and PC): a PPT trick to keep a video going over a number of slides, green screen/chromakey fun, QuickTime Pro, screen capture programs, Google Earth, cell phones, Film on the Fly, fun with reversing clips… You get the idea.

Not a NECC reflection, but a reminder - “Science of the Movies” visits the Jim Henson workshop on Thursday night.

Watch this morning’s debate about the role/future of bricks and mortar schools. Though they declared a single winner, we all win by listening to these well thought out statements by some well known educators and two very eloquent high school students.

Dear Educators:

This summer, the American Film Institute will launch a complete redesign of AFI ScreenNation - AFI’s Web site dedicated to featuring the best teen filmmakers on the Web.

The big difference is that AFI ScreenNation has been re-tooled to fully integrate YouTube into its framework.

In fact, AFI ScreenNation is part of an ambitious overhaul of AFI.com to include AFI’s Digital Archive. This means that teen filmmakers will have an opportunity to be featured next to videos that include AFI Life Achievement Award winners, AFI television programming and featured films from AFI Fellows and Alumni.

Furthermore, AFI ScreenNation will still include helpful tips and tutorial videos, as well as the complete instructional series LIGHTS, CAMERA, EDUCATION!

Now is your chance to recommend teen filmmakers to AFI ScreenNation. If you or a teen filmmaker that you know has a YouTube link to submit, please send it in an e-mail to screennation@afi.com.

 

Reflecting on this last school, it has become quite obvious to me that schools are moving away from mini-DV tape camcorders and towards less expensive, flash memory cameras like the Flip and Kodak’s Zi6 or Zx1. I think there may have been some brief flirting with DVD and hard drive camcorders, but they have their own management problems and don’t represent any significant cost savings. I had been planning to write a comparison of the two right at the end of school. What stopped me was importing video into Windows computers. (I am holding my Mac-biased tongue here, all my Apple video editing programs seem to be just fine importing video from either camera.) MovieMaker can handle the Flip’s video files after installing the right codec and Adobe Premiere Elements is  happy with the Zi6. However, the converse is not true and I haven’t been able to find any online solutions. So, one of my main goals at NECC week after next will be to try and get some face time with the camera and software people to see what they know. I would also like to hear from you. Do you use one of these cameras or another flash memory brand with PC software? Would you please share your story here via comment or email me at jbtv(at)mac.com?

Today, the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing to examine how technology, innovative education tools, and digital content are transforming and improving education in America. The DEN’s very own Scott Kinney, Vice President of Outreach and Professional Development for Discovery Education, served as one of seven panelists who testified as to how technology and digital content can improve American education in the future.

Citing recent research, Scott illustrated that students use technology profusely at home, while most are unable to use that same technology in the classroom. Today’s tech-savvy students function by consuming, processing, and learning from media, in many forms simultaneously. Scott asked the committee to envision an educational system that supported the use of technology in the classroom, therefore, supporting how students learn naturally.

What do you think? If you were asked to testify in front of the House Education and Labor Committee on the Future of Learning, what would you share with them?

I had mentioned “Let’s be Green” in my re-cap of our state festival but had never seen Tricia’s own work about when red met green, “Complementary in Every Way” before. Leave it to an art teacher!

Kindergarten teacher Al Doss snagged an HP mini laptop for “Al’s Ah Ha Moment.” How can a brick and an Apple IIgs lead to a technology enriched classroom?

“New T-E-C-H-nology“  is a fun take off on a commercial done by engaged high school students who like learning in teams. Their effort won a Flip Ultra video camcorder.

Jack Tovey’s “Art for the Digital Generation” puts a new spin on Picasso and got him a copy of the ISTE book Visual Arts Units for All Levels.

I think I have a new favorite show on the Science Channel: Science of the Movies Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. It looks like it’s going to focus mostly on high tech F/X but I think we can borrow a few ideas for our students’ videos. Last week’s premiere episode featured a couple of neat effects that we can imitate easily enough in schools.

Doggicam is the name of a camera/filming company that got it’s start because a dog food commercial needed some dog’s eye view shots of the world “with attitude.” They developed a rig to see through Fido’s eyes and created a whole new industry to give us a fresh perspective by changing how we look at the world. There’s no reason we can’t share that philosophy through creative student projects. Set the camera down low to get an ankle level view of kids coming up the stairs or trooping down the halls during passing periods. Or strap the camera to a skate board to get a worm’s eye view of the world as it moves from here to there. (Picture courtesy of the Doggicam Photo Gallery)

Split screen is also a way to multiply your talent. This depends heavily on your software so Mac users are going to need at least iMovie ‘09 or iMovie HD6 with purchased plug-ins while PC folk would have to own a next level video editing program like Adobe’s Premiere Elements. There is a free MovieMaker plug-in but it can be a challenge to integrate. The big trick here (aside from either picture-in-picture or green screen capability) is to keep the camera locked down and immobile so that the backgrounds match up perfectly when you combine shots.  I think there are two ways to do it. The first is simply picture in picture where a cropped portion of one take is laid over one side of another take (i.e. actor on the left over actor on the right). The second is with the green screen/chroma key effect. You will have to wait for me to rearrange my kitchen studio to be able to video an example, but it’s just a take-off on the Harry Potter invisibility cloak that I demonstrated before. Your base shot is done with the actor talking to himself from one side of the screen. The second shot is either in front of a full screen green screen or with the green set up where the first self was (kind of a key hole). When you lay the second shot with its key color over the first, the first actor shows through the green and appears in and seems to be interacting with the second shot. See “Simply Integrated” from the finalists’ page of the California Student Multi-Media Festival. It’s about half way down.

And speaking of the CSMMF, it looks like they had another wonderful celebration of student creativity last weekend at both ends of the state. See our man-on-the-street Hall Davidson report over at Media Matters.

P.S. and a quick tip for you MovieMaker users from my Digital Storytelling students at Wilkes University. In order to separate the audio from a video clip, just drag the clip down to the audio/music track. Voilá!

Graphic from ISTE’s site supporting your learning (and teaching) journey with a focus on digital citizenship.