Digital Videos Reflection

Wow, what a learning experience.  I got a lot more out of this than I anticipated. Did I say that at the beginning of each of these media reflections? Well, this one led my learning in two directions, firstly the obvious one of learning to create digital video but the second, legal practices, which although it applies to all digital media, was much richer in this case.

I thought I was flying along creating my movie and then I had a bit of a realization that I needed to consider legal practices a bit more deeply and was introduced to creative commons.

Legal and Ethical Practices with Digital Movies

I created my movie in moviemaker 2.6 by selecting group of family photos and trying out all of the effects, transitions and included text on my introductory image. I then decided that I needed to add some music with an audio file. I uploaded into moviemaker a Deep Forest music track from a cd that I have at home. It sounded great and fitted in with the photos well. I was very happy with my progress even though it had taken me a few hours of tweaking and playing around with moviemaker.

I was now ready to embed it in my wiki. My first problem was with plug-ins but that turned out to be fairly minor. My solution through collaborating on my university forum was to upload my movie into youtube and then embed it into my wiki. Problem solved except that I started thinking about my music. Am I allowed to use the music on my cd even though I paid for it and it is mine? Back to the forum I go!

I haven't ever posted anything on the web, not even in facebook so it was a new question for me. The answer was that I couldn't use third party music without their permission as I would be distributing it on the web by embedding it in my wiki. However, a solution suggested by a fellow university student was to check out the creative commons web-site. Well there went another night!

I have to say, initially I was very confused about the creative commons web-site but by the end of the night I had chosen a music track uploaded it to moviemaker and then you tube and finally onto my wiki. I had also checked out what I was allowed to do with that track under the specific creative commons licence attached to it and included a link to that as well. So now I can comfortably enjoy my movie on my wiki knowing that I haven't breached any legal rules in relation to distributing third party media.

The other consideration I had to address was the use of photos of my children in my movie and consequently on my wiki. As the photos were ethical and I don't believe endangered them in any way I had decided it was okay to include those photos in my movie and consequently my wiki. However, considering the context in which I am using my wiki, that is in the capacity of a student teacher, I also needed to make sure that people viewing my wiki know that I have permission from the parents of the children in the images even though I am their parent. In my future as a qualified teacher I do need to be aware of putting photos of anyone's children on the web and ensure that I do have the correct permissions from parents and guardians of those children. In addition to that I also need to mindful of the children's wishes as well. For whatever reason they may not want their photo on the internet and I feel that we as teachers need to respect the wishes of our students as well.

These requirements of distributing third party material and receiving permission to put photos of students on the internet must also be passed down to the students themselves. Students when participating in learning experiences involving digital media and on-line learning spaces must be taught to take into consideration legal and ethical practices as well. One way of doing this is to engage students in activities such as I have just done and have them work out what their options are when including third party material etc on the internet. Introduce them to creative commons web-sites and let them look at the licence keys attached to each music track. Maybe they can create their own music and include it on the creative commons web-site, selecting which licence they think is relevant for their piece of work. This would certainly help them respect the wishes of other creators who are sharing their creations as well.

Finally, I embedded my movie on my wiki. It has a sound track from the creative commons web-site with attribution. I have also embedded it below for easy viewing.

This movie has been created using windows movie maker 2.6 and uploaded to you tube as an unlisted video.   The audio file was sourced from sound cloud which was a link on the creative commons website. The name of the audio file is "The Night Off" by Forest Lake. You can find the licence terms here.  Permission has been received from the parents of all persons under 18 participating in this video. The digital images shown are the original creations of myself and my mother-in-law Margaret Russell.

Now that I have experienced creating a video and considered the legal and ethical implications of sharing it, I need to think about whether this technology is of any use in a learning context.

How can Digital Videos be Integrated into my Learning Design Framework?

My first idea is that videos can be used in several ways by teachers. They can be used as a presentation tool to present ideas and concepts, to motivate, to inspire or to spark a thinking process, but they can also be used by the students themselves to think, enquire, collaborate, critique and create.

While the idea of using digital video by the teacher as a presentation of  the content to be learned has a place in learning, I am going to focus on the second scenario where students create the video based around a scaffolded project with the aim of facilitating higher order thinking. The following is a SWOT analysis outlining my ideas surrounding digital video in that context.

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSES
Easy to make Easy to share Technology such as cameras and phones with video capabilites, ipods for recording sound, movie maker etc are generally easily accessible for minimum cost Incorporates visual learning styles with images that can be still, moving, photos, animated, drawings, mind-maps etc. All can be incorporated into a video. Incorporates auditory learning styles with sound, whether it be music, speach, noises interviews etc	Unless scaffolded correctly some students may not feel comfortable with the media as it displays the students creativity and can also require the student to present some of their personality in the project If weakly scaffolded the time spent on the media may overtake the learning objective
OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Encourages creativity Students have an end product that they can visually see, hear and share suitable for collaborative learning If the learning objective is well scaffolded and students are supported where neccesary, students who may not normally be comfortable sharing their personality or being openly creative may grow in confidence Opportunity to teach legal and ethical use of digital media	Easy to breach copyright laws with images and audio. Need to consider closely the suitability of images and audio for students especially in the context of modern culture and ethical behaviour in learning environments.

If I am going to integrate digital video into my learning design framework I would also need to consider where it could fit into Bloom's Taxonomy? 

What do I hope to achieve by integrating digital video? Can digital video be used at the level of higher order thinking?

The following is a prezi created by Joshua Coupal that I found while researching. Joshua's prezi overviews some of what we have learnt about technology and learning in this course and goes on to categorize digital video right at the top of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy as enabling higher order thinking in the categories of evaluating and creating.

If digital video can be incorporated in higher order thinking what learning experiences or scaffolds could I incorporate?

I think that digital video learning experiences that result in higher order thinking skills would need to incorporate inquiry, evaluation and creation of new ideas. As per most learning experiences at this level the type of scaffold and question posed to students is very important. It is also possible to set a project using collaborative learning when integrating digital video. Therefore, projects incorporating small groups of maybe five students would enrich the experience.

For business students, a topic such as the effects on the local economy of proposed measures to import a product that is currently already produced in australia could form the basis of a project. This topic could result in images, interviews, debates and ideas all drawn together into a video presentation.

To manage the scope of the topic, students could initially be shown a web-site about employment in the banana farming industry in Tully. This web-site could begin to generate some thought and enquiry as to possible changes in employment resulting from changes in the local economy. What could the local economy do to protect employment from outside changes, or is diversity in employment opportunities in the local area an option? What other employment opportunities could be created? Can the students create a video recruiting employees in this new employment opportunity?

Another possibly less complex idea that still results in creating new ideas would be to have students consider, enquire, evaluate and create new ideas for a new product that solves a problem and then present a marketing video. The problem may be taking the rubbish out? Is there a product that can solve this problem? Due to my own lack of creativity it may be beneficial to brainstorm with the class some ideas for problems that need solving. In addition, if a student comes up with a great idea, we may need to again look at learning about copyright from the point of view of the owner of the idea.

Again, to assist students to focus on the learning process, the project could include the use of a storyboard or concept map as part of the process of creating the video.

In summary, digital video is generally accessible and is much more than a presentation tool if used correctly. It opens up the opportunity to teach students about legal and ethical practices when using technology particularly when sharing. Digital video also enables inquiry, evaluation and creative thinking all of which are higher level thinking concepts. Finally, digital video complements and encourages learning using visual as well as auditory learning styles.