Summer is here and now I turn my attention to the ADE conference in Cork that I will be attending in July. The area of focus is iPads and online publishing as authors. I am looking forward to collaborating with fellow ADEs from all over the world and hope to gain fresh ideas I can integrate for next school year.
In Digital Media the students are exploring various photo editing techniques and I was impressed with this student's use of texture photos she took around school and the three photos she shot that show a wide spectrum of the school.
This year students who made music videos created a cover of their favorite song. High quality audio is very important and I supplied students with a few microphones to choose from to record their singing. Here is one of my student's songs after she recorded herself first singing with the Samson Meteor and then recording the piano in GarageBand trying the H4n.
Logitech USB Desktop Microphone ($30)
- Samson Meteor Mic USB Studio Microphone ($85)
Zoom H4n Handy Portable Digital Recorder ($300)
In computer class, last quarter we learned photography and this quarter we are exploring graphic design. Today's assignment was to create a package design for a new product each student has been developing. I want to also have the students learn design marketing while making an advertisment for a product.
One of my students made a light tent for under $5 that greatly enhanced product photos. It worked great. Here are a variety of photos with the light source being moved around. The photo without the shadows is when I turned the light off and lowered the shutter speed.
In class I'm teaching students the process of creating a short film. We learned story structure and the required elements needed in Acts I, II, and III. Then they wrote their story in script format, which they found challenging. Last night they sketched their storyboards in preparation for filming. I have about 75 students creating a video and to give individual feedback on all of them would take too much class time.
So today, to be efficient in getting students feedback, I had each student share Act I of their storyboards. I told them that Act I was the most important part of their film and if you don't engage and connect with the audience, you won't have an audience for Act II & III.
This is how we gave feedback today in class while each student took about three minutes to explain Act I. With 24 students per class and 80 minutes of time, students were able to present and get effective feedback :- Students sketch their storyboards, take photos of the pages, and I project them on the screen
- While presenting, the other students use my Google Doc form to give feedback
- I am also giving feedback on the form & grading their presentation
- After the student presents, they go and see the student comments for immidiate feedback
In computer class the students are applying camera and lighting techniques to make music videos while editing in GarageBand and iMovie/Premiere. Over Christmas break in Hawaii I met up with my good friend Brad and my brother-in-law Chris to talk filming equipment. The H4n recorder was discussed since they both use it for their work in film (check out Brad's gear and his audio recommendations at http://hawaiishoots.com/gear/). Yesterday my student Insoo recorded his guitar section of his song with the H4n and the quality turned out really well. "Fix You" (Erica) was recorded by plugging the guitar directly into the H4n while "Milleniums" used the H4n's microphone while placed on the tripod (see image below). Feel free to compare the sound quality of the two.
I am in the third year as the high school technology and digital media teacher and I feel I am finally seeing visual progress in my computer lab. There was nothing related to any video equipment for filming when I arrived and I have had to plan out a strategy for building one in the back corner with the purpose of motivating my students in photography and film.
Lighting is the most important in filming and photography so a makeshift studio with good three-point lighting was key. As my students helped me assemble the two soft boxes today of the main lights, I couldn't help reflecting back over the progress those students have come who were in this same room with me two years ago without any of it. Looking forward to teaching my students how to use the equipment and see how they apply it to their videos for the film festival.A project that I am working on with some other ADEs here in Korea for this year is a project that will benefit our schools in Seoul and our hope is to provide a framework and valuable information to publish online to share with ADEs around the globe.The project centers around helping principals in practicing 21st century technology skills to accomplish their job's tasks.
The first step we accomplished was polling our principals (including vice principals) to find out what forms of technology they are already using. We then met with and emailed principals to discuss the results and to find out what areas they wanted to improve on or simply explore. We shared with our principals some best practices that other principals were using that increase efficiency and productivity.
Currently we are in the stage of setting up a customized technology program with principals that gives objectives and desirable outcomes and then meet with the principals individually face-to-face or online to discuss the progress, answer questions, and share ideas.
So far it is going very well and I hope to attend the ADE conference in Ireland this summer to share the results along with my dissertation results from the effects of a positive digital footprint among students in applying for jobs.
After finishing semester exams I fly out of the hustle and bustle of Seoul with my family back to Hawaii to enjoy a break. During this time I received an email from one of my students saying he had made a Christmas song with GarageBand and wanted to share it with me. I was not only impressed with the quality of his song but the fact that he is applying what he is learning in my class to what interests him outside of the classroom. I also caught a couple of my students making Christmas cards in Photoshop since we just finished learning the program.
So go ahead and have a listen to the Christmas song.Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 2012
I remember at my previous school in 2008 I was a student council advisor with my wife and we transitioned the election speeches to videos rather than formal speeches in front of the student body. The change was sparked partly because the students did not know how to give a good public speech with the whole high school body peering and juding them and the other reason was because of a couple inappropirate words and gestures in the speeches.
Forcing students to record videos of the message of their cpeech forced them to be more concise with a limited amount of time (instead of rambling at times) while allowing their speeches to go viral beyond the mere student body. Check out this year's student speeches: