Digital Videos

I might have taken the easy way around this task by using a video I had already made years ago. The reason I have done this is I think the thinking behind this video is very relevant to our context here. (Please excuse the Low Res upload. I have reached my download limit on my internet and have had to revert back to dial up.... I'm living one of the frustrations of ICTs)
I used to use videos in pitches to get the clients excited about their work. There is something special about putting audio and video together to a clients brand that gets them excited. If something all of a sudden had animation to it and they were always used to it being static then they were sold on an idea. Strange but true. I've always been baffled by it. But maybe there is something in this theory. Maybe students will get as excited and engaged with moving footage based on a topic as the clients did? When students are engaged they learn.

The video I have uploaded started out as an experiment. I wanted the video to tell the story from the perspective of someone that had visited Maroochydore as a child on their family holidays. It had to be seen through the eyes of them as a child and trigger that nostalga. They neeed to be reminded of how great it was as a holiday spot back then and how great it still is. The thought process used here are the exact analytical and evaluative thinking skills that students who create videos in their own context need to think about.

Making the video is the easy part. The ICT expectations on the smart classrooms website suggest that a student doing High School Level Media Studies should know how to make a video. It is the 'How' and the 'Why' that challenges their thinking. For example the student needs to ask themselves these questions before they even begin:
- is video the best medium to convey the message?
- How am I going to visually and aurally represent the message?
- Who is the target audience?
- Am I trying to sell a product?
- Do I want to educate somebody about something?
- Do I want it to be humorous?
-What camera angles will best reflect what I am trying to say?
-What kind of transitions will be used to add to the strength of the message?
-What kind of setting or costumes should be used? or maybe it should be an animation?

By answering these sorts of questions the students are using their visual and audible vocabulary and thinking about how to utilise the different codes used in video to best communicate a message. This requires analytical skills and further evaluations to ensure what they are creating really does communicate their message. In a collaborative situation this would trigger indepth discussions, debates and conversations about their research, testing and evaluating the effectivness of what they are creating in their videos. In my video I had to find the best way to create nostalgia on the screen. It is the crackling sound effects (auditory), music (auditory) and the jumpy, old fashioned video (Visual) with the black frame (visual) that communicate this message successfully.

Below is a SWOT analysis (using MindMeister) further evaluating the value of videos in learning: