Join KQED, SFMOMA, the Alameda County Office of Education, local artists and educators for the Integrated Learning Summer Institute, August 13-15, 2013 at Chabot Space and Science Center. All educators are welcome to register. Plenary speakers will include Spark-featured artists Favianna Rodriguez and Rhodessa Jones. The Integrated Learning institute is like summer camp for educators, set in a beautiful, natural environment with three days full of working with arts education experts and getting inspired to integrate the arts across all subjects.
KQED and SFMOMA will be presenting a three-part workshop during the institute about storytelling and exploring identity. Educators who sign up for this special session will create their own short film using personal symbolism to create a storyline. This professional development opportunity, related to using and making media in the classroom, is a perfect way to learn best practices for incorporating art and technology into CCSS curricula.
Sign up by the end of May for $50 off the registration fee, and select "Tracing Identity through Digital Media" as one of your mini-courses. We look forward to seeing you in August!
Nearly every student who is in school today will enter the workforce needing skills in media production. From social media to YouTube videos, many industries will require a knowledge of how to leverage online platforms. In the arts classroom, media production is a dynamic way for students to gain these technical skills, while also practicing aesthetic valuing, design thinking, communication, and creative writing. All of these skills can be cultivated through the use of media-making projects. For this reason, student media-making projects are an excellent way to introduce these 21st century proficiencies.
A good, basic-level media project to use with students is a narrated slideshow. The programs used to make one are relatively simple and students can either take their own photos or find properly licensed images on the web in addition to using their own voice to narrate the story. KQED has developed a new tool for educators to assist in the understanding of how to create a slideshow as well as the implementation of such a project in the classroom. Arts-focused slideshows can be used in visual and performing arts classes as a reporting, portfolio, or assessment tool, but they can also be used in other subjects, such as history and social studies, as a tool for understanding culture through art and artifacts.
How do artists interpret personal histories and cultural traditions to create a point of inquiry into current events and contemporary life? How do you create common experiences for all students in a diverse classroom? Is it possible to sail a Spanish galleon made of manila folders to Hog Island? These questions and more will be discussed at an upcoming KQED Arts Education workshop hosted in partnership with Teaching Artists Organized in Oakland.
Educators are invited to join us on January 21 for a day of art, dance and discovery. We'll explore the work of local artists including Ala Ebtekar and Michael Arcega (check out his his manila folder Spanish galleon in the video below).
We'll also develop collaborative lesson plans and learn a few Bhangra dance moves. Bhangra is an Indian folk dance, and many young dance teams are keeping the tradition alive in the Bay Area with the yearly Dhol di Awaz competition.
Read more about this exciting workshop and sign up on the Teaching Artists Organized website. There is a fee but scholarships are available from KQED. Send an email to ArtsEd@KQED.org to learn more.
There are a number of necessary skills that are essential to learning the process of making slideshows with audio. Like most multimedia productions, we can organize these skills into a common workflow or process which can be organized into three phases: pre-production, production, and post-production. We will review these phases and point you to some excellent resources that can be of great assistance.
Pre-production
The process begins with pre-production. During this time, the media producer develops the concept or idea. It should be time to brainstorm the purpose of the project, its message or argument, the intended audience, and perhaps the structure. It's always a good idea to research other multimedia projects that may inspire or influence the work. This worksheet (Media Planning Worksheet) is a great way to get started with a slideshow project. This worksheet can also help educators create a focused project assignment in thinking about what is required of students. In the classroom, it's a good idea to get students to use this worksheet and come up with a paragraph explanation or synopsis of their project along with perhaps an understanding of what they will need to record and what they will need to acquire from the internet or outside sources. Once the planning and understanding of the project concept is established, pre-production also includes developing storyboards (Storyboard Template), shot lists, and even a list of URLs of media resources like images and/or sounds. All of this work should culminate into a script where the media producer knows exactly what will be seen (visual material) vs. what will be heard (sound). If there is a voice-over narration that accompanies the project, then this is the time to write what that voice-over narration will be and to match images to the various parts of the narration. Here's a script template to use during this process. And here's an example of how the script looks from one of our QUEST slideshow scripts.
Production
Once the script is complete, that marks the end of pre-production. The script is the blueprint for the project, but it does not mean that it cannot change. The media producer should allow flexibility during the process as some ideas do not seem to make sense or feasible once production begins or some ideas give way to better ideas.
During production, the media producers record or find all the necessary media assets for the project -- images and sounds. Some images may be found online, some may be shot by the media producer either in the past or for this specific project. Likewise with sound, there may be sounds that will be found online or recorded. For example, most likely the media producer will record the narration. That means this process includes any combination of the following: downloading online images, taking pictures, scanning images, downloading online sound effects or music, and recording voice-over narration.
Here's a great worksheet (Media Log for Slideshows) to use while finding media online. It helps the media producer log the assets that may be used in the project. Most importantly, it references or cites where images and sounds where found so that the sources can be included in the end credits as a list of citations. This is very important if you are using material that is copyrighted.
This worksheet (Slideshow Resources) lists a bunch of good resources and tips before beginning a project. It includes links to various tutorials for video editing software or sound recording applications, as well as tips for how to take good quality photos.
File Management
It is best to prepare a project folder on your computer's desktop. Inside the folder the media producer should have two other folders - one for images and the other for sounds and music. Here's a great video educast that explains the process of doing this for a Mac and using iMovie.
Using iMovie
Part of production includes working with iMovie to record your voice-over narration. Here's are two great video educasts that presents a basic overview of iMovie and how to create/record audio narration. (Note: this is a playlist that hosts 2 videos).
Production ends once all of your images and sounds are imported into GarageBand and iTunes, and you have recorded your voice-over narration.
Post-Production
Post-production is the process of crafting and sequencing your images and sounds in iMovie or your video editing program of choice. This does not mean that you can't redo your voice-over narration or go out and record or collect more images. It is quite common to back to production once in post-production. It involves developing a rough cut which is like a rough draft of your project --This version may look as such: the media producer has put the images in a sequence - maybe not all the images, maybe not timed to the right rhythm or pacing, maybe no effects or transition or music. Eventually, the media producer works to finesse this project by adding or subtracting the length of each image in the sequence; adding effects to the images; adding transitions; adding titles; adding music; mixing the sound levels. Finally, once the project is finished, it is ready to be exported and published.
Here are a series of videos that explain how to do all of these techniques in iMovie. (Note: this is a playlist that hosts 5 videos)
I'm back from my trip to Philadelphia where I attended the ISTE conference -- a lot of educational technology stuff. It was really interesting, but I have to say that I kept thinking about the work you are all doing in this workshop and how impressive it is! Some of your stories are so powerful and honest and I really appreciate all of your courage to go "there" for this workshop. It has made it so meaningful.
So technically, our work is not finished. Some of you still want to complete your films -- finesse them and so forth. I would like to give you time to do this, but do not want to prolong it and lose momentum. Can everyone please promise to be finished with your films by Friday, July 8? I would want everyone to upload their films to YouTube as well as send me a digital copy of it.
If you need guidance on how to export your movie and upload it on YouTube, I can be of help. Please email if you need help.
Also, I would like you to now take the time and reflect on the work we did in class. Please think about what you learned, what you still need to work on, the process you went through in making your film, and how you would ultimately frame this project with your students. So, in short, I'm asking you to respond to this question and comment in the comments section below: How would you use digital self-portraits in your class? What other learning objectives could it connect to? What would be the challenges? What value would it add to your students' learning?
From this point, Kristin and I will help you get your project on its feet in the Fall. We will follow through with you so that perhaps, we can present our work at the ISTE Conference next Summer in San Diego!
Thanks again for your great work and dedication!
Matt
On Monday, our trip to MOMA and Zeum was quite inspirational. We were able to view amazing self-portraits from an array of visual artists like Robert Arneson's California Artist (shown on the left). We were able to gain insight into a variety of artists' processes. What issues/factors motivate them to create work. What choices they make in their work to convey meaning. The impact of those choices on the work itself and how the audience perceives it. Ultimately, the intention of this trip was to help you to understand the artistic process and perhaps help give you inspiration and guidance for your own digital self-portraits.
In telling a digital self-portrait, you must be specific. Narrow your ideas to a single idea/theme. Focus and do not be general. Do not tell your life story. Keep it simple. Some ideas that stuck with me during the museum visit was that the artists' work that we examined responded to a variety of themes. If you are having trouble, maybe pick one of these, or adapt it:
1. Create a response to how people perceive you. (currently or in the past)
2. Create a response to how you may have been stereotyped.
3. Explore a strong memory.
4. Explore a common emotion.
5. How do you value your family's tradition/culture? (a cross cultural/generational tale)
6. Express a relationship of yours - a person, place, object.
An interesting framing of your story can be told through the lens of you at the age of your students. So, if you are an 8th grade teacher, maybe you can create a digital self-portrait about yourself when you were in 8th grade -- but, be specific -- pick one of the topics above.
That's it. Keep thinking and planning. Create your scripts. And for now, we'll leave you with MOMA's description of Robert Arneson's California Artist:
Welcome video artist educators! We're so excited to be going through this creative exploration with you. Hopefully, this course will allow you to explore and express yourselves using video as a platform. The sky is the limit.
Today, we've discussed ways to think about self-portraits and what constitutes auto-biography. Hopefully, we have kept the conversation open but not overwhelmingly limitless.
Now, it is essential to begin to digest and unpack the information we covered today and begin to frame it around you. What do you want to tell about yourself? Are you going deep into the past? Is this a concept that is not bounded by time? How will you tell your story? What media will you use? Will you be opening old shoe boxes that contain photos from your childhood? Will you go out in the world and film? Will you surf the internet for found videos and images?
Remember, we will be keeping these videos to under 5 minutes.
Ok, enough talk, let's put down our thoughts. Please write your ideas in the comments section of this post.
Do Now is a weekly activity for students to respond to current issues through the use KQED's award-winning online media resources and social media tools like Twitter.
