Lesson Ideas for video activities in Foreign Language class

I think the activity of creating a video is such a cool “tool” for us – teachers of Net Geners – because through the process, the students can learn so many things, such as how to organize and plan their actions before shooting the videos, how to use a video camera and its features, how to use the softwares to edit the video (usually the ones they don’t know how to use properly yet), and also it is a great exercise for them to practice making decisions in group and working as a team, but with each person having its own duty in the process, like in a movie crew.

A good idea to use video with foreign language classes is “PSA for Foreigners”, in which the students (from 8^th grade on) should create a PSA about any fact of daily life that is different here in Usa from the specific foreign country, like cultural differences: for example, the fact that here we don’t change plates when we eat pasta, and then meat: in Italy, they change plates every time they change “dishes”; or the fact that here we eat salad in a small bowl before or together with the main course, in Italy you eat in a regular plate, but after the “second course”; or the fact that in Spain when you go to a grocery store you have to pay for your plastic bags at the check out; or the fact that you have to insert one Euro coin in the kart to use it, but you can have your coin back if you take the kart back to its line… For the project, teacher would have to use a computer lab and at least 4 or 5 video cameras.

So, the students divided in groups of 4 would have to:

• research about those cultural differences in the web;
• choose one that they thought was the most interesting;
• show the teacher their option and get approval;
• decide each one’s role in the process;
• create the storyboard with the scenes to be shot;
• film the scenes;
• edit the video using Movie Maker in class with the help of the teacher, inserting effects, transitions and copyright free music;
• Post it on youtube;
• Write a report detailing the process;
• Finally, present the PSA in front of the class in the language studied.

I’m sure it would be a nice way to make students research about cultural differences and use the foreign language in a very practical and fun way. It would be a great opportunity to teach new vocabulary and correct the students’ pronounciation, and most important it would be real team work, but with a lot of fun and excitement.

Our PSA video project

This group video project was really fun to make. It was a relatively simple, but time consuming project, through which we were able to learn how to use different gadgets and softwares, such as a video camera, Movie Maker and Audacity. The video camera and tripod were pretty simple to operate, first we did some regular takes, then we used more of the camera features, like the zoom in and out. Transfer the video to the computer was easy, even if we had to use an USB drive to save it. The funniest, but more time-consuming part was editing it: selecting the scenes, putting effects and transitions using Movie Maker was really fun; it was more time-consuming because our video came as one file (without the scenes  separated), so every time we want to select a scene, we had to copy all the video and make the cuts using the timeline. Finding the “right” music to insert was a little challenge, because at freemusic.com there are so many options that after a while we were confused by all the music we had heard, but eventually we made up our minds and used three musics in the video, depending of the scene and effect we want cause. Post in Youtube was easy as well, because we already knew how to do it.

I think this project show us how fun, entertaining, exciting is to use video as an assignment in class. It makes students work together, make decisions as a group, organize the ideas and plan the actions before shooting. Also the excitement of posting it on-line, the possibility that anyone can see it, gives them more enthusiasm to work to have an more elaborated and well-done project. Nowadays, we must use everything possible to engage students in assignments, nothing works better with the Net Geners than the use of more advanced technology, with which they can create new things and also learn new tools and concepts. Video is definitely a great activity for our Net-Gener students.

They surprised me, but what would they say about some other issues?

    When we think about the Net-generation students, mainly college students, we assume that they are geeks who could do anything they want with their computers, but this is not always true. Reading Robert B. Kvavik’s findings, I was surprised to learn, for example, that in general the tools to create a web page and edit/ create video and audio are the least used. Another thing was their statement that they spend more hours using their computer for homework or school related activities than as a mean of communication. Also, the courses requirements for using a variety of technology tools are the main motivation for students learn how to use new tools or softwares.

    Even though they are net-geners, their skills are basic, just enough to accomplish their homework or work. This is well illustrated by Sharon Fass McEuen: “student technology skills can be likened to writing skills: Students come to college knowing how to write, but they are not developed writers. The analogy holds true for information technology.” But, when asked students stated that they are very skilled, what is very problematic when they begin a job, as confirmed by Judy Doherty, director of the Student Technologies Resource Group at Colgate University “Students state in their job applications that they are good if not very good, but when tested their skills are average to poor, and they need a lot of training.”

     But, actually what surprised me the most was the 2.2% of students who prefer totally on-line courses, I thought that number would be much higher. That’s great to learn that they still think teacher-student interaction is very important for their learning development.

    I would love to know what net-geners have to say about privacy issues, copyright violations (so common among youngsters) and plagiarism, as internet and technology makes them easier to be at the reach of their hands. 

Copyright - a big deal!!!!!

   Our class about Copyright was fun and really eye-opening for me. I was surprised to learn that even if a teacher just uses some copyright material to illustrate a class (in a power point presentation, for example) that he/she gives every year, they should by law ask permission to do so, but it is ok if you use the material for just ONE lesson only. Another thing that amazed me was the fact that if a teacher wants to pass a movie to his/her students, unless it is part of the curriculum, the teacher should ask for the license to show the movie to his/her class. Also, I found it really interesting to hear the examples of problems caused by parents regarding copyright violation.

  Everyday we see copyright violations in schools done by students and teachers, such as photocopy of materials for instruction purpose (instead of buying the whole book), use of music, movies, images to illustrate a presentation used every year by a teacher, use of music as part of a video made by students and presented at school, etc. Out of the Academic world things are even worse: people download videos, music, images without permission or copy software programs to be installed in more than one computer; people copy recipes and publish as their own; people copy paintings (if they are art students), and the list goes on and on. But, for me, in the web is where nowadays most of the copyright violations happen, because of the easy access to the information and the illusion that one is protected by his/her anonymaty.

   I think, as educators, we have to teach our students about copyright, because the general population (including most of the parents) doesn’t realize how serious it is and how it really applies for almost every creative work out there. We can do it by showing them videos about it from youtube, saying that you can just do that using internet connection, not downloading it, because it would be an infraction, and also we could ask students to be in the “artist’s” shoes, making them express what would be their feeling if anyone stole their work. Anyway, I would show them some real shocking examples of copyright violation and their consequences, and then ask them to reason about it, because they take all the materials in the web for granted, so they must learn that here in the US copyright violation is really a big deal.