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.