Learning to Create Powerful Videos and Exploring Video Applications in the Art Classroom

I am a newbie to creating videos and making the video above was a reminder that while I have learned a lot, I still have a long way to go. In this post I will outline what I learned as I created my new introduction video and also touch on ways I hope to take this learning into my classroom.

The first video I created was poorly lit, done in a single shot, and had no editing. Prior to creating the video above, I read Chapter 6 from Hicks book Crafting Digital Writing and Chapter 5 from Hick’s and Turner’s book Argument in the Real World. Both chapters go into detail about the process of creating videos as a form of digital writing and how to teach that to students. They both give good descriptions of the video creation process and how that process can be taught to students, and they provide a number of classroom examples. 

In Hicks book Crafting Digital Writing, he touches on the MAPS method. MAPS is an acronym for “mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation.” In the book, Hicks highlights the importance of a good creative process which he outlines in three steps: prewriting and drafting, revising and editing, and publishing and assessing. When designed as a digital text, Hicks says that videos are compositions that are well planned and carefully crafted for a specific audience and a specific purpose (Hicks, 2013). Based on this information, before beginning my second video, I thought about who would be watching the video and what I wanted them to know after they viewed it. In Crafting Digital Writing (2013), Hicks says “the degree of our video consumption points to a world in which moving images speak louder than words” (pg 104). If this is indeed the case, then we as teachers need to be able to incorporate videos into our instruction and teach students how to properly view, and create videos of their own. 

In Crafting Digital Writing, Hicks refers to videos as “multimedia compositions” (Hicks, 2013). I love this phrasing. When I think of a composition, I think of traditional fine visual arts like painting, drawing, and music. To me, compositions are large pieces of work that require a lot of time and dedication to create. In Chapter 6, Hicks reinforces the title of the book when he refers to video production by saying it “is an act of crafting, not simply recording” (pg. 139). With this in mind, I wanted to make sure my second video included something other than just a recording of me talking to the camera. For this reason, I chose to include a screencast, couple transitions, images, and text. Hopefully these additions keep the viewer engaged and allow visual learners to actually see the technology I am discussing rather than just hearing me explain it. 

In Argument in the Real World, Hicks and Turner say their goal is “for students to deconstruct videos, understand common craft elements of video, then be able to remix existing video elements - as well as create their own” (Hicks & Turner, 2017, pg. 57). Their book states that “limiting the subject matter to something short that the participants already know well helps them to focus on aspects of video composition, not content” (Hicks & Turner, 2017, pg. 66). Since the content of my introduction video was about me, I was able to focus more on the process and spend time making sure I included all the techniques I wanted to practice. The act of creating an introduction video was similar to the introductory lesson examples Hicks and Turner explained in their book. 

My main goal for this post is to discuss what I learned about creating video texts and explain how I improved my original introduction video. However, I can’t help but mention some of my favorite takeaways from the reading. For starters, Hicks and Turner (2017) talked a lot about different ways to teach students to create video arguments. I have a class set of iPads and each student in my school has a chromebook. I want to try teaching video texts and with access to iPads and chromebooks, my students can record video, take pictures, and edit their film using iMovie and/or WeVideo. As an art teacher, another big takeaway from Chapter 5 in Argument in the Real World was the extensive list of public domain media sites. I have students select their own source images for art assignments and I always provide them with a list of sites where they can find images that are free to use. From Hicks and Turner's book, I have added: The Library of Congress, The National Parks, NASA, and Wikimedia Commons (2017) to my resource collection (which you can find in the Wakelet linked below). 

 

As promised I want to conclude by briefly discussing additional ways that I can take this information into my classroom. One thing I have been wanting to improve are the demonstration videos I discussed in the introduction video at the top of this post. Jessica Hopper’s Art Education (2016) article, concluded that “the ability to play, pause, and rewind and rewatch videos during practice provided the students with control over their learning process” and allowed for more differentiation (pg. 24). Since most of her students were able to work independently, it freed up more time for her to work one-on-one with students who needed additional instruction. Also, by pausing the videos, “students differentiated their own instruction naturally while they interacted with the tutorials” (pg. 26). The experience that Hopper describes is exactly what I have been striving to accomplish in my own classroom. I hope to take the information I read in Crafting Digital Writing and Argument in the Real World and apply it to the creation of videos similar to those described by Hopper. 

References

Hicks, T, (2013). Crafting digital writing: composing texts across media and genres. Heinemann.

Hicks, T., & Turner, K.H. (2017). Argument in the real world: teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts. Heinemann.

Hopper, J. J. H., (2016). Digitizing the easel:student perspectives on tutorial videos in the art classroom. Art Education, 69(4), 23-28. https://ezproxy.montevallo.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=115967428&site=ehost-live7