Making the Film: Reflections by Jennifer Shaw
As a student teacher completing my internship in a 2/3 classroom, I began my practicum with a vision: To create a project, which integrated technology with writing and acting. I decided that a movie was a perfect combination of the three elements, but I did not know where to begin. Within my first week at Dr. Morris Gibson School, I met with Barb Martin and Richard Gaskell of the Galileo Educational Network. I explained to Barb and Richard that my background was based in Drama and English and that I was looking for a project that would integrate my Language Arts program with Technology. They were interested in hearing my ideas and described how Galileo could work with me to help design and create my project. Barb helped to form the storyboard for the movie "Journey into the Past" and offered her assistance with any of the classroom lessons and activities. Barb and Richard were in our classroom whenever we needed them, providing their knowledge, experience and support. Galileo helped guide us from the process of script writing, filming at Heritage Park and at the school to the process of editing. As the filming of our movie reached completion, Foothills ICT provided our classroom with a computer and the program, "Pinnacle Studio Seven". Jill Tanghe, a multi media student from Lethbridge Community College, who was working with Galileo for her final practicum, used her expertise to guide the 2/3 students through editing the movie. Students were thrilled with the opportunity to use the computer to edit. The 2/3s became experts at choosing their favourite movie clips, "clicking", dragging the images and placing them sequentially on a timeline. They were able to edit sound, add text, shorten or lengthen clips, as desired, alter colour and create transitions between scenes to produce a finished texture to the movie.
Because of their involvement with every stage of the movie-making process, students achieved an authentic sense of ownership with this project. Each member of the class had an opportunity to write, to participate in the filming, to act and to edit the movie. Galileo helped to transform technology from a weekly trip to the computer lab to a dynamic, essential part of our learning journey. As a student teacher, Galileo Educational Network was an invaluable resource. Barb and Richard were a constant source of support and knowledge and were able to guide me through the technology involved in creating our story on film. Through the project, the 2/3 students achieved a remarkable ability to understand the power of technology. While discussing the process of creating this film, one of the students remarked how, "Creating a film on computer is a lot like sewing. We are stitching the different parts together." Agreeing with her friend, a second student remarked, "It's just like how pioneers would create a quilt but instead of using different pieces of cloth, we are taking different pictures, and sewing them together to create our story." Because of Galileo, my students have formed their own connections between events and experiences of the past with their own, very modern lives. Technology became not just another subject to master, but a way of expressing, experimenting and creating.
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