Skills Bank

Filming beginsFilm making in the classroom is beginning to be recognised as a powerful way to engage pupils. A staff training day in the use of video was organised so that Lewisham pupils could be supported in the creation of their own films.

Overview

Digital video is beginning to be recognised as another way for pupils to record their work. Becta has run pilot projects on using digital video in the classroom and has found that the technology engages many pupils more effectively than traditional teaching methods.

As this aspect of teaching and learning is so new there is not much existing expertise in supporting pupils to film and edit their own movies. Therefore staff at all Sage Educational Trust schools were invited to attend a staff training day to equip them with the skills and resources needed to support their pupils.

What did the training aim to achieve?

The training session aimed to:

The Training

All schools within the Sage Educational Trust were invited to send a member of staff for the training day, 17 attended. Staff were asked to bring a laptop with them, new digital video cameras were provided on the morning of the course for staff to use and then take back to school. Staff cover was also supplied.

The day started with unboxing the cameras and putting the batteries on charge. This gave everyone an opportunity to investigate the camera and familiarise themselves with the controls.

There was then a short presentation setting out the reasons why staff might consider using digital video in the classroom and showing examples of videos made by pupils for curriculum use.

A teacher from a school that had just started a digital video project with support from the Leading ICT teacher talked about the how she had managed the filming with her pupils. She found that her pupils were inspired by the project and had easily grasped how to film and edit.

Working on the principle that the best way to learn is to ‘do it yourself’ staff were split into groups of four and asked to create, film and edit a movie. They could either choose a given scenario or devise one of their own.

Each group was asked to devise a storyboard and then to film a short movie. Each member of the group had to ensure that they took turns in filming, directing and acting. A variety of crib sheets were made available including ones which detailed the variety of shots that could be used and gave hints and tips on making a successful movie. You can download a template in Word (27KB) for storyboarding.

Filming begins

Filming Begins

Once the filming was finished the cameras were connected to the computers and the footage downloaded to the laptops. At this stage it was realised that the majority of the laptops lacked the required firewire connection for connecting to the camera. Fortunately a spare laptop was found which meant that each group had at least one laptop to use for editing.

More filming

More Filming

After lunch a short presentation was made on how to use the software for editing the film. Staff were shown how to change the order of clips, how to edit the clips, how to edit the sound, how to add sounds and how to add a title and credits. They were then asked to edit their movies.

The plenary involved watching all the movies – three of them were completely finished and one was finished except for the credits. Staff learned a lot from watching each other’s creations and swapped tips with each other.

Copies of all the movies were made so that a DVD could be made and distributed to all the course participants. Clips from one film can be viewed on the Sage Educational Trust web site at: www.sageeducationaltrust.org.uk/edemocracy (will be posted shortly)

Outcomes

The training day was very well received. Participants felt empowered to start projects within their own classrooms. Several staff indicated that they would start by asking pupils to film the School Council in action and to show the film during assembly so that the whole school could see democracy in action.

Two members of staff intend to start cross year projects. Other staff have said that they will train staff within their own school.

One teacher asked her class to develop bullying scenarios to add to the eDemocracy web site. These are ongoing but clips can be seen on the Sage Educational Trust web site. You can download the lesson plans in Word (50KB)

Another class have made videos of their local park highlighting the changes they would like made, these are to be shown to the Lewisham Cabinet Member for the Environment.

Another school intends for its Year 6 pupils to film an instructional video to inform younger pupils about the procedures involved in voting for members of the school council. They will also film a school council meeting so that pupils can see the democratic process and decide whether they would like to be involved with the school council.

You can download two of the videos that were made:

Unexpected Outcomes

The teacher who had already started a digital video project had indicated the difficulty of managing the project with only one teacher and a Teaching Assistant in the classroom. It was agreed that teachers starting new projects could alert the group and supply cover could be made available for other teachers to visit the class and support the teacher. In this way everybody could gain expertise with the technology and learn from experience what might be the best way to manage projects within their own classrooms.

Even though staff had been asked to bring an “up to date” laptop to the course the majority of them did not have the correct ports to enable connection to the digital video cameras. Therefore three laptops have been purchased for loan to schools that want to develop digital video but do not have sufficient resources.

One school was so enthused by the potential of digital video that they managed to persuade their Headteacher to purchase more video cameras by showing her the film they had made on the course.

Conclusions

The participants judged the training day as a success. They welcomed the opportunity to spend time making their own films and to get real practical experience of all the elements of making a movie. They enjoyed collaborating with teachers from other schools and sharing ideas. Contacts were made that will be followed up in supporting each other with classroom projects.

Participants left the course feeling that they had the required skills to start movie making projects straight away. They could see where digital video could fit into their lesson planning and were convinced that it would enhance the learning of their pupils.

Additionally school staff can use video to document school activities to show to parents and the wider community. Parents could also be invited into the school to become involved in video making and editing activities.

local e-Democracy National Project

The Sage eDemocracy Project is part of The local e-Democracy National Project

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