Digital Moviemaking in the Classroom

In a history or social studies classroom, I think there are many ways that digital movie making could be incorporated in the classroom. For example, as mentioned in the Kearney and Schuck article, making a newscast could be a fun learning experience. The students could pick a time period, or use the time period being studied in the class, such as World War II and act as new reporters from that era, and pick topics to give a news report about, like D-Day or Pearl Harbor. Similar to a newscast, students could create a talk show. They could have one host, and invite historical figures from all eras, or from a specific one, and interview them on the show. If they chose a specific era, such as the 1960s, they could use people such as Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon Johnson, Henry Kissinger, Nixon, or General Westmoreland, and interview them separately, but with similar questions to get all the sides of the story. One last project could be to create a program from the History Channel. This is more open-ended because it could be a biography or a program about a certain event in history. They could chose a program from the History Channel and model theirs after it on their topic of choice. This would require some research and script writing to narrate what they present in their program.

Structuring the project is a little difficult because it is challenging to ensure that the project is enriching students’ understanding of the topic, and not simply acting as a filler project that is seen as a creative outlet. By detailing the requirements and objectives teachers can ensure that their assignments will be educational. In addition, assessment should include the clearness of the message the students communicated, and include other assignments, such as a journal or response paper, so students can reflect on what they learned. Similarly, the assignment should require some analysis or observation; all three projects listed above would require analysis and observation because the students would need to decide who/what and why they wanted to include what they did (perhaps they could write about this in their journals) and write a script to represent their message, which would include some analysis. Assessment should also take place frequently, with planning, revision, and the actual product all graded so students have room to improve on their beginning concept.

Using digital movie making in the classroom can be a fun and enriching project, especially today with so much emphasis on television and other media outlets for movies, such as You-Tube. However, too much use of it, as always, or a project using movie making just for the sake of using the technology will be detrimental to the learning process and will take away from the material. When used responsibly and organized well, it can be a very useful tool in the classroom. Although I think these types of projects are fun for the students, and will increase their understanding, I do not agree with George Lucas because a history class is not a theatre, production, or directing class. Our focus is on the material, and while learning to use this technology is a benefit of these products, I do not believe it should ever be the main focus of the project or the majority of the grade. Rather, the material, the way it is presented, and the accuracy should be the focal point of the assignment.