Post #14/15

Jason Gaylord
May 8, 2009
Professor McCulloch

After getting together with my group and working on the video or iMovie project, I found the editing process to be very gratifying. It is like taking a big chunk of clay and whittling down into a fine piece of art. I was very impressed with the final product and thought that iMovie was a fairly easy tool to use in order to create such a professional looking piece of work. In fact, though I always start out with this idea that anything I make is going to be totally awesome and it always does not meet very high expectations, I find that this project came out pretty close to expectations. The only real problem I see in the future is keeping the film on time and not going over the limited allotted.
In the article "Splicing Video into the Writing Process" by Scot and Harding, there are several valuable illustrations and points the authors make. For instance, they write, "Using digital videos as a tool for teaching content ties what could be just a glitzy, new technology directly to the curriculum and increases students capacity to communicate in the digital age." I agree with this assessment because after making a movie myself, I found that there were several elements that went into actually executing the production. For example, like Scot and Harding point out, there is a lot that goes on before actual filming. The process, on a whole is actually quite complex. There is a formulation of a thesis, a storyboard, and conclusion, which is then followed by revising and editing. Consequently, it is easy to see how using video technology is very comparable to writing a full length essay; however, as Scot and Harding point out, there are several other elements to creating a video that an essay might not have. With video production, there is a tremendous amount of participation by the students, working to together and building communication skills, and completing a project that students are proud to show off to others.
I think video production is a good tool, if used correctly, to reach students on multiple levels.