I’ve come across a fine instructional text that would be very useful for any teacher currently involved with a school television or media production class. The 2 volume course is called Television Production: A Classroom Approach (the first volume is the Teacher’s Edition and the second volume is the Student Edition).

The books were written by two very experienced media specialists, Keith Kyker and Christopher Curchy, who have taught media production in the Florida school system for over 22 years. The text, now in its 2nd Edition, is used by many secondary schools as the main textbook for their courses in television production.

A sample chapter from Television Production: A Classroom Approach is offered here.

There is also an accompanying CD-ROM featuring editable PowerPoint presentations featuring concepts and illustrations from the chapters and ready-made, fully editable tests for each chapter.

Together, Keith and Chris have written six educational technology books for Greenwood - Libraries Unlimited, and host the popular web-site SCHOOLTV.COM. Additionally, they develop video production software, and have recently authored a DVD and CD-ROM to supplement their latest textbooks. Keith and Chris have presented to thousands of educators at more that 50 conferences and educational gatherings in 14 states.

Order through Libraries Unlimited.

christopher curchy, educational technology books, instructional text, keith kyker, media production, media specialists, powerpoint presentations, production software, schooltv.com, school television, television production, video production

Studentfilms.com is an online filmmaking resource for film students and aspiring filmmakers from around the world.

The site features:

• internet broadcasting of your film (upload it to their site) - viewers of your film can write a review, you can post contact information for those interested in your work.
• forum discussions - discuss films on the site, introduce yourself to the studentfilm.com community, discuss filmmaking tips and techniques, ask questions about screenwriting, pre-production and post-production, ask questions about which film school to attend at the unversity level
• Filmmaking Articles - Online Avid Tutorials, Tools for writers, HD product reviews

Active topics on the forum right now include, requests for iMovie help, Making a movie from a book and a vigorous discussion of NY vs LA, which discusses which media center is best for a young filmmaker to begin their career in. There is also a discussion of universities which have exemplary film schools, like New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts.

The main element and greatest strength of the site is its abiltiy to broadcast films over the internet and enable peer discussion of each film. Studentfilms.com now has a database of over 800 films which is searchable by genre, popularity on the site, film title, and by film school. There is also this cool randomizer feature which will bring you to any film in the database. All the reviews and comments I saw where mature and honest attempts to be helpful. Everyone is in the same boat and the community really does try to share knowledge and creative ideas. The forum section is also very strong. There is a good deal of filmmaking information shared in the forum questions.

If you are considering a career as a filmmaker or are an educator with a media-production curriculum, I think that studentfilms.com will become an excellent resource for you.

film+schools, film+students, filmmaking, filmmaking+resource, films, imovie, internet+broadcasting, student+films, studentfilms.com

George Lucas is best known as a filmmaker and as the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones blockbuster movie franchises. You may not know that his George Lucas Educational Foundation actively promotes innovative educational programs throughout the United States.

Edutopia - Information and Inspiration for Innovative Teaching in K-12 Schools

The foundation’s website - Edutopia - publishes stories of innovative teaching and learning through a variety of media — a magazine, an e-newsletter, CD-ROMs, DVDs, books, and the Edutopia Web site. Here, you’ll find detailed articles, in-depth case studies, research summaries, instructional modules, short documentary segments, expert interviews, and links to hundreds of relevant resources. You’ll also be able to participate as a member of an online community of people actively working to reinvent schools for the twenty-first century.

Besides the website, Edutopia is also a magazine which educators can subscribe to for free. The magazine can be read online or it can be delivered to your address. Edutopia supports the free circulation of its content, all articles on the site can be easily downloaded as pdf files
Subscribe to Edutopia magazine

There’s a great amount of information on the site but I was most impressed with the packaged and downloadable course materials offered….

Free Instructional Modules created by professors of education and professional-development specialists may be used as extension units in existing courses, or can be used independently in workshops and meetings. All modules include articles, video footage, PowerPoint® presentations, discussion questions, and class activities.

some sample articles from the site…
Big Ideas for Better Schools
Students Find Their Voices through Multimedia
Martin Scorsese: Teaching Visual Literacy
Film School - The silver screen inspires young minds to think big.

Edutopia is a forward looking educational website that embraces film, video and multimedia production as important elements in the learning process.

edutopia, film+students, filmmaking+resource, george+lucas+educational+foundation, innovative+teaching, powerpoint+presentations, student+films

Don’t be fooled by the out-of-date graphic design on Stephanie Drotos’ Teaching Media Production website. This site lays out in very clear detail, everything you need to teach a nine week middle school media production course. The site was created by a middle teacher for other middle school teachers interested in creating (or expanding) media production courses concentrating on teaching stop-motion animation, desktop publishing, video production.

The site includes course outlines, day-to-day lesson plans, sample class handouts and teacher resources.

Stephanie explains, “For two years, I taught a middle school class called Media Production. This course lasted for nine weeks and was taught four times a year to both 8th graders and 6th graders. I designed the course and included topics in which I was personally interested. I’ve had lots of requests for information about teaching Media Production and wanted to make the information available to help other teachers.”

If you are an educator teaching media production, I think you’ll be well rewarded looking at Stehpanie’s course ideas.

desktop publishing, lesson plans, middle+school+teachers, stephanie drotos, stop motion animation, teacher resources, teaching+media+production, video production

I remember my first attempts to record the music I was creating back in the mid-80s. Home recording equipment was just becoming affordable to the average musician and I was slowly building up the components of a home recording studio. But, having just bought the eqipment, I was rather surprised at how bad my initial recordings sounded. Not really knowing anything about proper microphone placement and other basic elements of a recording engineers skill set, I spent a lot of time with trial and error, got lucky sometimes but ended up ruining a lot of recordings because of poor recording studio fundamentals.

With so many people creating podcasts now, the basic knowledge of what makes a good recording is gradually coming from the specialized world of the recording engineer into the mainstream. Podcasters who want to improve the quality of their productions need, at some point, to learn about microphones - there’s no question, having a good, professional-grade microphone will immediately increase the quality of your podcast production. Today there are many microphones being marketed expressly for podcasting.

Here is really smart article by Cleveland-area IT Specialist, Aaron Shaffer A Review of Seven Microphones, The Heart of All Podcasting. Aaron looks at seven different microphones including headset, lapel, wireless, and standard tabletop microphones and judges their strengths for podcast recording based on affordability and usage. He points out that a microphone should be chosen based on the recording situation in which it will be placed. For instance recording a lecture for a podcast requires a different microphone than recording a table interview between two people. Aaron gives actual recorded samples of each microphone and then offers his opinion on each mic’s strengths.

Here are his final conclusions based on the microphones he tested, but you should read the complete article because there lots of good podcasting information in it.
——————————–
“What would I recommend to you as a professor or lecturer if you want to podcast? Without a doubt the AudioTechnica wireless mic. You can connect it to any laptop or mixer and get great quality. What would I recommend to those interested in dialogue type podcasting with two or more people? The MXL-990. You can’t beat it for the price. And If you’ve got money to blow, go with the Heil PR-40 all around.”
——————————–

If you have a little more money to spend, consider these USB microphones, most created by the manufacturers to appeal to the new podcasting market.

Blue Microphones Snowball $134
Marshall Electronics MXL USB.006 $170
Rode - Podcaster $349
Samson CO1U $210
Samson Q1U $90

Aaron+Shaffer, home recording equipment, home recording studio, microphones, microphone placement, podcasters, podcasting, podcasts, recording engineers

The use of podcasting as an information tool has become very popular in our nation’s high schools. School podcasts cover everything from student-produced current events shows to teacher-produced curriculum and lecture announcements. Many schools even have iPod subscription links through the Apple iTunes store. Students can easily subscribe and receive every edition of their school’s podcast automatically downloaded to their iPod.

Now Apple Computer is promoting podcasting as a teacher development tool. They are offering a free white paper that gives ideas for using the iPod for professional development.

Here is an excerpt from the site…
“Podcasting allows administrators to update faculty—even an entire district—in just minutes. With a single click, teachers can subscribe to podcasts and have future content delivered automatically. An ever-growing collection of professional development material, both commercial and free, is available online from the iTunes Store. This is the perfect way to expand ongoing training programs, without straining district resources.

The iPod is an affordable development tool that can scale to fit almost any technology plan. And once in teachers’ hands, it can do even more: from recording notes and podcasts, to transporting digital files back and forth to school, on any Mac or PC. All this, in the palm of your hand. This is the iPod for professional development — an unexpectedly powerful tool for education.”

apple computer, digital files, ipod, itunes, podcasting, podcasts, teacher development

From the Director in the Classroom Film Festival Resource.

Up-to-date and detailed, this site has an ever growing list of student film festivals. The festivals are sorted by region, with contact info, guidelines and links to each festival page. A great resource for high school and college-age filmmakers, there are even some listings for middle school students.

The list is presented by The Director in the Classroom…

Director in the Classroom examines how filmmaking engages learners. The program gives students the tools, skills and confidence to take creative control of their research and presentation projects and to engage learning using video production.

creative control, filmmakers, filmmaking, film festival, middle school students, presentation projects, student film festivals, video production

Apple Computer and Apple Learning Interchange has a very informative, course-like, web showcase entitled Videography for Educators. This exhibit features tips and techniques to assist in the creation of quality video products. The concepts, skills and examples are presented in a manner relevant to classroom teachers. The showcase assumes that you are somewhat familiar with digital editing software ie. iMovie or Final Cut.

Though this showcase is aimed primarily at teachers, it makes a great “Intro to Videography” for anyone. The showcase starts with the basics and moves through the video creation process.

Topics include:
Planning
Video Style
Production Decisions
Pre-Production Scouting
Equipment Setup
Effective Lighting
Effective Audio
Capturing the Video
Framing
The Art of Editing
And more

apple computer, apple learning interchange, classroom teachers, digital editing software, imovie, videography, video creation, video products, video style