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.
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.
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.
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.”
Just Released: Podcaster - a massive collection of royalty free music and sound effects geared towards podcast creators and producers.
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
