When the Teacher Learns

Multimedia: Video- shooting assignment

The more I do, the more I love. I’m finding myself increasingly more intrigued and motivated by producing and teaching multimedia. Photography and video are not exceptions to that. I’ve always loved photography, but just tried my first hand at video last summer at ASNE. I feel like it’s one of those things where we say “eh, it can’t be that hard.” And then you slip your SD card into your computer and only have 20 usable seconds of 30 minutes worth of shooting. That may or may not have been my experience…

Regardless, I loved every second of it. I find the challenge of video fun. I love having a vision and making it work. I love the raw emotion involved in film. I don’t currently teach video, but I do push it as an effective multimedia tool, so it’s good for me to teach myself and experience it like my students do.

I figure the best way to share my takeaways from this assignment is to compile a list of what I (the teacher) learned through this experience.

1. Tripods are important…but also extremely difficult to use when moving often. Major apologies for the bumpy road at the start of the video (and a few spots in the middle).
2. There is such a thing as a pan that is too quick. Sorry for those of you that suffered from motion sickness while watching.
3. Audio is important. Mics are important. The mic made a huge difference in the sound quality. I would have preferred to have some natural sound from the shooting environment in this video, but I didn’t plan well enough to make it happen.
4. There’s also such a thing as too many shots. I found myself loving several short pieces that when put together looked choppy. It’s important to use purposeful clips that are long enough to capture attention and tell a part of the story, but not distract or bore.
5. Editing can be frustrating. Very frustrating.

Despite all of the challenges, I’ll definitely continue to shoot video and hopefully get more than 20 seconds worth of usable material as the years go on.

Here it is: A quick little preview of yearbook for our new 2016-17 staff. Enjoy!

Students Gain Video Experience through Videolicious

Teaching Multimedia: Final Assignment

This lesson plan is placed at the beginning of a semester-long introductory journalism course where students learn a variety of multimedia tools throughout the semester and work towards a final multimedia package that they create at the end of the semester. This particular lesson is designed for teaching Videolicious: a video app that enables students to shoot video, plan and record voiceovers and piece together a professional looking video without a DSLR camera or any editing applications. They learn the basics of shooting and are able to tell a story with the device in their hands.

Find the lesson here. All links and handout are provided within: https://goo.gl/PVo1w3

Or download the PDF here: MultimediaFinal_LessonPlan

Here, you can also find the Camptasia tutorial for my class as they learn how to use the Videolicious app and shoot their videos: