Educating the Dragon

This is the second afternoon where students have been given free choice of digital stories to create.

There are a few points to note.

1. The ground work needs to be done first- storyboards and scripts prepared thoughly.

2. Group sizes need to be 2/3 otherwise engagement with the project is lost and some students sit back.

3. Empty memory cards are vital for space for short video clips and photographs to be recorded…

4. …as are a ready supply of batteries for the digital cameras.

5. Mixed ability grouping is essential + mixed gender may well help, depending on the personalities involved.

6. A sound grounding in the use of the software packages, whatever they may be.

7. Individuals working alone is limiting the learning and sharing potential.

All of these things came to light today. I could tell the groups which were soundly motivated and those that are not. A couple of groups spent ALL last week ‘rehearsing’ (playing cowboys) whereas I was under the impression their antics were being recorded for digital story… apparently not!

Two groups have got on with it and are very nearly complete. Others are still a way to go.

My assumption was that giving the students this level of freedom would mean focused attention on the learning of the mechanics of digital story-telling. But now it has run over to another week which puts things a way behind schedule…. Hopefully Monday’s session will run more smoothly and they can get finished off…. We’ll see.