Social Networking for Lesson Planning

Ever since the first week of our “Internet Tools For Teaching” class, I have found the topics and assignments to be quite timely with my teaching.  This was exactly the case for this week.  The current lesson we are on in my senior-level Film Production Class is to create a “Foodie Video.”  The driving question of the lesson is: “How Can A Series of Tight/Close Shots Be Put Together To Tell A Story?”  The final project is for each student production team to film and edit the process of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Using “The Pancake” video as a model (http://youtu.be/HsFzpKUXcOs), teams had to follow specific shooting guidelines during the production process, while incorporating their own creative bent at the same time.   Part of the official assignment is below:

Production Team Challenge #1

“Create A Foodie Video”

Whoever thought making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could make for an Oscar award-winning performance?  Using “The Pancake” video as a model, you and your production team will film the steps to make a sandwich, starting with gathering the ingredients to plating the final masterpiece.  To successfully accomplish this task, you must adhere to the following criteria:

1. Teams will work collaboratively, with all members participating in the production
2. Only the ingredients provided to you can be used*
3. No less than 30 different shots/angles shall be taken
4. FINAL shots selected will be approximately 3-4 seconds each**
5. No faces may be shown – hands are ok
6. Product labels cannot be shown in their entirety
7. Final (edited) videos will run approximately 2 minutes
8. Audio will be worked on in post-production

Teams will work through the pre-production & production process together – from deciding the actual steps to be filmed to determining camera angles to who will be operating the camera and making the sandwich, 20% of the final grade will be based on successful collaboration.  Spend time talking through the process BEFORE the cameras start to roll; a well-planned production ensures a quality film.

As the teams were editing this week (this was now the third week of production), I wanted them to be able to examine the model video one more time and reflect on what they might add or change before they finalized their own films.  This was not a step I had planned on in my original lesson.  However, by doing this, I felt it would help to add to the realism of their film if they could again reference a professional.  I thought a collaborative way to accomplish this might be through an online class discussion.  While I have seen this kind of interaction happen through Moodle and our school’s portal environment (and, of course, my Wilkes’ classes, too), I wanted to be able to develop a group using a web tool.  One of our technology teachers recommended Google Groups, and though he had not established one himself, he heard that it was a pretty straightforward program.  I did find it to be relatively easy to develop, though we are still working through the kinks in class.  Click here to access the group.  There are still a number of students that need to participate, they are just still waiting for my invite to go through before they can sign in (some invites went smoothly, others seem to be lost).  One interesting note: before I gave my students the group address, I put it through goo.gl to make it easier for them to find. (got to love learning about new web 2.0 tools!)