Now that I have some breathing space, I just wanted to share some thoughts on my grade 8 Tech unit on mashups. Students had to create a mashup of existing content following fair use policy and changing the intent of the original. They could decide to use video, audio, still image or a combination. Overall the students worked well with several attempting to be the next powerful DJ.

They encountered some stumbling blocks when trying to mix songs with different bpms. Several students searched for stems of song instead, or looked for instrumentals and a capellas. Software used for this was GarageBand or Audacity. Those using film, simply used iMovie and those with images, used Photoshop.

Overall, I was pleased, as the task is much more difficult than it sounds. Here is an excellent example of my student Ellen, mashing The Lion King with audio from Rise of the Planet of the Apes, resulting in “Rise of the Lion King.”

If you are thinking about developing this type of unit, one thing to keep in mind is that you need to require the students to provide evidence of the source material used, as well as screenshots of the files in their relevant programs. This is simply to provide evidence that they actually created the product themselves. Alan Levine’s ds106 site is awesome with some great project ideas too.

This is my first year teaching Middle School Technology using the MYP Design Cycle. It is a rather thorough and demanding programme, both in terms of student work, teaching and evaluating. However, I understand and agree with the goals of the programme and how the focus is on process over product.

Recently my grade 7 class just completed their unit on digital stories. Our significant concept was, “We can communicate our stories in many different ways.” Our unit question was, “How can we use media to communicate our stories?”

I’ll save myself the trouble of summarising the unit on this post. If interested, you can view what we did weekly for about 12 weeks here. Of course, I will be making some necessary changes and improvements to the structure and delivery of the unit, as well as some refinements to the evaluation.

What I would like to do, is showcase some of the efforts these clever 12 and 13 year olds have done. These “stories” were rather flexible in their definition, with some students creating fiction, documentaries and instructional videos. They had only three weeks to actually create the product and some were very successful. To clarify this, some “unsuccessful” efforts were also successful (and probably more direct and efficient) in teaching what is needed to create a piece of work. This is an aspect of the MYP that I like. Some of the applications ranged from iMovie, to Powerpoint/Keynote to VoiceThread, Doozla, Blender, FinalCut and Adobe Flash.

The first one here impresses me. It is a hand drawn comic that was imported into Prezi in order to pan across the panels, which was then screen recorded. Next it was imported into iMovie for further editing. Did I mention this was completed in 3 weeks? I like the mixture between digital and analogue.

The Stone of the Future from Marina Mitsumata on Vimeo.

The next one on “How to Eat an Apple” uses time lapse/stop-motion photography and is filmed with excellent lighting, simply by placing the apple in a plastic container!

How to: Eat an Apple from Connor Harrington on Vimeo.

The next one is a hand drawn animation that has a great scene around the 1min.30sec. mark. Check it out!

Finally, this last one on “How to Eat Toast” is rather silly and humorous. Have a look.

There are several others I can show, but this post would run on forever. If you’d like to see some student reflection/evaluation examples, check out these two here and here. Feel free to leave some of these students comments directly on the video sites.

Popcornmaker! I’m looking forward to this. Check out the demo below.

Popcorn Maker is a creative tool that makes authoring interactive media pages as easy as point and click.

Popcorn Maker 1.0 will empower you to make cool web-based media, whether you’re a beginner or pro. With over 20 plugins—ranging from Twitter to Google Maps to video processing—you’ll be able to stitch up a stylish video that’s woven into the web. And, of course, it’s 100% free and open source.

“The epic life of a world-class artist, jammed into six minutes and narrated by Tom Waits.”
I’ll be doing a digital storytelling unit with grade 7s next year. This video may be one of my examples. Love it!
Commissioned by LACMA for their first annual “Art + Film Gala” honoring John Baldessari and Clint Eastwood.

Here is a good resource I stumbled across today if you teach advertising or visual/media literacy.
The Key to Media’s Hidden Codes: Colors, camera angles and logos in the media can all prompt immediate associations with emotions, activities and memories. Learn to decode the intricate system of symbols that are a part of everyday life — from media messages to traffic signs. (via TEDed)

I am really looking forward to giving these apps a try. You too may find them useful.
Cartoonatic allows you to record videos with cartoon effects. Free and available for the iPhone & iPad2.

Miniatures allows you to create time-lapse miniature (tilt-shift) movies using your iPhone or iPad2. Free.

Lastly, try out JellyCam for creating stop-motion animations. Free but installation required.

PressPausePlay looks interesting. It’s a film about “hope, fear and digital culture.”
Check out the trailer below.

Several students and alumni are communicating via Facebook to organise relief for the victims of the Japanese earthquake. Miyu, a grade 11 student, made this video to help out. (Well done Miyu!)

Tohoku Japan Earthquake Awareness from 12ShirotsukaM on Vimeo.

Since I am on the topic, also look at the turn out of clothing we got at our school today to assist those affected!

Here’s a little news clip my grade 7 tutor group (homeroom) made for one of our school assemblies where we had to present on the Japanese festival known as Setsubun.

Miyu, a grade 11 IB Art student at my school produced this clip where she created an animated video using Adobe After Effects, then projected it onto a previous piece she created with origami paper and then edited the video again. Watch the video and feel free to leave her comments on Vimeo.
**Warning: There are flashing and strobe lights in the video.**

Dancing Lights from Miyu Shirotsuka on Vimeo.