Kids learn a lot when they teach others, particularly when they teach through film:
The Chattanooga Pulse: - The Kids Are Alright
The kids were the only ones tasked with planning and creating the film. Every idea was theirs, every interview was scheduled by them, and every segment was conceived by them. Much of the music in the film was even made by students.
So, I'm very pleased with the Pulse's coverage of this, though a few details I wish more people knew are in order.
Liza Blair, formerly with AVA and old friend, came up with this idea, wrote the grant that was funded, and deserves some mention for having gotten this ball rolling. Not that anyone is trying to take credit, since everyone has duly noted that the kids did all the work. However, I'd hate to see AVA not share the love. So Liza, here's a shout out (or whatever the kids say now).
Additionally, and I only mention this for my Online ILLP documentation, I was called on during the formative stages of the grant-writing and also when the funds were finally in and Liza was gone, met with Mark Bradley-Shoupe from AVA to help with implementation, and I recommended Emily Bowman, my former student, to work on the project. Having that said, props to everyone for making this happen. Hopefully it will open the door to many future ventures.
But, how do you measure this type of learning? Certainly rubrics for accomplishing various production and storytelling aspects are important, but what about the material the filmmakers covered? And how well do their fellow students learn from watching this documentary? Is this a dissertation topic, or just a scholarly article?
Posted by cmwillis at May 31, 2007 04:32 PM | TrackBack