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The Activity
For this activity, I was unable to create my own sample vlog (video blog) due to time constraints and practicality. The idea here is that these vlogs would replace the analysis paper my students are required to write as part of their catapult project each fall. Each vlog would detail a different part of the catapult process: scale model, changes to the model, blueprints, full size, final thoughts. The first video here is a great example of some of the popsicle stick catapults my students have built in the past. The second video with the PVC catapult is similar to a few full scale designs. The final video is most similar to what I would expect students to create, but broken up into separate videos.
What I Learned
While I did not create these videos myself, thinking about the process highlights some very important thinking from a student perspective. To create the videos requires the same general lines of thought as building a catapult which creates some nice parallels. The catapult requires a lot of planning as does a good video. When making a video, you need to think about what you want to show and what's OK to leave out. What will be said and what could be better shown as a drawing. Detailing the process and reflecting on the process is just as important as the actual catapult build itself. There is an excellent description of all that making a video entails in Hobbs & Moore (2013):
"(1) Identifying Your Goals. Figure out your purpose, target audience, genre, and message. (2) Preproduction. Using brainstorming, develop creative ways to express your ideas with images, language, and sound. Write a script and plan the sequence of images. (3) Production. Rehearse and practice, gathering video footage and recording audio and paying careful attention to image and sound quality. (4) Postproduction. Assemble your image and sound, and edit so that the project makes sense to the target audience. (5) Distribution and Promotion. Develop ways to share, display, or present your completed work to an audience" (p. 101).
This description is a great way to help guide a producer through the process of creating a video. A vlog tends to seem more informal, but requires the same amount of planning. The difference in a vlog is that the vlogger is often the one in the frame and is always the one doing the narration. A vlog is always from the vlogger's perspective and deals with the vlogger's opinions.
Use in the Classroom
As stated above, vlogs would be used in my classroom to accompany the catapult build project. This project is broken into five parts: Select a group, build a model, final blueprints, launch day, final analysis. Students would be asked to make five vlogs to match the five parts (no vlog for partner selection, additional vlog for reflection). The vlogs would need to answer the same questions as the final analysis, but in chunks over time rather than all at once. The required questions are included in the rubric below:
A sample outline of the five videos might be:
- Build a model
- How the model was designed
- How the model performs, including data
- How the model needs to be changed and what those changes are supposed to do
- Blueprints
- How the model is scaled up
- Reiteration of changes and proposed effects
- What materials are needed
- Launch Day
- Data, including footage of the launches
- Analysis of the data: did the changes work?
- Overall: Happy with the final product?
- Final Analysis
- Comparison of model data and final data - did the scaling up apply to data as well?
- Cost analysis using final launch data
- Proposed changes for a future build
- What would these changes do?
- Why would they need to be made?
- How would these affect cost analysis?
- Reflection on the vlogging process
- What worked?
- What didn't?
- Did the process help or hinder your catapult build?
- Is it helpful to have a video record of the project? How so?
This project is meant to span about two months. Vlogs would be turned in in Canvas or a similar CMS on a discussion board - one board for each part of the project (each vlog). Students could then view classmates' vlogs and discuss their ideas for the project, particularly recommending changes to the blueprints that the team may not have thought of.
- Access
- What tools will be used to create the vlogs?
- How will they be filmed? Edited? Hosted?
- Analyze & Evaluate
- What makes a good vlog?
- What are commonalities of vlogs as compared to regular videos? What makes a vlog different?
- When do images need to be shown vs. the vlogger shown?
- Create
- Follow the process given by Hobbs & Moore to write, film, edit, and post your vlogs
- Reflect
- How does documenting your catapult project in chunks help with the project itself?
- What worked when vlogging? What was difficult?
- What would you change if you did it again?
- Compare to classmates' vlogs. What aspects of their vlogs would you"steal" if you did it again?
- Act
- View classmates' vlogs. Use warm and cool feedback to discuss what works and what might be improved
- Discussion: should these videos be posted in a public space? Pros? Cons?
- What advantage might this have for future students?
- Could this be used as a way to connect to lower grade levels?
References
Gonzalez, A. (2012, April 05). Retrieved June 13, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVGzpWJdkWE
Hobbs, R., The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action, Washington, D.C.: The Aspen Institute, November 2010.
Hobbs, R., & Moore, D.C. (2013). Discovering Media Literacy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Ostr, C. (2016, August 02). Retrieved June 13, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24-Y05lVKYM
Sam, Yosemite. (2015, January 11). Retrieved June 13, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqt27ZBoEsE&feature=youtu.be
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