Even higher on the New Year’s resolutions list than weight loss is my wish to improve my photography skills. In a nutshell, I suck at taking both stills and video. The more I watch well crafted digital stories, the more I recognize the need for some major video tips and tricks! I am therefore very glad to have access to the three resources in particular:

1. Kodak’s site boils it down to 10 tips, with an accompanying animated visual for each tip. I wonder if anyone else needed Tip 6’s simple explanation on how to lock down a shot as much as I did!? A very kid-friendly approach – perfect for me . The interactive demos are great too (although it took me five attempts to master the rule of thirds tutorial).

2. Atomic Learning also comes to the rescue of the camera challenged with their Video Storytelling Guide. Although a fee-based program, for those who want to sample before committing, you can have a 15-day free trial, during which you could walk your students through the video tutorials that cover everything from basic shots to basic and/or more sophisticated lighting techniques – and after which, you will probably want to become an Atomic Learning member! Tons of great tutorials including many freebies, such as the online storyboard.

3. I hope during the New Year to share more tips and tricks from the wonderful Krishna Harrison-Munoz, the videographer I have the privilege to work with in the DOLCHE project. As soon as she thinks through some copyright issues on how to best make available parts of her original Roadmap for the New Video Producer materials, I will post some sample tutorials, including my favorite: How to make a video that stars a talking dog.

My favorite radio program NPR included a podcast on blogging’s 10th birthday in today’s Morning Edition – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17562078. What could I add to Vicki Davis’s excellent description of blogging as a classroom tool for extending teaching and learning? Perhaps one blog post and two 30-second videoclips:

• The blog post that best sums up how and why blogging can boost literacy skills: Will Richardson’s Jan 2007 post Blogging to Teach Reading – “blogging is reading with the intent to write,” which is a whole different ball game than reading to answer a multiple-choice test!
• From Florin High School students Erica and Phillip explaining, during a 2005 CUE presentation via videoconferencing straight from their classroom, what blogging means to them.

One of the projects I’ll be delving into big time come the New Year is the DOLCHE project, with its focus on filmmaking in the classroom. In addition to providing teachers and students with links to inspiring samples of digital storytelling, I’m also seeking how-to tutorials on all steps of filmmaking. Here are the first three in what I hope will be a growing list of resources:

1. Dean Shareski’s video on how to easily and cheaply incorporate green screen technology into movie making (well, Pinnacle or Premiere Elements, not iMovie or Movie Maker 2) – http://www.viddler.com/shareski/videos/1/
2. Marco Torres’s DV Underground tips on Big Lighting, Little Money – One trip to Home Depot and your lighting will have that “pro feel” – http://www.youthspace.net/media/curriculum/making media/lighting_tips.pdf
3. Clay Burrel’s Cut the Crap – This is a “twofer”: His first tutorial provides tips on how to incorporate – legally – music, video, and image copyright issues from Creative Commons growing resources. Nice little tutorial on what the CC terms mean. And I like his tutorial on how to effectively use iMovie’s Ken Burns effect too – http://beyond-school.org/2007/10/26/cutting-the-crap-from-student-imovies/

Four days ago, I clicked on a link in an email from Steve Hargadon, via Classroom 2.0, with an invitation to celebrate blogging’s 10th birthday by posting a Voice Thread.

“Some of us believe that blogging, as one of the great entry points into ‘read/write’ web (or “Web 2.0″), is having a transformative impact on education and learning, and that we are at the start of a new renaissance that will be defined by the participatory, contributive, and collaborative nature of the Web.”

At that time, Steve and three others had posted. Since it was already late, I jumped in the next morning (I think I might have been the 6th person to add a comment). Just checked back…to find 28 people have added their thoughts. I am still in awe of the participatory possibilities of Web 2.0!

I saw the “transformative” impact of blogging on teaching and learning five years ago, when I delved into my first student blog project and discovered that a group of disengaged high school students (already “dismissed” from the traditional high school and attending a continuation school) were reading a posting after school hours – when they did not have to. The new tools, such as Voice Thread, Slideshare, and podcasting, continue to make a good tool even better.

Happy Birthday, Blogs!

For some reason, I feel the need to end this post with a slightly different Happy Birthday wish (?) for Web 2.0 – from THE Journal’s Steve Weinbstock – http://thejournal.com/articles/21374.

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