Imaginary Interviews with Celebrities: Creative Learning through Video Storytelling

Project Location

Country: 
Italy
City: 
Udine/Friuli Venezia Giulia

Organization

Organization Name: 
Liceo Coreutico Uccellis
Organization Type: 
School

Website

http://laproflaghigna.blogspot.co.at/2015/04/video-storytelling-by-3lco.html

Privacy Law

Consenso al trattamento dei dati personali
Do you authorize the FMD to the treatment of your personal data?: 
I do authorize the FMD to the use of my personal data.

Project Type

Education up to 18 years

Project Description

Description Frase (max. 500 characters): 

Students learn to tell a story and communicate in English as a foreign language using a variety of 2.0 web tools. They first create a Tackk webpage to gather information about a famous celebrity of their choice and then a video fictional interview with the involvement of a peer.

Project Summary (max. 2000 characters): 

This video storytelling project was carried out with 11th grade students of a High School in Northern Italy. These students learn Classical Ballet & Modern Dance at school, along with more traditional academic subjects among which English as a Foreign Language. The project aimed at stimulating students' creativity and motivation to learn, by focussing on their priviledged learning style, which is definitely more of an aural-visual-chinaesthetic type rather than logical-rational.
Students created fictional interviews with their favourite dancers, singers, artists. All videos were uploaded on Edmodo and uTube
(see uTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjKx35VlMDof1PVtrnJk-PCKrqRCvHcSP)
By combining narrative with digital content and including their own images, sound and video, students were able to create a short movie with a strong emotional component. Moreover, working on a project helped students develop a wide range of communicative and cross-curriculum competences.

How long has your project been running?

2014-08-30 22:00:00

Objectives and Innovative Aspects

 
- Use the English language in known contexts, also beyond classroom walls
- Gather and reuse information in different ways using a variety of digital tools
- Use vocabulary related to jobs & professions, and personal past experiences
- Improve pronunciation, fluency & oracy
- Learn how to construct knowledge in a personally meaningful way
- Provide peers with quality feedback and comments on each other's work
Because of unreliable wifi connectivity and little IT available at school, only two iPads, a laptop and the students' own smartphones were used.
Methodology: Cooperative & Peer Learning through groupwork & pairwork; personalised learning, digital storytelling 
Students took turns on the two iPad available in class to create videos. They used their own smartphones to source and share digital material on the Internet, and to rehearse their interviews or listen with their ear-phones to the trial tracks recorded on their smartphones. 
Students could use a variety of digital tools, among which:
- Edmodo eLearning platform for sharing and posting digital resources.
- Text-to-speech option on the iPads or Google Translator for correct pronunciation.
- Spreaker podcasting tool to record all interviews.
- iMovie for the creation of the introductory trailers.
- Wevideo for video.
 

Results

Describe the results achieved by your project How do you measure (parameters) these. (max. 2000 characters): 
Video storytelling can have immense impact on students’ motivation to learn, which is essential in learning a foreign language. Italian students often find it difficult to communicate in the foreign language. Speaking activities in the classroom are often limited to a few drills or oral tests, because on the whole they are quite time-consuming. Moreover, students hesitantly take active part in class discussions. Telling a story through a video can give voice to all students. When given a chance to express their creativity and work in groups, students' motivation boosts and also their linguistic competence improves. This type of activity has helped students develop new skills with the help of technology. The use of a digital tool has helped them overcome the fear of speaking and has triggered their natural desire to express themselves and their creativity. The final goal of making a video to be shared with others was very motivating and facilitated inclusion in the class. Students could learn a lot also about themselves and their learning style. They could negotiate content, decide the working procedure, get things organised on a practical level and proved quite autonomous in their learning process. All students have significantly improved their pronunciation and fluency in the English language. The focus of the students' digital stories was mainly reflective and allowed them to incorporate background knowledge. All students had great fun in learning and changed their attitude also in other class activities. My role as a teacher in the classroom was essentially that of guiding and monitoring the various activities, helping students become more autonomous learners.
How many users interact with your project monthly and what are the preferred forms of interaction? (max. 500 characters): 

20

Sustainability

What is the full duration of your project (from beginning to end)?: 
Less than 1 year
What is the approximate total budget for your project (in Euro)?: 
Less than 10.000 Euro
What is the source of funding for your project?: 
Grants
Specify: 
11th year of a Classical Ballet and Contemporary Dance High School
Is your project economically self sufficient now?: 
No
Since when?: 
2015-06-29 22:00:00
When is it expected to become self-sufficient?: 
2015-08-30 22:00:00

Transferability

Has your project been replicated/adapted elsewhere?: 
No
What lessons can others learn from your project? (max. 1500 characters): 

Building a narrative and communicating it effectively requires the students to think carefully about the topic and consider the audience’s expectations. Moreover, it is of paramount importance in our digital world that students learn how to shift from mere digital content consumers to digital content creators. In few words, digital storytelling can facilitate across-curriculum teaching of 21st century skills, and in particular:
Critical Thinking
Communication
Personal Responsibility
Digital Literacy
Creativity
Collaboration

As such, Video Storytelling could be efficiently applied to almost any subject at school, because the digital stories can incorporate any type of content. Depending on the focus, a digital story can be instructional, persuasive, historical or reflective. In any case, telling a story through a video gives students the possibility to become active learners.

Video Storytelling can not only unleash students' creativity in class, but it can also prove very rewarding for the classroom teacher. Shifting from a teacher-centred approach to a more learner-centred one can help release tension and build up teamwork in the classroom. Moreover, the mandatory choice of Creative Commons images is an excellent lead-in activity to teach about responsibility and digital citizenship.

Are you available to help others to start or work on similar projects?: 
Yes

Background Information

Barriers and Solutions (max. 1000 characters): 
Merely of technical nature, because of low Internet connectivity. All solved by going BYOD.
Future plans and wish list (max. 750 characters): 
I would like to expand the project to include other classes for reciprocal feedback and peer-reviewing.
interactive storytelling in classroom using ICT video English