Filming Compassion

 

The article titled Filming Compassion, written by Janet Bremer and Marilyn Clark, explores a fantastic new way for students to do their service learning!  This article was written to detail how video production can be tied together with service learning for a beneficial and fun learning experience for students.  The authors provided a great example and explain how this idea can be implemented into the current service learning requirements that most (if not all) schools require for graduation.

I thought this was a great article that would truly provide students with valuable knowledge and skills for life after high school.  By having students put together videos for different community organizations they will be gathering intrapersonal skills by working to schedule with their peers and the organizations.  A lot of times, I think that teachers forget about the social aspect of learning and students often graduate lacking the appropriate communication skills.  Students will have to take initiative and work to self-motivate with only minimal guidance from the instructor, through rubrics and feedback.  In addition, students will “learn interviewing skills” (Bremer & Clark, 2005, p. 41).  I truly appreciated the collaboration aspect of this idea and think it will be invaluable for students to begin to gain these people-skills.  As future-educators we can work to incorporate ideas like this into our classroom at all grade levels.  Community involvement and working to make a better community should be a focus in our classrooms.  By incorporating technology into this we can make it more interesting to students and encourage participation that benefits both their learning and their community.

Picture taken from: Pics4Learning.com

I also appreciated that Bremer and Clark (2005) explained some of the problems that may impact the execution of this idea, including resources and availability of staff to assist students.  Also they detailed the changes that can help to make this project run more efficiently in the future, including more planning to allow for preparation, and the incorporation of art classes.  I was glad to read about the interdisciplinary aspect of this project and I think that makes it an even more beneficial project.  Interdisciplinary instruction allows students to more smoothly transition between subjects and also helps students gain a deeper understanding of processes and ideas.  Also, by Bremer and Clark’s (2005) description of possible issues that may arise, it can help instructors to plan ahead and take more proactive steps when implementing this project into service learning!

This project would satisfy numerous NETS.  NETS 5 is extremely important and students will be greatly addressing digital citizenship through this project.  Not only will students be gaining knowledge to exhibit effective use of technology, but they will also be working to gain responsibility in the use of technology, as they will be required to use copyright free sources for music and images.  Often times, with the use of technology, “issues of copyright infringement” (Bremer & Clark, 2005, p. 41) are often ignored.  I, personally, never thought about copyright issues until entering the EDUC 422 class, which is astonishing because I have been using pictures and music for presentations all throughout high school.  In addition, students will satisfy NETS 1 by creating their own unique works for different organizations.  NETS 2 is also addressed because students will be required to effectively communicate and collaborate with their peers, instructors, and organization personnel. 

The authors conclude this article by explaining the benefits that pairing video production and service learning together has on everyone.  Students work to learn about technology, copyright, collaboration, initiative, and also learn “about the inner workings of a humanitarian agency” (Bremer & Clark, 2005, p. 41).  And the community is also benefited because the students are working to create videos for local nonprofit organizations.  The individual organizations are also enhanced because they then have a video that they can use to promote their cause.  Implementing this idea has incredible benefits for students in numerous subjects/areas, and also works to help our community.  After reading their article, I find it very difficult to pinpoint any negatives that can arise from implementing this idea into our classrooms!

Reference:

Bremer, J. & Clark, M. (2005). Filming Compassion. Learning & Leading with Technology, 32(7), 39-41.

Thanks for reading!

Catherine Weldon