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Pass the Popcorn; Create a Video ~ Idea of the Week #69

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The New York Times Learning Blog is featuring Mozilla’s popcorn maker, and I am adding it to the Links page of this blog for permanent reference.

A 20th-century guy to the core, I’m always barnstorming the Net for 21st-century bells and futuristic whistles that might prove useful in the classroom. Not technology for the sake of technology — that bane of modern pedagogy and idol of so many starry-eyed teachers on Twitter — but tools that promote creativity, awareness of audience and purpose, production skills.

You can even sandwich a public-speaking component around the final product by having students introduce and follow-up the video with commentary — or you can require a written component detailing the story of its creation.

Of course, I just saw this and haven’t test driven the vehicle myself, but it’s on my 21st-century to-do list (on a cloud, appropriately enough) and you might put it on your own cumulus drive-in-the-sky. If you buy in and see your students driving these flashy wheels like old pros, let us know. Meantime, like me, you can check out the N. Y. Times Learning Network and start planning.

In the 8th grade, for instance, we assign a “Passing the Torch” speech, wherein 8th graders write words of wisdom for the assembled school in our closing ceremony. We pick the best from three 8th-grade teams, give winners a mike, and let them read their speech to the entire school — 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, plus staff.

Looking at the Learning Network link, you’ll see tempting variations on this theme. With Popcorn Maker, students can scour commencement speeches  (or any famous filmed speech) on-line and create a video with a message. Thus, they build on existing words of wisdom to create their own mix — kind of like a cinematic “found poem” (or maybe “found speech” or “found documentary” would suit the product better).

Would a team of students enjoy an end-of-year project like this? As they say on the Dude Ranch, “Boy howdy, would they!” It could be instead of a speech of their own or, better still, as a warm-up for same. Why a warm-up? Consider all of the quality speeches they would be immersed in while researching and producing this short film with Mozilla’s web tool. Is there any better way to prep them for their own speech-writing? Instead of “subjecting” them to exemplars you find and play in class, they are on the hunt themselves, critically listening for kernels (heh) of speeches they can use in their own Popcorn Maker mishmash.

Good stuff, as the proverbial “they” say, no?

 


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