Journal #6

"Filming Compassion" by Janet Bremer and Marilyn Clark

The authors of this article decided to create a video production assignment for their high school students that would help fulfill the students service work requirement and help non-profit organizations at the same time. These students were asked to make a video for a non-profit organization using their own video equipment and later donate the video to the association. To begin with I think it is great that students in this school are required to do service work in order to graduate. This helps create a sense of community for the students especially when you tie in the concept of working with non-profit organizations. Everyone benefits from a situation like this. I also liked the idea that the students were not allowed to accept help or video equipment from the organizations they worked with, this helped level the playing field and encouraged student creativity. It also made sure that this was primarily a student creation. I thought it was great that the organizations had some say in the direction of their video. This way the video assignment had a purpose and could be put to use, rather than just sit on a shelf somewhere and gather dust. Another positive about this assignment is that the students had to ask their peers and family members to review their video. This not only helped the students develop critical and analytical thinking skills, but it gave the non-profit group exposure as well. Last, but not least, I think this was a wonderful way to incorporate technology in the classroom and benefit the student, school, and community. Honestly I can't think of anything negative to say about this assignment or article.

Question 1

Would you use this concept with younger children?

Definitely! My favorite part of this assignment involved working with the community and giving exposure to humanitarian agencies. I would probably modify the assignment for elementary school children though. I would possibly have them edit work that has already been filmed since going out on location and conducting interviews might be a bit beyond their capacity.

Question 2

As a teacher what would you do differently with a project like this?

I would have my students collaborate with a language class, like Spanish, and make a bilingual video project that would help non-English speaking communities as well.