Exploring 20th Century with 21st Century Tools: Creating Digital Documentaries

Objective - Students will create a Digital Documentary presenting information acquired during a student-chosen unit of study.

Rationale - Creating digital documentaries requires high-order thinking skills such as researching and collecting information, analyzing and interpreting that information, and editing the information into a coherent story. Through this process, the student produces a final product that showcases knowledge acquired.

Today’s students have grown up with technology. As a classroom teacher, I must take advantage and provide the kinds of tools that will improve learning. I know that my students benefit from activities designed with hands-on projects and personalized instruction. This combination helps them become engaged in learning and immersed in curriculum. When students learn to communicate effectively with technology resources, they’re not just learning how to use tools. They’re learning how to approach a project, to understand their audience, determine a purpose and create a message. They learn to think critically as they decide how to present knowledge effectively. Creative tools keep students engaged in learning curriculum and allow them to acquire skills they need for the future. My students will be able to use technology almost as an extension of themselves, so that it becomes a natural and intuitive experience. They expect learning to be personalized, creative and dependent on technology. However, to fully implement this documentary project, each student needs more access to these tools. I am limited in my ability to be able to provide my students the opportunity to receive this instruction without more Flip Cameras.

Specifically, from the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) standards, students need to be able to:
• Demonstrate their understanding of an issue, its complexity and perspectives through which different people view a topic.
• Demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop an innovative product using technology.
• Use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively.
• Apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
• Understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and evaluate, and use information.

Today’s global, competitive workplace demands new skills. The 21st century skills introduced and reinforced in the documentary development project include: critical thinking and problem solving skills, communication skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills, information and media literacy skills, and contextual learning skills. I believe that as much as students need to learn academic content and understand how to keep learning, they need to make effective and innovative use of what they know throughout their entire lives. Learning to communicate what they have learned through the documentary process will help them attain these goals.

The Documentary Project will be completed in phases. Phase I - Pre- Production. Students will engage in planning and research activities. Phase II - Developing Script and Storyboards. Students will engage in several script-writing and storyboarding activities. Phase III - Shooting the Documentary. Students will use flip cameras to film the various scenes that they have planned. Phase IV - Pos-Production. Students will edit and enhance their documentary.