We Need a Change

Why

There have been many times when I have heard fellow educators mumble, “I would much rather be here with students today” during a professional development training. We should be excited to have the opportunity to have time to collaborate with our colleagues on projects that we are working on for our students, but unfortunately we all know that we are most likely going to be stuck sitting in a training with an instructor who doesn’t work in our building, with our students, or with the curriculum that we are teaching. We need to make our PL time work for us instead of against us. We need to use what little time we have to collaborate together wisely and with purpose. We are supposed to be here to help our students achieve at their highest potential, but we are never given the opportunity to achieve at ours by working together to make that a reality.

What

To create my video I used a free video editing software called Shotcut. My undergraduate degree is in video production, so I have used a multitude of editing software from Windows Moviemaker, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, Davinci Resolve, and now Shotcut. I was looking for a free and accessible program for my students to use from home if necessary and this program really does fit the bill. It is much more versatile and offers many more features than Windows Moviemaker or iMovie. It is also extremely easy to use, so even if someone has limited experience with video editing they could easily use this program with the help of a multitude of YouTube tutorials that are available.

How

To begin my project I started with my script. After I was satisfied with my message I began to look for royalty free video clips. My go to site for royalty free video clips is mixkit. I have been using this site for a while for my own personal projects as well as with my Digital Media and Production classes. Once I found the clips that I wanted to use I loaded them into my project’s playlist.

I recorded my voice over using my Jounivo external mic that I bought for $17.99 on amazon, and layed it in one of my audio tracks. I then cut all of my video clips to match up with my voice over audio.

I also found royalty free music to make my video more interesting on Bensound.

After I completed the editing process I exported my video and uploaded it to my YouTube channel. I then embedded it into my ePortfolio.

References:

Duarte, N. (2013). Resonate: Present visual stories that transform audiences. John Wiley & Sons.

Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the teachers effective professional development in an era of high stakes accountability. Center for Public Education.