Student Selected Project--Learning Plan

For my student selected technology project I would like to explore web based video streaming. Ideally this would be an archive of instructional art videos created by my students. One of my students’ assignments would be to create an instructional video to add to the library. This assignment would serve two purposes. First, the instructional films could be used to assess students’ knowledge of a concept. Second, their videos could be added to the web library so that my students would be building the content of the site over time. The main page would be a list of videos by topics, and each topic would have its own page where the viewer could see the video, browse a list of related online resources, and if there is a corresponding presentation, watch the PowerPoint that elaborates on the video.
There would be several benefits to developing this type of resource. For example, posting videos online allow the community better access to what is happening in the classroom. Parents who viewed these short films would see what their child is learning in school. Any community member would have a better understanding of the process the students went through to make their art products. In addition, students who are absent could review the videos to catch up with the class, or are not confident in their notes could come back to the video archive to as a reminder. Showing a short demonstration video in addition to a demonstration would be a good way to provide repetition of the concepts for my students. Furthermore, the capability to video stream will provide my students with the opportunity to participate in distance collaboration. I could invite an artist to discuss his or her work with the class via videostream, the event could be recorded and posted to the class site for future reference. My students could participate in a videostreamed critique, giving them the opportunity to show samples of their work to an artist and ask for the artist’s feedback. I believe that I will find even more classroom uses of this technology as I explore the versatility of webcasting.
To accomplish my goal I will work with the following resources. First, I will us the Dreamweaver Tutorial resources that come with the program to learn more about web design. Second, I will use campus resources like Student Computer Services (SCS) to direct my exploration. SCS offers workshops that cover many different aspects of technology; I will seek out the web authoring courses to learn more about Dreamweaver, html, and webcasting. I can also arrange for a personal training session that would help answer my questions. Third, there are many people at the university who are working on similar ideas, I will collaborate with these peers so that we can benefit from each others knowledge.