From Storyboard to Movie: Effective Discussion Behaviors

Successfully creating a movie with voicethread about discussion behaviors was a satisfying experience since the group was able to overcame many obstacles. The design concept originated with the intent to help ESL students visualize the effective discussion skills. Visual images of teachers modeling the behaviors on the discussion rubric were thought to have a positive impact on the student learning.

The storyboard, filming and downloading progressed quickly and smoothly. However, making a movie proved to be challenging. The card cameras filmed in a format not recognized by the movie making programs available on the school computers. Apparently, the film had to be converted into another format or a program needed to be purchased to edit and splice the film.

Experimenting with the smartboard recorder, photostory 3, movie maker and voicethread resulted in two products. The smartboard recording was the easiest, but the images were grainy and discolored, the movement was shakey and the film was inaudible. The free voicethread option only allowed smaller clips to be uploaded and would not allow any editing. However, the video quality was acceptable on the four usable video clips. Additionally, labeling each clip with the associated discussion skill was simple. The purchase of the higher level software would make this a good choice for this activity.

Further action for me is to try movie maker on the PC as this is the software most available to my students. I thank my partners Rob and Wanyi for helping me learn about digital video options.