I have recently completed my wiki for Apple Teachers Institute 2007. Apple Teacher’s is a great residential course that has really helped me to develop my skills as a trainer in animation, film making and all round digital creativity. Here is the learning journal I have completed for the accreditation. The most useful lessons at ATI were the ones that made me think about the process the learners go through and what digital creativity can therefore help develop. I believe it’s got fantastic potential across the curriculum but also for developing key skills and supporting creativity and emotional intelligence.

Project overview & rationale

I decided that I wanted to focus on literacy, particularly as key Stage 2, as I plan to develop and deliver similar projects using digital media during 2007-2008 at the City Learning Centre I work for (Sheffield West City Learning Centre).This will help us assist teachers to embed ICT into the new National Literacy Strategy as well as giving us a focus on Visual Literacy.With the time frame we had available at ATI 2007 (6 hours approx) we decided it best to choose a simple narrative structure to base our film upon. We couldn’t use existing material for copyright reasons so I chose to compose a simple haiku. This is also a nice way to teach poetry and develop creative writing at Key Stage 2. We wanted something with strong but simple visual imagery so that the narration and film language could be kept very straightforward and be replicated in the primary classroom. The target audience is primary teachers and pupils at key Stage 2.

What we did:

We had a series of tasks to complete under the following headings:
1. Pre-production
2. Production
3. Post production

Pre-production
a) Decide upon a project brief - identify our aims and what we wanted to achieve
b) Storyboard / Write a script/treatment

Production
a) Gather video / still images
b) Record sound / narration
c) Create a stop motion animation and use ‘green-screening’

Post-Production
a) Agree upon the edit
b) Edit the video/still images/sound
c) Create titles and transitions
d) Render the finished movie and publish

How we did it:We began by taking photos of the subject for our film - a tree within the Cheltenham College grounds. I then composed a short poem that would act as narration for the movie. I chose a Haiku as this would keep the planning phase of the project focused as it is a poem with a very strong structure. We decided to use iMovie and the Ken Burns effect to pan and zoom through the photos and then record narration over the top. We also wanted to incorporate some animation using chromakey or ‘green screening’ over the still images so decided to animate some insect life over the still image of the tree. After taking the photos, we reviewed them and dragged and dropped the best stills into iMovie. We then set the Ken Burns effect on some of the images. We decided not to overdo this as it can look somewhat ‘heavy handed’ if overused. The animation was the most time consuming part of the process so we decided to allocate more time to this than any other element of the project. We learnt that in order to animate flying objects it was best to do this flat against the table/floor and also learnt to pay special attention to lighting when using chromakey so as to avoid feathering around the object filmed against the green screen. We filmed our animation under fairly bright, consistent natural lighting (skylight). Once the animation was completed we set about editing together the stills and animation using iMovie. Once we had a final edit we were both happy with we added titles, credits and transitions. The film was then exported to Garageband where we scored music and added a voiceover. Then we rendered it to the finished movie.

What we learned:

We learned a number of things - some more specific than others:
1. Animation techniques
a) To create an animated flight scene it is better to film in 2D i.e. flat against the table or floor and film from above.
b) Lighting is important in chromakey - consistent and natural, even light is best to prevent feathering around the object being chroma-keyed
2. Chromakey
a) I learnt how to use chroma-key - neither of us had used this before
3. I Can Animate
a) I learnt how to use the animation software ‘I can Animate’. Neither of us had used this before although we have used Digital Blue Movie Creator and Pinnacle Studio 10.
4. iLife
a) I learnt how to use the iLife suite. I had used this before but not as extensively as this and not in the classroom. In particular, I found the tutorials in advanced Garageband, iMovie and Animation really useful. I learnt a lot about the techniques of animation in the Animation tutorial such as the number of frames to use for a pause and at the beginning of an animation and at the end. This will help us slow down many of the animations we produce with younger pupils whose animations have tended to look rushed.
5. Pre-Production
a) I learnt a number of things about storyboarding as well as gaining a more generalised knowledge through observation and experience about what it is like for students to plan and produce a piece of digital media. It demonstrated to me that it can help to develop skills in communication, negotiation, visual literacy, literacy and time management.

Transferable skills learned:

As I stated above, some of the most useful things learnt involved deepening my understanding of what going through the process of creating digital media means for students. I had to use a number of transferable skills including communication, negotiation, planning, time management, visual literacy and literacy. This has really helped me to develop our package of support here at the CLC for teachers in our partnership schools. It has also strengthened my belief in digital media/digital creativity as a useful tool/framework for learning and development. I can see a number of areas across the curriculum and in key skills where this would fit.

Reflections & evaluation

Did your project outcomes meet the aims, would you change anything. How could you use your new knowledge and skills? Plans for the future.

Our project outcomes met our aims which were to develop our understanding and skills in digital media and explore how we could use these with partnership schools in 2007-08. On reflection, I could probably not have used the animation in the film as I don’t feel it added anything to my understanding of what we were trying to achieve literacy wise. It certainly taught me a lot about animation techniques and chroma-key but I think if the scope of the project in future, with students, is to develop visual literacy/literacy then I would omit the animation and use it as a separate project in its own right.I have already used my new knowledge and skills. I have developed a comprehensive package of support for schools in animation and we have already delivered this to a group of workers supporting young people within the local authority. The feedback was extremely encouraging. The ATI course has certainly contributed to the huge leap in my knowledge and skills as a trainer in digital media. We have also planned a package of support to partnership secondaries for Y8 pupils to develop their understanding of poetry using what we learnt at ATI as well as a package of support to primaries.