This is my first attempt at a short instructional stop motion video. The power of video in education from a teacher and student perspective is massive and I feel largely unused. The ability to differentiate content and pace of instruction can be largely enhanced by pre made video’s made available to students in and out of class. I can see a big barrier for teachers not using video in their instruction being the large time requirements needed to make a video and also the technical knowledge needed with filming and editing techniques. This is highlighted in the experience of fellow Mteach candidate Shumaila Paracha and myself. Both of us made videos using separate software, Shumaila using smartphone app Picpac and myself using Adobe photoshop. Both our videos had the intention of displaying instruction is a manner that student can access at their own pace and outside of the classroom.

Picpac is very accessible software and has an easy to use interface but the video Shumaila made was rendered almost useless due to the film being sideways and the voice recording not syncing with images. These issues may be smoothed out with more practice and experimentation with film making but where does this time fit into the busy teachers schedule? Due to my past experience with adobe creative suite and editing various short films I was fairly easily able to make a short instructional video in a short about of time (although this does need a bit more tweaking to be really effective instructional resource). Most teachers wont have the experience I have with visual software and will struggle to make time to learn these programs in amongst the busy schedule of a teacher and the time needed for planning, marking and co-curricular involvement.

This ties in with our discussion last week about the place of digital literacy amongst the educational focus on traditional numeracy and literacy. The digital native students of today are bombarded with media and technology an almost every aspect of their lives so it makes sense to harness the power of these modern communication methods to enhance learning potential across the board. With the current government manta about jobs and growth coming from innovation in our economy I am left asking the question should government policy be directing digital literacy into the spotlight for teacher training, professional development and curriculum?