I am halfway through my involvement in The Digital Legacies Project and loving it! This week the students have been logging Aroll, annotating the transcripts, and writing their narratives. Every member of the crew logged the same tape of their interviewee in order to get to know the footage. Facing History hired professional crews to film the A roll, retakes, and B roll of Boston to assist in getting high quality footage. The students conducted the interviews as well as filmed from their own perspective. I have been spending all of today digitizing the tapes using Premiere. The file management is so critical, and must be prepared for Digital Arts Alliance to come in and work with the kids in the editing process next week. I think DAA will be blown away by the skill level of the students. I taught them Premiere basics last Wed and Thurs and they were flying with it!

I am anxious to see what stories they come up with, the connections they made with the activists they interviewed, and the visuals and sound they choose to use in their films. There is SOOO much footage and SOOO much you can do with it in Premiere, that if they do not come into the lab with a plan, they will be overwhelmed and waste precious time.

I have been learning a GREAT deal from this program about what to incorporate into my own digital video curriculum during the school year. The DLP kids are doing WAY more than my students did, not necessarily because they are more capable, but there is more time, greater focus and importance on the end product, and hey, the students are getting PAID, not GRADED, so this is a job they are into and may pursue in college and a career.

I’d say the majority of my time has been spent in the lab making sure all the equipment works, software is installed, and supporting the students in the use of the equipment and software. I have also spent any extra time taking photos and recording footage in an effort to record the process we are all going through. I have been maintaining the blog as well but it has been tough keeping up with all that is going on and changing every day!! Check it for yourself at digitallegaciesproject.blogspot.com!

I went from beach bum to working 14 hr days! My eyes burn as I write this…but it DOES feel good to be “back.” I reported to TBA on Monday for the first day of my participation in the Digital Legacies Project for Facing History and Ourselves. I am basically managing the lab, teaching the students Adobe Premiere, and helping to manage the logging, script writing, and production of the students’ documentaries.

The 10 students selected for the program are fantastic! They come from all over the city. Being back around high school students gets me excited all over again about all things technology…They are vibrant, on the cutting edge, enthusiastic, curious, investigative, and above all, passionate about the skills and concepts they are learning. They have brought experience & confidence to the table too, which makes the curriculum a tad bit easier to teach.

 Today was the major lesson of the week which was file management, intro to Adobe Premiere, capturing and logging digital video, and basic effects and transitions. They all seemed to get it under their belt, but for each crew, there is always one who is hands-on and strongest out of the bunch for editing.

They are conducting their interviews today and tomorrow so they are both nervous ad excited all at once. One student got a nose bleed during the anticipation! But he managed to pull himself together into his oversized suit jacket! So cute. The girls are super confident and it is so awesome to see them step up with the tech skills, teaching back and taking control of the footage.

 The Facing History team is a great group of people to work with! We are all equally flexible and creative and energetic, and when we are not, one steps up for the other at just the right time! The curriculum is a pilot for FHAO, so indeed we are constantly adapting it, changing objectives, and adjusting activities at the last minute.

The knots in my back that usually develop in early September, were back on Monday! And between this and teaching at Bunker Hill on Tues and Thurs right after a day of FHAO program…well, let’s just say that a long run or tall glass of wine are both effective ways to eliminate the knots!

All in all, I am lookin forward to what the students will produce in the next 2 weeks. You can read their reflections and daily summaries on, yes, another Blog that I manage : http://digitallegacies.blogspot.com

Wow so I haven’t written in ages - no kidding! - and now I have all the time in the world to blog…well, at least until Monday! The last 2 months of school were pretty crazy. I was managing 3 sections of 40 students and 11 clients in the Advanced Web class of sophomores….wrapping up PSAs with the juniors…planning the Senior Portfolio Exhibition and Evaluations… and grading, grading, grading until ( sigh ) it was all over. I will post separately my reflections on those projects, along with pix from the field trip to Cloud Place.

“So what are you doing for the summer?”, you ask? Relaxing…and I have 4 jobs! Seriously, I ramped up the freelance web design, am teaching a 4 day PD for BATEC next week, am consulting for Facing History and Ourselves on their documentary project from July 16 - Aug 2, and am once again “Professor Radden” by teaching the Intro to Computers class at Bunker Hill twice a week. Phew. And so when I complained yesterday of being bored, well, I reminded myself of the weeks ahead. But seriously, I am looking forward to all of the micellaneous projects I am involved in this summer! Last summer, I did not do a thing - but I needed the rest after a tumultuous school year. But I really needed the money more! Learned that lesson…and that I can still be a beach bum and get work done. Although, now that I am only steps away from the beach…actually it gets easier to do both since I can quickly transition from sand to sufing…the web, that is!