Lissa Chazot

Creating a scaffolding to learn civic responsibility

Creating a scaffolding to learncivic responsibility

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About the Author

Lissa Chazot An educator with an enduring interest in technology infused classroom practices using Apple technology. She is an IB and BTEC trained teacher with extensive training from experts in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Project based Pedagogy, Experiential learning, Second Language Learning etc. She works at Mahatma Gandhi International School, Gujarat and is also an Apple Professional Development Consultant for India West zone. She is an Apple Distinguished Educa-tor from the class of 2013.

Using film as a pedagogical tool for expression, she teaches academically mandated curriculum to her students through interdisciplinary projects in collaboration with her colleagues. Currently, she is mentoring her students on a media campaign for the Chief Election Officer of Gujarat to create voter awareness amongst the youth in time for the national parliamentary elections.

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ONE BEST THING The Power of Creativity and Expression

In a clarion call to vote, Lissa’s students at Mahatma Gandhi International School use digital storytelling and creative media to effectively convey the message to the target audience in time for the (state level) legislative elections, 2012 and the (national) parliamentary elections, 2014.

With limited funds and the burning desire to provide international, progressive edu-cation to students, our school decided to have an Apple Lab equipped with comput-ers and iPads to support the student’s creativity through multi-disciplinary pro-jects. Located at the confluence of diversity with students from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, we developed a project adaptable for different grade levels to engage the students in their role as a citizen through digital story telling. We have seen a surge of interest in students, an increase in the number of national and international awards for our student work, a higher retention of cogni-tive content and an eagerness to work persistently towards a goal.

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Using Creative Media to connect with digital natives in the class room

Products Used

ONE BEST THING

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Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the

world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

Voter Awareness through a media campaign | Creating a scaffolding for learning civic responsibility

This project seamlessly integrates the subject competen-cies of Humanities (Civics), Arts, Technology and Lan-guage. It also covers many life skills.

Students used the built in camera of the iPad and apps such as iMovie, Cinema Forms, Celtx, Constitution of India to create student advertisements on the importance of vot-ing. At the ideation stage, many students used the iPad to visually test their idea and screen it for feedback. Students with more advanced skills used the professional camera (Canon 7D), sound recorder (Zoom H4N4) and edited on the Apple computers with Final Cut Pro.

The teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of a proper social life.” - John Dewey

I work at Mahatma Gandhi International School (MGIS) located in Gujarat, India. The theoretical framework of the school is anchored in the tenets of progressive education and based upon an experiential, constructivist approach in which the learners are looked upon as architects of their own learning experience. Through our project-based approach, learn-ing is guided not by subjects but by challenges and the need to overcome them. This sits well with the Challenge based Pedagogy proposed by Apple Educators. When Shri. Anita Karwal, the Chief Election Officer of Gujarat communicated the need for creating voter education in the state ahead of the legislative elections and invited the school to create content for promoting voter awareness in the state under the aegis of the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) program. We saw it as a learning opportunity anchored in a real life context and immediately constituted a core team of teachers, of which I was an integral part of, as well as identified students. This engagement with the Election Of-fice gave a purpose to the project and made it meaningful and relevant to the lives of the students. Now the student’s work would contribute to the community, their sense of identity as citizens would get a serious kickstart and their voice would be heard...isn’t this a golden opportunity for citizens of a democratic nation?

With a population of over a billion, ensuring that everyone votes can be a challenge. “India is the largest democracy in the world, with the second largest population in the world, behind China. Hence, India has the largest voting population as compared to that of any other country in the world, and even as compared to that of the entire continents such as those of Africa, Europe, North America and South America” (Chief Election Officer, SVEEP Handbook, page 3). In this con-text, it is imperative to inculcate civic sense in young minds so that as adults they become participative citizens in our bur-geoning democratic country. “Voters are the central stakeholders in any election process, and more so in a democratic set up” (Chief Election Officer, SVEEP Handbook, page 3) and children need to learn about the significance of their contribu-

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tion to their government early on. After all, isn’t it the role of civic education to develop pro-social attitudes, accept re-sponsibility, promote active tolerance of differences from one another, become ambassadors of adult franchise, celebrate and respect diversity? On that account, we took the challenge of teaching civic responsibility with new technology. With my colleagues and senior management at MGIS, we explored different tools of expression that could hook the students of the 21st century in the class room. We felt that digital film making as a pedagogical tool was a powerful medium to bring about transformation of attitude in the students and breath life into text that would otherwise seem difficult and dense to them. In this chapter I am happy to share how I developed a multidisciplinary project that addresses different subject competencies in Humanities (Civics), Language, Technology, Arts and uses Apple technology to create awareness about adult franchise.

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Creating voter awareness through media | Gallery of photos with stills from student films

Motivating the students

Give them a purpose. Make sure their work is meaningful. Students put in a lot of effort in their work and in my opinion it needs to be shared with key stake holders at the local, state and national level as relevant because students often have fresh ideas that can be useful to them. When students know that their work will be valuable for others in their community and that they have a platform for expression, there is a noticeable shift in their attitude. As they gain a sense of purpose, they become more motivated to put in their best effort. So with the support of my school management and senior faculty we have created bridges with the election office of Gujarat, the municipal authorities of the city, the waste department of

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Before After

Roles

Student Citizen Creator Community Activist

Perception of students about their role before and after the project. Chart inspired and adapted from NLP: The new tech-nology of achievement by Steve Andreas and Charles Faulk-ner, page 126.

Using the Neuro-linguistic Programming tools to gain a deeper understanding of the students’ roles during the pro-ject. Inspired and adpated from NLP: The new technology of achievement by Steve Andreas and Charles Faulkner, page 114.

the city civic authorities, the traffic department of the city and other dynamic organizations that are willing to give a plat-form to the student’s work. This gives the students a voice and a sense of agency which is critical as they develop their sense of identity during their formative years. Luckily for me, my school believes in the value of creating learning experi-ences based on real life, in fact we deliver our curriculum through projects based on real life experiences from Kindergar-ten to graduation.

Once the students are engaged, the next threshold for me to cull out their creative juices to create outcomes that visually communicate their concern or their evolving understanding of voting anchored in the local cultural context. In this chap-ter we will delve into the wafts and weft of putting together a successful project teaching the Humanities, Arts, Language and Technology curriculum through an ad making project to creating awareness about the importance of voting, and give a final imperative call to voters to obtain their voter’s card in time. I hope to present as a nugget of information the culmi-nation of about five years of intensive in house teacher training with the Head of School and the Director of MGIS and en-gaging experiences with my mentors Bernard Marescot, Paco Wiser and Benjamin Mailian to develop a pedagogy and methodology to teach film based projects using Apple technology for a gamut of subjects. I will share one of the smaller projects in terms of time frame and scope for studying subject competencies but it is one of the most successful in terms of outreach and sense of achievement. It is also my personal favorite.

Methodology and Pedagogical Approach

I feel fortunate to work in an environment where tenets of progressive education are implemented. My preferred teaching style is experiential learning and project pedagogy as developed and practiced at MGIS, although I have an evolving interest in Challenge Based Pedagogy.

My personal experience with students who are digital natives, pushed me towards using creative media in digital form to hook them to express their understanding of

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concepts they usually don’t connect with. I have found that they re-spond well to real life challenges, they not only engage at a more meaningful level through concrete, hands on work, they also under-stand the concepts better and develop life skills which help them on the long run. By working on current issues to understand civic respon-sibility, the historical context to an issue and the otherwise abstract concept of citizenship education, the learning for the students be-comes relevant and involved. By experiencing and reflecting on their work, students develop an understanding of the significance of civic responsibilities and the value of their individual contribution in the larger picture of democracy. It is the reflection process after observ-ing and reflecting about the concrete experience that helps students understand abstract concepts, draw their own personalized conclu-sions, infer knowledge and develop their own personalized narrative to understand the concept in their own way. And this learning sticks with them.

What better way to do this than to transform and educate learners through projects that they can connect with and relate to, rather than end-less scrolls of text that has no significance or impact in their personal lives. This is what drives me...creating learning opportunities to transform learners.

“(John) Dewey believed that an activity is not a learning activity if it lacks pur-pose and organization. He criticized the more traditional formal teaching environ-ments of the nineteenth centuries in which children learned information by rote and spent days reciting facts out of context.

He also criticized situations in which teachers set up the learning environment and then turn children loose to explore without offering any guidance or sugges-tions, or randomly set up experiences without providing any unifying theme, continuity, or purpose.

Dewey thought that rather than saying, ‘the children will enjoy this’, teachers need to ask the following questions when they plan activities for children:

- How does this expand on what these children already know?

- How will this activity help this child

- What skills are being developed?- How will this activity help these children

- How does this activity prepare these

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Challenge:

Create voter awareness

Big Idea

How to communicate an idea with visual and conceptual clarity to impact the target audience and help the community ?

The scaffoldingSubject:

Level:

City, State, Country:

Humanities, Arts, Technology, Language

Middle School

Ahmedabad, Gujarat (India)

PROCESS

1. A CONCRETE EXPERIENCE

Use concrete objects to launch the thinking process.

Activity 1: Rights and Duties as a student and a class member | Humanities

In small groups of 3-4, students propose their rights and du-ties. Use the iPad inbuilt Camera app and iMovie app to visually represent their proposition. Present it in front of the class with Apple TV. Vote as a class using Socrative app. Conclude by formalising the Rights and Duties Chart of the class. Share the duties and responsibilities of a citizen.

2.INITIATING THE PROPOSITION PROCESS

Opening the tap of creativity. Share the context of the pro-ject and the contents of the invitation letter from Shri. Anita Karwal, IAS. Give a brief about the requirements and launch the challenge: Create voter awareness.

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A good camera. Alternatively you can shoot with an iPhone or iPad but the aspect ration will alter. If you just want to explore this medium using existing resources, you can use the camera you have, mount it on a tripod and shoot. Its best if the resolution is at least 480p or 720p.

Resources you will need

Activity 1: This is anything but... | Creativity exercise

Stand in a circle. Bring an object in the class remotely related to voting: Paper (Ballot). Ask students to imagine this pa-per being anything but a paper and enact it in front of the class. Others have to guess what object is being represented. End activity with the paper becoming a ballot and the teacher casting her vote.

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Cognitive Concepts

Humanities: Systems- Forms of governance, citizenship, Rights and Duties of a citizen

Arts: Aesthetics, Relationship-Montage, Visual Narrative, Composition, Framing and camera movement, Light, Storyboarding, Conventions and structure of advertisements and short films, SFX, VFX

Language: Structure of a narrative: Setting, rising action, climax, denouement, resolution Oral Communication skills and presentation skillsConventions of script writing, writ-

Resources

Human Resources: Shri. Anita Karwal, IAS, Chief Election Officer of Gujarat. Paco Wiser, an interna-tional Cinematographer. Pascal Chazot and Anju Musafir, Directors of MGIS. Lissa Chazot, Apple Dis-tinguished Educator on campus. Stanley Stephen, IT Head. Meenak-shi Ganeriwala, BTEC Coordinator. Neha Solanki, Editing Faculty. Isha Javeri, Technology instructor. Tar-get Audience focus group

Equipment: A fully equipped pro-jection room with surround sound, High performance computers, Fi-nal Cut Pro X editing software, pro-fessional camera Canon 7D, Senn-heiser headphones and micro-phone, Tripods, Boom, Bose speak-

Life Skills

Collaboration: Working in groups, Delegating and taking re-sponsibility, resolving group con-flicts, demonstrating teamwork, re-specting and analysing others’ ideas, respecting cultural differ-ences, negotiating goals, using ideas critically.

Communication: Informing oth-ers using visual presentation skills (using elements of film and adver-tisement), interpreting a range of content, specific terminology.

Organisation: time management and self management, keeping to deadlines.

Information Literacy: selecting

Activity 2: Brainstorming | Creativity exercise

Students go through creativity exercises to engage both sides of the brain and to bring them to think creatively. They brainstorm ideas and solutions and share them with the rest of the class. Create criteria of evaluation and evaluate the ideas from the viewer’s perspective.

Activity 3: Conceptualization, discussion and feedback | Creative exercise, Language, Arts

Divide class into smaller groups. Each group member proposes one idea/concept. The group helps them elaborate the idea by playing the ‘Cadavre Exquis’ game verbally by answering the following questions in sequence:

Who? Did what? How? With who? Where? When?

Beginning with nonsensical stories, the group discusses and culls out the best ideas and evaluate them. Each group pre-sents one idea to the rest of the class. They use feedback from the class and teacher and make the changes in their idea.

Activity 4: Create a quick, first draft of the film idea using mobile devices |Arts

In their groups, they test the waters. Using the iPad Camera app and iMovie app, they do a dummy pre-shoot, screen it to the class and get feedback.

Activity 6: Propose a solution and allocate work | Technology

Identify student interests and allocate work according to the interest or their learning requirements. Encourage the stu-dents to come up with a tentative solution. In this project, the solution proposed was short videos/advertisements. Plan

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the process using a mind mapping app like the iThoughtsHD app which allows you to allocate resources and include a time frame, Gantt app or iScope app to allocate tasks with a specific time frame to specific students, for students/teachers desiring a simpler interface they can opt for apps like the Wunderlist app.

3. RESEARCH

Activity 1: Research on democracy and adult franchise | Humanities

Teachers need to collate a list of online and print based resources and make them accessible to the students. Provide a list of ques-tions that the students have to find answers to through their re-search. Make it a game putting a giant timer on and saying that the first person to find the answers has to help the others. Every-one has to time themselves. The timer will stop ten minutes after the first student finds all the answers. Once the time is up, stu-dents must use a recognized convention (eg. Chicago Manual of Style) for referencing all the documents they referred to. Easybib app makes it easy for the students.

Once the students find (some) answers through their research, di-vide the class into three large groups that quiz each other. That way all students who could not find answers through research, will find answers through the group interactions. Conclude the session with a group discussion summarizing key learning and get students to complete referencing and update their notes if required.

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Sample question list:1- What is the Constitution and how does it se-cure the overarching goals of democracy?

2- Who prepared the Constitution and when did it come into effect?

3- What do you understand by democracy?

4- Our Constitution provides six rights that are fundamental to human nature and to a demo-cratic political system. What are they?

5- What makes India a democratic republic and a federal state?

6- Can you think of examples of social, eco-nomic or political injustice?

Activity 2: What are your rights? | Humanities

You live in a small town in India called XYZ. One day, one of the local goons decides to take control of the daily function-ing of the inhabitants. He puts up the following instructions on everyone’s door.

First in pairs, then in small groups and finally as a class, discuss these questions. Write/type these questions as visible prompts for the students.

Which of your fundamental rights under the In-dian Constitution are about to be infringed?

How is your life going to change?

What will you miss from your old life?

Why do you think it is important to protect your fundamental rights especially within the context of India which is multicultural and diverse?

How can you protect your rights? What are your duties as a citizen?

(Activity inspired from Secondary School Kit on the United Nations)

After that, review iPad apps like Law Dojo-Know Your Rights HD for US Citizen Rights app and UPDATE Comic Book HD for EU Citizen Rights app and evaluate how similar solutions can be helpful in an Indian context to create awareness among the youth. Review existing videos on youtube and vimeo (teacher should prepare a list of 2-3 videos and buffer them at the beginning of the class or download them one or two days before) to do a gap analysis. Conclude class with a discussion.

ATTENTION

1. All places of worship will remain closed. No religious festivals to be celebrated.2. No newspapers will be printed or distributed in XYZ. 3. Everyone will have to contribute 40% of their earnings to us.4. The top posts will be reserved for people aligned to our philosophy.5. All cars will become the property of the town.6. Everyone will have to contribute 20 hours/week for free as service to our group.7. No one can leave the town and migrate.8. Educational institutions will remain closed if there is a rally or bandh called out by us.

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Activity 3: Convince the other | Humanities

Prior to the class, during the break students are asked to find out from ten students and teacher what they feel is (see box on the left)

During class, start with a small discussion about what students feel is the meaning of each term. Launch a competition on the Socrative app that students can attempt on their iPads. Distribute a digital handout/screen a video that explains the terms clearly.

Prepare chits allocating one form of government per student. Give the instructions: Pre-tend you are the head of your state. Try to convince the others that your form of gov-ernment is better. Mention its weaknesses and suggest how you as a head plan to pro-pose solutions. Write a speech and present it in front of the class.

(Activity inspired from Secondary School Kit on the United Nations)

Conclude the session with a quick assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each form of governance mentioned above.

Activity 4: Debate | Humanities

Divide the class into three groups, allocate each group with a specific point of view 1) For 2) Against 3) Neutral

Give students ten minutes to look up democracy by refering the Constitution of India app on the iPad from the lens of their allocated point of view and take notes. Have a healthy debate about the pros and cons of democracy. Conclude the activity with the students noting down key arguments and salient features in pairs or groups of threes. Note: This activity can be done again with other terms if required.

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- Democracy- Oligarchy- Republic- Federal state- Monarchy- Constitutional Monarchy- Democratic Republic- Colonial state- Secular- Theocracy

Activity 5: Elements of advertisements | Humanities, Arts

Concentration exercise: See the ad and ask them how many cuts were there. View it again and this time, students have to say ‘Cut’ and clap their hands every time they see a cut. This links well to the next activity and is a good visual concen-tration exercise. (Activity inspired from Benjamin Mailian’s lesson plan at MGIS)

Research and investigate the elements of existing advertisement language in the cultural context of the target audience. Watch and compare a few advertisements made available on the CD provided by the Election Office. Investigate the issue on which it has been made.

Activity 6: Framing and Composition | Arts

Use the iPad Camera app to click different frames: Close Up, Mid Shot, Wide Shot, Establishing Shot, Cut away, Extreme close up etc. Discuss the rules of composition by projecting and analyzing the pictures as a class. Conclude the session with the students selecting one frame and justifying why it represents one form of governance of their choice. Eg. High Angle- Monarchy, as there is a clear hierarchy established.

Activity 7: Explore semiological impact of music, language, clothes etc. | Arts

Choose an advertisement. Ask students how they would react to it if the fonts, the special effects, the music, the speak-ing style, clothes etc is changed. Change one element at a time and ask the students to imagine it in their minds, solicit their reaction, thoughts, feedback. Bring the students to understand the importance of aligning visual elements according to the target audience communication requirements.

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Activity 8: Filmmaking Process | Arts

Give post-its to students and ask them to write all the tasks associated with filmmaking. Collectively everyone puts it up on the white board or the pin up board. Once everyone has put up their post-it(s), engage in a discussion and reorganize the post-its into a logical sequence. Stick the posts that are repeated one on top of the other (please do not throw them/put them away as those students might feel exclude from the activity). You can also create a wall of posts using the iPad and internet based third party solutions instead of post-its.

Activity 9: Introduction to FCP X (Editing software on the computer) | Arts, Technology

This can be adapted to iMovie on the computer or on the iPad. Give a demo of the different editing techniques in Final Cut Pro X step by step at different learning levels, repeat as necessary. Create screencasts for students to revise.

Guide students through- Creating an event and project- Importing footage- Organizing Clips in an Event- Viewing clips and selecting a range- Building a Rough Cut- Fine tuning a Rough Cut- Working with Sound- Applying Effects and Enhanc-ing Color- Applying Transitions- Working with Titles, Generators and Themes- Exporting and Sharing their Project.

Get students to implement what is learnt with a sample video. They document what they learnt through screencasts for example.

4. TARGET AUDIENCE

A film is made to be seen. If it does not connect, if the communication does not effectively convey the message then the advertisement film needs to be rehashed. To avoid this, it is better to have a funneled discussion about this before com-mencing the pre-production stage.

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Activity 1: Adapting their idea to their target audience requirements | Technology

Once students have done their research and have thought of their concept, they need to sit individually or in groups (as they prefer) think how to adapt it to their target audience. They can conduct a survey on Edmodo app if required. They can engage in further research and tweak their concept to suit their improved understanding.

5. PLAN

Planning is essentially the pre-production phase of creation. It creates rich learning opportunities to develop life skills like organisation, time management, coordination etc.

Activity 1: List requirements | Technology

Create a plan of action and identify the physical, spatial and human resources they will require using one the mindmap-ping or project planning apps I mentioned in Stage 2, activity 6. Create a schedule with start and end dates for each task, and book them after taking due permissions. Present the procedures and distribute forms, alternatively use the Cinema Forms app for convenient of pre-production documentation. Give feedback as students plan the process and get required permissions. Also give feedback for the contingency plan and other pre-production documentation requirements. Create a visual planner of work delegation on the board or on the iPad, it should be easy to update it by multiple users. A spreadsheet using the Google Drive app or Numbers app with the Dropbox app makes it easy to share and update this kind of dynamic planning.

Note: This activity usually has students going to the specified departments in school to take written permission. It might seem chaotic but its part of the process.

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Activity 2: Interviewing skills | Language

Give guidance on how to conduct a formal interview. Help interested students prepare a survey form/questionnaire. Do a run through before the actual interview. It is useful to audio/video record the interview for giving feedback and for docu-menting the process.

Activity 3: How to pitch | Language

This will probably be the first time students are pitching an idea orally for approval hence it requires some preparation and ground work if you want them to succeed.

Give the students criteria collectively decided beforehand. Eg. Pitch, Confidence, Articulation, Organisation of ideas, Pos-ture and body language, Tone of the voice, Content etc. Dedicate a prep session to help students prepare for the pitching. It is helpful to have a list sequencing student presentations communicated to the students beforehand and create the same environment as on the day of the pitching itself. Also some students can write down their speech if nervous.

6. PITCH THEIR CREATIVE CONCEPT

Language, Humanities

Pitch their ideas in front of faculty, formally with their story idea or concept note and if they wish a keynote presenta-tion, sketches, photographs etc. After the internal review, students work on the feedback received and edit their work.

If possible schedule a meeting with the Chief Election Officer and invite her to preside the pitching session. Students for-mally present their concepts to her. Approved concepts would go into production. Concepts that have not been approved can be edited and improved on and pitched again in the second round if time permits it.

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7. CREATE THE PROPOSED SOLUTION

Activity 1: Write the script | Humanities, Language

Students are exposed to the conventions of script writing. They can use the template on the Pages app (Pages-Templates-Miscellaneous-Screenplay) on the computer to write their script. Alternatively they can use Celtx Script app on the iPad.

The scripts are reviewed, shared and discussed. Typically it takes 2-3 sessions unless if you make the students write it as home-work. However, some students find it difficult so doing it in class allows for several rounds of feedback and more im-portantly, immediate feedback. Google docs (through Safari app or Google Drive app) proves to be very effective for collaborative editing and review of documents with immediate feedback loops from peers and the the teacher, it appears as comments.

Activity 2: Dummy shoot | Arts

Dramatise one shot from their storyboard, the students viewing it have to do a risk assessment and the group presenting has to propose a contingency plan. Together they evaluate their aesthetic choice, do a risk evaluation, share possible diffi-culties they might face, propose solutions to these problems and identify possible technical errors (eg. camera movement is too swift and might give the viewers an uneasy feeling).

Equipped with this feedback, students create/complete the storyboard of their concept. They can use the template avail-able on Pages app on the computer or Celtx Shots app on the iPad. Celtx Shots combines the possibility of storyboard-ing and annotating it with a how-to-shoot-it index in the second half of the page. Once they storyboard the concept shot by shot keeping in mind the angles, camera movements, sound effects etc. They also create a shooting script along with the script.

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Activity 3: Actual Shooting | Arts, Technology

Refresh student’s memory by giving them shooting strategies. Ensure the students have their script, shooting script and storyboard handy while shooting. Be present if possible when they are at it. Ask students to keep evidence of the process with photographs and diary entries.

Activity 4: Editing | Arts, Technology

Edit the film on Final Cut Pro X app or iMovie app. Give technical advice and benchmarks eg. the advertisement should be HD, 720 to 1080p, PAL, 30-80 seconds long, should be submission as Master file and compressed file etc. Teach edit-ing advanced techniques for those who have more advanced skills in editing, teach basics to students struggling with it- to offer differential opportunities for students with different learning requirements. Students document the process and write a report and update their reflective journal.

8. ADVERTISE THEIR MEDIA BASED SOLUTION

Technology

Create awareness about the films and advertise them so that they can be viewed by the target audience.

9. SUBMIT THEIR WORK

Submit it in the format required by the Election Office, ensure that the film is in the right technical format.

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10. REFLECT ON THE OUTCOME AND THE PROCESS

Arts, Technology

No activity is complete without metacognition.

Activity 1: Writer’s Den

Create a writer’s space in the class room with complete silence to reflect the culmination of this project. Having said that, teachers must ensure that students reflect after every session for a few minutes by jotting down their thoughts, their evolving understanding and their ideas. Allow several drafts of the student work and reflection.

CHALLENGESOne of the concerns I face as an educator is finding and developing age appropriate projects to engage the students. I use Apple technology in the class room and it has its joys and frustrations. The joys are many- It is intuitive, simple to use and teach, has great interface and provides a fantastic aesthetic experience... it is the ultimate tool for a creative edu-cational project. Now, being an all Apple school in a predominantly PC city has its setbacks. Simple tasks like getting inter-net connectivity, installing specific apps and software on all computers before the class, taking student work backup (go-ing into 50 Gb or more sometimes), servicing the computers...all these put together can become a challenge for a full time teacher shouldering other responsibilities in addition to teaching. So sometimes some of my techno-savvy col-leagues and I double up as teacher, technician and problem solver. At times it does get very time consuming. There is no VPP or MDM. Managing multiple iPads is quite time consuming, with a lot of manual effort. Having said that, we still

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choose Apple technology due to the scope of creative expression it gives the learners with just a few clicks. We are look-ing forward to VPP and MDM coming to India!

We have limited resources and have to share them across departments. This sometimes causes friction between students and teachers. Booking resources and planning becomes all the more important. Booking the projection room, the com-puter lab, the iPads and/or shooting equipment...it requires careful scheduling and communication across departments. Also managing wear and tear of the equipment which is continually in circulation becomes a challenge. Time is another re-source that we find difficult to manage at times. Creative work sometimes takes more time than anticipated and this puts other plans off gear, other scheduled shoots need to be rescheduled so on and so forth... A lot of flexibility is required. To succeed with the project, sufficient hours for planning the process and the subject links with colleagues need to be fac-tored in. These discussions are often intensive and after a long day with children in class such collaboration which can be difficult to achieve. At MGIS, we have dedicated periods of time for collaborative planning factored in the teacher’s time table with one day of the week without students allotted for planning purposes, we also have an annual compulsory 30 day teacher training program spread over two months before and after the summer break. This makes it possible to draw the best ideas from each other’s experience and put together projects for students from K-12. But the school calendar is hectic, we have out of India exchange programs twice-thrice a year, Mock UN Sessions across the country, assessments, exhibitions, community service,awareness campaigns, festivals, PTMs and field trips jostling for space with our collabora-tive planning meets, so these important meetings sometimes get relegated to ‘later’. Since planning is central to a suc-cessful project and in our school we take it seriously, so sometimes our planning time spills into our holidays and time off as well. What has to be done has to be done. Because a successful project for the students is a successful project for the teacher and the school.

Last but not the least, I try to engage students in locally significant yet globally relevant social and civic issues and this is sometimes a bit of a challenge because although students are digitally connected with the rest of the world, sometimes there is a disconnect with their immediate environment and the local concerns. This gap can be addressed through pro-jects like the one shared in this chapter.

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The Chief Election Officer put together a documented report about the SVEEP program initiatives done for the Gujarat General Elections 2012. We participated as a partner for content creation.

SVEEP Report by the Chief Election Officer

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The SVEEP efforts were crowned with a touching let-ter from the Chief Election Officer herself. This kind of appreciation is motivating for the students and for the teachers as well.

Letter of Participation for SVEEPSU

CC

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SUCCESSLast year the students participated in the SVEEP Phase 1 Program as an extra curricular activity formalized and credited within the framework of the vocation course in Creative Media Produc-tion (Edexcel) offered at MGIS. It was highly successful. The advertisements were screened on Doordarshan, a national television channel. It was also screened on cable TV through the Elec-tion Office mandate. One of our students Monika Joshi won the World Education Summit Student Achievement Award 2012 based on her participation in the SVEEP Project as well as excellence in martial arts. The vocation course offered at MGIS won the best Public-Private Partnership Award based on the work done for the SVEEP along with other creative media initiatives. It was mentioned in the Edexcel newsletter and the SVEEP Documented Report published by the Chief Election Officer. Some of the advertisements were reshot by Doordarshan with MGIS students acting in it. It got an outstanding evaluation report from the external visiting faculty from UK who came to evaluate the vocational course. Students learnt and covered the following units through the project: Single Camera Techniques, Preproduction Techniques for the creative Me-dia Industry, Film and Video Editing, Communication Skills for Creative Media Production, Adver-tising Techniques for the Creative Media Industry, Social Action and Community Media Produc-tion.

This year we have decided to bring SVEEP Phase 2 to more students and make it mainstream by incorporating the mandated Middle School curriculum in the project mapping itself. This year in addition to BTEC re-quirements, the project will cover mainstream subject competencies for full time students of the school and will count to-wards partial fulfillment of Community Service hours.

The onus of this chapter was to provide a scaffolding to formalize and include in the curriculum this kind of engaging con-versation with real life opportunities. With every elapsing year and the zest and energy of the Chief Election Officer of

Student film | Be cool

Student film | Break it

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Gujarat, the SVEEP project will only get bigger, especially with the upcoming Parliamentary election in 2014. I hope that interested schools and teachers from across India use the scaffolding suggested in this chapter and adapt it to their re-quirements.

CONCLUSIONMobile phones, iPods and personal laptops have increased the accessibility of student work and given students a feeling of belonging as they can operate them at their convenience and inclination. This motivates students further as their class productions (story, script, film…) are not shelved away; it becomes alive, meaningful- a medium of exchange between themselves, other students, other schools and countries. These exchanges promote communication. In fact, “In a 10-year longitudinal study undertaken by Apple Inc, ‘Dispelling widespread myths, the researchers found that instead of isolating students, access to technology actually encouraged them to collaborate more than in traditional classrooms. And instead of becoming boring with use, technology was even more interesting to students as they began using it for creating and communicating’ (Apple Computer, Inc., 1995). MGIS has been incorporating Apple technology in the classroom as an inte-gral part of their academic curriculum since its inception fifteen years ago and is a testimony to its potential for creativity.

Within the context of the ongoing revolutions in the Middle East, discussions about democracy and freedom is a relevant global issue. We must “allow people to express their hopes for the world’s future and enable them to act on those. If such opportunities are not offered to students, educators run the risk of creating generations of cynics and unaware, narrow-minded citizens-people both indifferent to the issues and powerless to act.” (Secondary School Kit on the United Nations p.7) The advent of internet and the array of possibilities to diffuse one’s work across the world, free of copyright (www.youtube.com, apple podcasts) have enlarged the platform to express themselves and exchange about ongoing civic issues, social concerns and engage across borders. The productions by pupils are no longer restricted to paper publica-tions, the outreach is far greater than before. Teachers can tap into this potential and foray into this still unchartered space to claim it because that is where we will find our students.

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Apps

Karwal, Anita. Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP). Gujarat General Elections 2012. Ahmeda-bad: Raman Group, 2013.

Gomman, Rohini. Our Constitution. Gurgaon: Scholastic India Pvt Ltd, 2002.

Patel, MA. Social Studies textbook. Gandhinagar: Gujarat State Board of School textbooks, 2006.

Barrs, David & Juffkins, Maura. Secondary School Kit on the United Nations. UK: Pearsons Publishing, 1995.

Mulen, Sharma and Das. How we govern ourselves. Delhi: NCERT, 1997.

Mooney, Carol Garhart. Theories of Childhood. An introduction to Dewey, MOntessori, Erikson, Piaget & Vygotsky. St Paul: Redleaf Press, 2000.

Andreas, Steve and Faulkner, Charles. NLP The New Technology of Achievement. Noida: Gopsons Papers, 2011.

Books

Camera app

Pages

Numbers

Keynote

iMovie

Google Drive

Dropbox

Cinema Forms

Celtx Script

Celtx Shots

Socrative

Edmodo

Easybib

Constitution of India

Law Dojo-Know Your Rights HD for US Citizen Rights

UPDATE Comic Book HD for EU Citizen Rights

iScope

Wunderlist

Gantt

iThought HD

References

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Dewey’s term for an activity that meets five criteria: is based on the children’s interests and grows out of their existing knowledge and experience; supports the children’s development; helps the children develop new skills; adds to the children’s understanding of the world; and prepares the children to live more fully.

As defined by Carol Garhart Mooney in Theories of Childhood. An introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget & Vygotsky.

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Chapter 1 - Using Creative Media to connect with digital natives in the class room

MGIS

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MGIS

Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad.

Throughout their schooling at MGIS, students work on different projects that in-volve the use of a variety of creative skills and new technology. The learning is process oriented rather than content driven. There is an atmosphere of freedom that encourages children to learn to be responsible and to (re)discover the joys of learning.

Website: www.mgis.in

Youtube Channel: MGISMultimedia

Vimeo Channel: MGIS TV

Ongoing project using Apple technology with another class: Launching MGIS TV. Students are shooting with the iPad and editing on iMovie and Final Cut Pro.

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Chapter 1 - Using Creative Media to connect with digital natives in the class room

Learning experience, Progressive education, SVEEP

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PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION

A movement toward more democratic and child centered forms of education and away from hierarchical and didactic instruction, beginning at the end of the nine-teenth century.

As defined by Carol Garhart Mooney in Theories of Childhood. An introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget & Vygotsky.

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Chapter 1 - Using Creative Media to connect with digital natives in the class roomChapter 1 - Using Creative Media to connect with digital natives in the class room

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SVEEP

SVEEP alias Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation is “a programme of multi interventions in different modes and mediums designed to increase voters’ awareness and their participation in the electoral processes. It is designed according to the socio-economic, cultural and demographic profile of the state as well as the history of electoral participation in previous rounds of elections and learning thereof.”

Chief Election Officer of Gujarat, SVEEP Handbook, page 3

MGIS participated as a partner for content creation in the first phase of SVEEP in 2012. Students created ten advertisements for creating voter awareness for the state level legislative elections. They are currently participating in the second phase of SVEEP. They have just completed the pitching process and have submit-ted the scripts for creating advertisements and other creative content for promot-ing voting for the national parliamentary elections to be held in 2014.

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MGIS

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