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The Hennepin Ketamine Study Investigators’ Reply
- Jeffrey D. Ho, Jon B. Cole, Lauren R. Klein, Travis D. Olives, Brian E. Driver, Johanna C. Moore, Paul C. Nystrom, Annie M. Arens, Nicholas S. Simpson, John L. Hick, Ross A. Chavez, Wendy L. Lynch, James R. Miner
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- Prehospital and Disaster Medicine / Volume 34 / Issue 2 / April 2019
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- 03 May 2019, pp. 111-113
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- April 2019
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We read with interest the recent editorial, “The Hennepin Ketamine Study,” by Dr. Samuel Stratton commenting on the research ethics, methodology, and the current public controversy surrounding this study.1 As researchers and investigators of this study, we strongly agree that prospective clinical research in the prehospital environment is necessary to advance the science of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and emergency medicine. We also agree that accomplishing this is challenging as the prehospital environment often encounters patient populations who cannot provide meaningful informed consent due to their emergent conditions. To ensure that fellow emergency medicine researchers understand the facts of our work so they may plan future studies, and to address some of the questions and concerns in Dr. Stratton’s editorial, the lay press, and in social media,2 we would like to call attention to some inaccuracies in Dr. Stratton’s editorial, and to the lay media stories on which it appears to be based.
Ho JD, Cole JB, Klein LR, Olives TD, Driver BE, Moore JC, Nystrom PC, Arens AM, Simpson NS, Hick JL, Chavez RA, Lynch WL, Miner JR. The Hennepin Ketamine Study investigators’ reply. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2019;34(2):111–113
1 - Video and text
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 15 November 2023
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- 30 October 2014, pp 19-38
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Summary
This chapter looks at the role of voice-overs, subtitles, captions, scripts, screenplays and thought bubbles – in other words, the text that accompanies a video sequence. The popularity of today's ‘silent movies’ (videos that include no written or spoken word at all) on YouTube and Vimeo has meant that many teachers have forgotten or overlooked the importance of exploiting text and image. It is easy to get seduced by the beauty of these silent clips, many of which are emotionally charged and supported by moving soundtracks. However, the techniques by which these short and silent clips are exploited tend to be repetitive, for example, memorization or description of the visual stimuli. They often don't engage higher-order thinking skills.
For me, it is precisely its multi-modal quality that makes the moving image such a rich medium. One of the most positive contributions that the moving image has made in recent times is the way that it can enhance and bring to life a text of some complexity. In this respect, visual poems and visual adaptations of lectures can help these texts reach a wider and a more diverse audience.(See Activity 1.7: Dialogues for ideas on how to exploit these kinds of multi-modal texts and Activity 5.5: Memory as an example of a visual poem.)
Working with the text alongside the moving image is nothing new in language teaching. A technique that was first popularized by the advent of the communicative approach was the information gap, in which the class was divided: for example, half the class watched the screen (without sound) while others read the script or subtitles. However, apart from being logistically complicated to arrange in class, I found that such tasks didn't motivate learners a great deal. There clearly was an information gap to be completed and this generated a fair amount of language; however, learners didn't have to create a text themselves to do the activity but simply summarize or reformulate what had been said by others.
What the following tasks have in common is that the learners are creating their own texts, categorizations or visualizations. This should motivate them to then check against the original version and notice any differences or similarities between their version and the ‘real thing’. In fact, ‘noticing’ is a common thread running through a number of the tasks in this chapter.
Part 1 - Video exploitation
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 15 November 2023
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- 30 October 2014, pp 9-18
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Activity types
A brief history
It is interesting to see that video-based activities have, over the last decades, moved from very controlled, language-based tasks to comprehension-based ones and then to exploring a much freer role. Language focus tasks were adopted by early video English courses such as the BBC's Follow Me (from 1979). However, they are still used today on a whole host of online English language courses. For example, some of Vicki Hollett's Simple English Videos ( www.simpleenglishvideos.com ) focus on language items that are particularly problematic for language learners. The items are embedded in short dialogues that are used to exemplify the difference between them (for example, between interesting and interested or sympathetic and nice ).
Early video courses such as Follow Me included these short sequences or exchanges to highlight specific language items. However, within the same episode, they would also offer longer sequences in the form of comedy sketches. This was something taken up by a number of ELT ready-made video products such as Grapevine (Oxford University Press, early 1990s) which adopted elements of roles 1 and 2 (see Introduction, pp. 3–4 for a closer analysis of the key roles of video in the classroom) within a situation comedy or mini-drama storyline using professional comic actors. The chosen genre emphasized once again the light-hearted quality that it seemed video material was required to possess. Here, the target language was intended to be comprehensible and repeated by the learners with the emphasis on Skills practice – listening comprehension and after-you-watch speaking.
In the 1990s, the concept of ‘active viewing’ was established. Here the learner took a more active role than that of the passive viewer and the teacher began to use the interface more: freeze-framing with the remote control, segmenting long videos into shorter scenes, removing and adding subtitles, playing a video without sound, covering the screen and so on. Learners were also divided up into groups for information gap tasks such as jigsaw viewing. Although there were logistical difficulties with these kinds of activities, many of them are still pedagogically valid today.
More recently, shorter clips chosen from sites such as Vimeo or YouTube have become popular source material for educators, especially those with little or no dialogue so the class is not ‘distracted’ by comprehension.
Language Learning with Digital Video
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- 30 October 2014
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The book contains generic, easy-to-use, practical activities along with a number of ready-made worksheets for specific video clips. The activities require minimal preparation and are suitable for learners at a range of ages and levels, and for both the experienced and less experienced teacher. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1, 'Exploitation', focuses on using existing video content available on sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. Part 2, 'Creation', focuses on making and using learner-generated video content.
Frontmatter
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 30 October 2014, pp i-iv
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Contents
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 30 October 2014, pp v-vii
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4 - Video and music
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 30 October 2014, pp 81-98
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If there is one genre that has been transformed by the digital age, it is the music video. Many of today's most popular singers and groups have been discovered on sites such as YouTube. Canadian singer Justin Bieber became a superstar at the age of 15 on the basis of the songs he uploaded to the video-sharing site. Here, amateurs reign supreme: recording songs in their bedrooms one minute, and the next attracting corporate sponsors to pay for product placement in their clips or production of online adverts. Record a version of a Lady Gaga song at your college music festival and you may end up with 50 million views in a month, as did Greyson Chance (youtu.be/bxDlC7YV5is).
But it is not only the discovery of new talent in terms of performance that has transformed the music video, but the arrival of fan-made videos. Billboard now recognize fan-made videos that use authorized audio, as well as official promos, in the compilation of charts of the most popular online music. It is yet another example of the omnipresence of ‘own-created’ media and how this is having an impact on, or indeed taking over, the mainstream.
However, YouTube music videos can be used for many other purposes these days. For example, the song ‘Crush on Obama’ (youtu.be/wKsoXHYICqU), performed by a fan of the politician, then filmed and edited by amateurs and uploaded to YouTube, was said to have played a major part in the election of the US President in 2009.
So, what are the implications of these enormous changes for the language classroom? Traditionally, music videos have been exploited in the language classroom by gap-fills based around the song's lyrics. Whilst this is a worthwhile exercise in many ways, and clearly tests students’ listening skills, it does not consider the role of the video itself but rather gives priority to the text in isolation. Such activities can be done equally well with audio alone. Secondly, there are a number of online tools and sites available now (a good example is lyricstraining.com) which enable learners to do these lyric gap-fills on their own outside class
2 - Video and narrative
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 30 October 2014, pp 39-60
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Summary
Oscar-winning films are not usually known for experimenting with narrative genre.
However, the opening of Argo , the film that won the Oscar for 2012 Best Picture, is extraordinary in the way it plays with our expectations of plot, jumping from fact to fiction. The film begins with a storyboard describing the events leading up to the 1979 Iranian revolution. You feel that you are attending a contemporary history lecture as the images are playful and cartoon-like. Then, there is grainy stock footage of rioting and protests on the streets of Tehran; you are now watching a documentary. These then combine seamlessly with the dramatic reconstruction of events. You are now watching a Hollywood suspense film. Fact or fiction? It is hard to decide in those opening minutes, but it is precisely the experimentation with narrative that captures your attention and makes you want to keep watching.
Analysing what makes a viewer keep watching is not so different from analysing what makes a language learner stay glued to the screen. Tension, curiosity, mystery and a desire to reach resolution and the end of the story are ingredients that make up a great narrative.
What I hope these activities share is that they will make learners either curious to discover the story or wish to tell their own version of events. Whether it is a funny domestic drama (Activity 2.2: One-minute story ), the trailer for an adventure film (Activity 2.5: Narrative errors ), a classic or contemporary love story (Activities 2.6: Screenshot storyboard and 2.7: Turning points ) or a sporting event (Activity 2.9: Penalty shoot-out ), I have chosen narrative sequences which I feel will capture a learner's attention in the same way as those first few minutes of Argo . The tasks themselves are designed to tap into that curiosity and to send learners off into a different world.
Video narration and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
Combining storytelling and video is nothing new, of course. With the arrival of the communicative approach and active viewing, using video in this way became part and parcel of classroom practice. When I first started using video in class, I recall getting learners to narrate the moving image in a number of different ways.
3 - Video and persuasion
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 30 October 2014, pp 61-80
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Advertising has always been a popular language learning resource. Video adverts are short and can be reviewed on a number of occasions in class. They often include an element of surprise and are excellent for hypothesizing as learners have seen so many before. It is possibly the genre about which our learners are most visually literate. As such, they can analyse adverts easily and use this analysis as a basis for their own creations.
However, in the digital world, notions of advertising are changing. Companies use different channels to advertise and new genres have emerged which are a combination of advertising and editorial (’ advertorials ’). For example, one of the most watched advertorials on YouTube in recent years was an advert disguised as a ‘how-to’ clip. The video How to Shave your Body Hair used animation and generated a high number of views. However, the advert was sponsored by Gillette, and was therefore a means of reinforcing a message about the company's shaving products but in a disguised way, as if the viewer were merely taking in ‘useful information’.
The Gillette advert is an interesting example of a new genre, but one that may not be suitable for all language classrooms. On the other hand, Coca-Cola's campaign Let's Look at the World a Little Differently ( youtu.be/ssL8r1pJe_w ), which included acts of kindness and bravery recorded incidentally on security cameras around the world, proved incredibly popular in the classroom. It was successful because it tapped into the YouTube genre perfectly. It included very short clips of real people captured by accident and sandwiched together to create a good-time video with a light, upbeat message: perfect for sharing in social media networks.
Another interesting development is that the line between professionally made and amateur adverts is blurring. Companies are thus quick to pick up on any viral videos and make use of them. One of the first was a Chicken McNuggets rap that was found on YouTube and exploited by McDonald’s for their own official adverts. It is not uncommon for video memes to be appropriated into the mainstream in this way.
Introduction
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 30 October 2014, pp 1-8
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The moving image
For well over fifty years, language teachers have been using the moving image both in and outside the classroom. Back in the early 1990s, video was seen as a reward, a form of light relief. It was viewed as a leisure-time activity probably because of its association with television and the idea of passive viewing. You typically showed a video on a Friday afternoon after a hard week's grammar. In those days, the video could consist of an hour or more of a popular film. Sometimes this was even shown for its own sake; in other words, there was not necessarily any task designed around it. Learners could give a summary of what had happened or initiate a discussion based on the video's content, but generally speaking, the video was poorly exploited and not integrated into the lesson.
From being very much peripheral to the main business of language learning, the moving image has shifted to becoming a prime source of content. Not only that, but learner-created video is now as central a focus in the classroom as material introduced by the teacher or institution.
Such a shift clearly echoes what is going on in society at large. The moving image is taking centre stage in our everyday landscape of communication: ‘What we are now seeing is the gradual ascendance of the moving image as the primary mode of communication around the world: one that transcends languages, cultures and borders.’ (Apkon, 2013 , p. 24)
Learners can now access video material at home and on the move, via smartphones and tablets. Watching a film on a big screen in the darkness of the cinema surrounded by strangers has been replaced by the possibility of watching the same thing on a shrunken phone-size screen in isolation and just about anywhere with an internet connection. Likewise, what was once encased in a VHS box or a plastic DVD jacket – very much a separate entity – is now fully integrated into our other classroom materials and is made available via video podcast (vodcast), online streaming or as downloads.
Video has been instrumental in changing concepts of classroom space and settings. In a ‘flipped’ or decentralized classroom scenario, video is the only form of input or instruction, with the learners accessing this information online at home, while the classroom space is given over to discussion, negotiation and the sharing of ideas.
Index
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 30 October 2014, pp 200-206
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5 - Video and topic
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 15 November 2023
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- 30 October 2014, pp 99-116
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Summary
These days, many coursebooks and syllabi are topic-based. A video on a topic you are focusing on in class, especially one which concerns an issue of contemporary interest, can clearly be a great way to enhance a lesson. In contrast to most of the other activities in this book, the activities in this chapter are based on specific topic-related videos, all of which are available on the Cambridge University Press ELT YouTube channel (bit.ly/CUPDigitalVideo). However, there are tips for working with clips of a similar type below and extension tasks about dealing with these topics in general.
Although each video focuses on a particular umbrella topic, the video styles here vary enormously. The video in Activity 5.2: Water is entirely image-based with no script as such and could be used with basic levels, while the video in Activity 5.5: Memory is a visual representation of a complex text and is suitable for higher levels. As with any video, we recommend that teachers view each clip in this chapter before showing it to students to ensure that the content is suitable for particular learners.
Angles
Firstly, when selecting topic-based video material, it is important to choose a universal topic which you imagine will be relevant to learners’ lives. The clip should somehow explore an interesting or original angle on this familiar topic. For example, if the topic is sport, then finding a video based on a football team which didn't have a pitch to play on because they lived on a floating village (Activity 5.3: Sport ) could prove a quirky and surprising angle. In the case of the video in Activity 5.2: Water , the topic is introduced by explaining the process behind the creation of an ingenious water-saving device. Bear in mind that these videos are merely examples of clips that you could find linked to these topics or any others. Hopefully, you will be inspired by these videos to find ones relevant to your context – for example, the story of a local sports team or a video that explains the working process of another invention that is of local significance. Likewise, the topic of memory (Activity 5.5) is introduced here via a poem. Using this activity as a model, you could seek out a visual poem based on a different topic of interest.
Thanks
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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8 - Challenging video creation: Level 3
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 30 October 2014, pp 159-176
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There is a strong emphasis on developing both video- and audio-editing skills in this chapter, using English procedurally , to complete tasks, and also to produce language to form the content or output of these tasks. In Activity 8.2: New news , for example, learners write scripts to accompany clips from news reports that have had the sound removed, obliging them to infer the content of the stories based only on what they can see. Once they have prepared their scripts, they record them, matching the length and timing of the video. They then use film-editing software to synchronize their audio tracks to the news clips. In a variation to this, the classroom can be turned into a fully fledged news studio by using a green screen to film the learners presenting their news stories, with the video clips playing behind them as a backdrop. Activity 8.3: Shuffle kerfuffle is also about editing, treating sections of video as if they were virtual LEGO® bricks. In the same way that learners might reorder a text by recognizing cohesive devices or lexical clues, in this activity they receive a mixed-up series of short clips and are tasked with assembling them into a coherent narrative.
Several other creation projects break down the boundaries of the classroom, either metaphorically or literally. Activity 8.6: Guest speaker enables the learners to connect remotely with a professional or subject expert. This is useful for ESP classes and also for bringing authentic, situated language and interaction into the classroom when covering a specific theme. I have invited sales and marketing professionals to speak to my learners when working on a coursebook unit on advertising, as well as artists, musicians and other subject experts according to the profile and interests of my learners and the specific components of the curriculum. As well as providing learners who are studying in non-English-speaking countries with an opportunity to communicate in English with someone other than their teacher, the immediacy and authenticity of engaging with an external subject expert can be extremely motivational. Activity 8.7: Tube talk uses the ‘magic curtain’ of the green screen to bring the London Underground into the classroom, using a soundscape that I recorded specifically for this purpose.
Acknowledgements
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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List of sources
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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7 - Medium video creation: Level 2
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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Summary
Digital video creation
A learner-centred, hands-on approach is at the core of the video-creation activities and projects in this chapter. Activities vary in length from short 30-minute tasks to project-based learning ideas that can remain ongoing throughout a whole term or semester. Many of these do not fit into neat categories. They are multi-modal projects designed to engage learners in the creative process. This often requires practices that embody complex contexts and procedures and encourage collaboration. Often the end result of these activities is of less importance than the process leading to it. The primary goals are situating language through practical engagement in the creation of digital artefacts. This is achieved through the process of guided reflection, critical thinking, performance, debate, design, creativity and other competences often referred to as ‘21st-century skills’. The role of the teacher becomes one of learning facilitator and project manager, rather than content deliverer and, as is typical with any form of active or project-based learning, notions of timing and control need to be flexible.
While language goals are explicitly defined, these are in no way intended to be prescriptive. Many of the activities can easily be adapted to focus on a wide variety of language points and skills development. By working through the projects and activities, learners are encouraged to identify patterns or trends, examine perspectives and alternate points of view, predict, analyse causal relationships, and create original content both in and through English.
In Hard Times , Charles Dickens explores the ideology of an education system that views students as empty ‘vessels’ needing to be filled with ‘nothing but facts’. Imagination, play and creativity are aggressively discouraged as a wasteful distraction, the teacher's responsibility being to ‘kill outright the robber Fancy lurking within’. Although over 160 years have passed since its writing, this, unfortunately, still sounds painfully familiar. A Google Image search using the term ‘classroom’ reveals that the organizational structure of the typical Victorian classroom is still very much alive and well, and, embedded in the design of these face-front learning spaces, is still the tacit notion that knowledge is transmitted from a ‘sage on the stage’.
Part 2 - Video creation
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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- 30 October 2014, pp 117-126
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Digital video creation
A learner-centred, hands-on approach is at the core of the video-creation activities and projects in this chapter. Activities vary in length from short 30-minute tasks to project-based learning ideas that can remain ongoing throughout a whole term or semester. Many of these do not fit into neat categories. They are multi-modal projects designed to engage learners in the creative process. This often requires practices that embody complex contexts and procedures and encourage collaboration. Often the end result of these activities is of less importance than the process leading to it. The primary goals are situating language through practical engagement in the creation of digital artefacts. This is achieved through the process of guided reflection, critical thinking, performance, debate, design, creativity and other competences often referred to as ‘21st-century skills’. The role of the teacher becomes one of learning facilitator and project manager, rather than content deliverer and, as is typical with any form of active or project-based learning, notions of timing and control need to be flexible.
While language goals are explicitly defined, these are in no way intended to be prescriptive. Many of the activities can easily be adapted to focus on a wide variety of language points and skills development. By working through the projects and activities, learners are encouraged to identify patterns or trends, examine perspectives and alternate points of view, predict, analyse causal relationships, and create original content both in and through English.
In Hard Times , Charles Dickens explores the ideology of an education system that views students as empty ‘vessels’ needing to be filled with ‘nothing but facts’. Imagination, play and creativity are aggressively discouraged as a wasteful distraction, the teacher's responsibility being to ‘kill outright the robber Fancy lurking within’. Although over 160 years have passed since its writing, this, unfortunately, still sounds painfully familiar. A Google Image search using the term ‘classroom’ reveals that the organizational structure of the typical Victorian classroom is still very much alive and well, and, embedded in the design of these face-front learning spaces, is still the tacit notion that knowledge is transmitted from a ‘sage on the stage’. Blackboards may have morphed into whiteboards, interactive screens and data projections, but it seems learners are still sitting and looking in the same direction.
9 - Elaborate video creation: Level 4
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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While ‘elaborate’ may be a fitting adjective to describe the tasks in this chapter, I am by no means using it as a synonym for ‘difficult’. These tasks are elaborate in the sense that they contain a wide variety of sequential components or stages. Some of them extend into medium- or longterm projects. For this reason they may be better suited for teachers and learners who have already ‘levelled up’ by developing their technical, creative and project-management skills while working through some of the earlier activities. Activity 9.8: Coming up … , for example, tasks the learners with writing, creating, editing and sharing their own television shows, complete with introductory theme music, titles and green screen effects. Only a short time ago, this would have required prohibitively expensive, specialized hardware and software. Now, many of the learners are carrying around powerful, multi-purpose television studios in their pockets.
Activity 9.7: Half-baked remake is one of the most creatively elaborate projects as the learners produce (deliberately bad) remakes of famous Hollywood blockbusters. Activity 9.6: Invader is an example of a pervasive mobile game . Pervasive games extend gameplay beyond the typical boundaries of play such as boards (e.g. Scrabble), courts (e.g. tennis) or screens (e.g. video games) and into the real world. They are sometimes described as ‘games that surround you’, as the lines between the game world and the real world become blurred. I designed this game to provide a context for learners to use English outside the relatively sterile confines of the classroom, to engage with people, places and objects in a more situated and embodied manner. This is especially important for learners in non- English-speaking countries. The game places the learners in the role of aliens who have just arrived on Earth. They are on a pre-invasion reconnaissance mission to study human behaviour, places and objects, and so must try to blend in as they use their mobile devices to record on-the-fly video reports and document their observations.
I originally designed this game to use with the extremely large groups of mixed-ability learners I was teaching at a university. The classrooms were designed for lecture-style teaching, and so both the physical surroundings and the sheer number of learners made communicative language teaching quite a challenge.
6 - Straightforward video creation: Level 1
- Ben Goldstein, Paul Driver
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- Language Learning with Digital Video
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As the chapter title suggests, the following activities and projects have been grouped because of their relative simplicity to set up and use with a class. I do, however, still recommend trying out any task that involves creating content in advance, or at least running through the different stages.
Several of the projects covered in Level 1 focus on improving digital literacy by raising awareness of the constructed nature and generic features of popular media. For example, Activity 6.4: Good game? takes learners through the process of dissecting, analysing and discussing the characteristics of good video games, before playing one and recording a video review. Similarly, Activity 6.2: Meme machine guides learners to deconstruct the ‘DNA’ of popular viral videos into a recipe, which they then follow to create their own memes and share with the world.
Other tasks take a more personal tone, such as Activity 6.1: Limelight , which focuses on showcasing individual talents, interests or abilities, while also developing basic digital videorecording skills that will help to familiarize the learners with the capabilities of their own mobile devices.
Activity 6.5: Lip service introduces audio editing as a means of situating language (metaphorically and literally) in the context of a video clip that has become separated from its audio track. This audio track, which has been cut into Lego-like blocks and shuffled, needs to be reassembled and repositioned by the learners to match what they can see. It is then re-synchronized with the video. Aside from providing intensive listening practice, this activity helps to develop abductive reasoning, as learners combine contextual visual clues in the video with language cues in the audio. Activity 6.3: Voice-over substitution also involves basic audio-recording and editing skills, while drawing attention to the journalistic language of news reports. In this activity the learners’ attention is drawn to the speed and intonation of a news presenter's speech, which they use as a model to record their own voice-overs.