1. Vision Videos Empower Students
- Author
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Patt, Mary Johnson
- Abstract
Increasing numbers of school districts are starting the higher education drumbeat by the freshman year of high school, employing 21st-century technology such as the popular career-based software developed by Naviance to help students map their school and life journeys. But what is the first step in inspiring those teens to define and pursue their passions? Nothing happens without a vision. This article describes Tel.A.Vision, a free Web tool that gives today's tech-savvy youth everything they need to create and share "vision videos." A Tel.A.Vision is essentially a highly personal montage combining a student's written hopes and dreams with still photographs, music and computer animation--created with tools available online at www.telavision.tv. Tel.A.Vision could never have been done before. It took the combination of high-speed Internet access, low-cost computer storage devices, access to music and photo files, and Web 2.0 software--which means there is no software that one has to buy to make this happen. Any kid who has access to a computer and the Internet can do this. Several months before Tel.A.Vision's official launch in October 2008, the vision video concept was tested in the Stillwater School District, east of Minneapolis, which serves the children of Lake Elmo, Minnesota. The free online creation and sharing of personal videos instantly proved both appealing and accessible to 120 tech-savvy fifth-graders at Lake Elmo Elementary School. The reaction was just as positive among the 700 middle school kids who created Tel.A.Vision videos at nearby Oak-Land Junior High. (Contains a list of 5 online resources.)
- Published
- 2009