Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Vidding as an Educational Project




 Produced by the Organization for Transformative Works, this video explains vidding in the words of vidders.
 
I’m a huge fan of the vidding community on Youtube. Vidders take clips of a movie or television show and edit them to music in order to interpret the events or characters in a new way. Contrary to what one of the commentators in the video believes, vidding is more than just a stupid hobby; it involves a deep analysis into motives, meanings, and motifs present in movie/tv shows and music. While watching one video, it suddenly struck me that vidding could serve as an interesting school project.

 It’s fairly common for English classes to watch a film adaptation for a novel read in class, but (in my experience) most teachers use films as a fun break rather than a learning exercise. For a project on a book and movie adaption, students could use video-editing software (such as Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, which both come installed on PC or Mac, respectfully) to create a video illustrating a theme, important relationship development, or character study. This exercise would require students to analyze the film and the song used in their video, reinforcing an educational lesson through film and technology. A video-editing project would also teach students editing skills that can be useful in the world beyond the classroom.

Currently, this idea would have to be compromised to due to difficulties providing students with the access to movie clips. An alternate lesson could be a paper based on a song that can used to highlight an aspect of either the book or movie adaptation. Maybe in a few more years, as digital access to movie clips increases, a project like this would become more feasible.

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