Jun
10
DVD Authoring-Anju
Posted by: Thomas Kritikos | June 10, 2009 | Comments Off on DVD Authoring-Anju
You are Anju’s neighbour. As a teacher, she wants your advice – would a DVD be a good idea? What should she include in it, particularly for an ESL/EFL audience? Post your estimation in weeks in the Module 2: Case Study – Diabetes DVDdiscussion thread. Be sure to explain how you came up your answer.
I think that creating a DVD to help Anju’s clients better understand type 2 diabetes is an excellent idea. As a teacher, I would point out to Anju that I always focus heavily on the characteristics and capacity of my students prior to developing any lesson or unit for them. Knowing your target audience is extremely important if you are to develop a lesson that will successfully help them build their knowledge on the subject matter. I would also say to her that her idea of using a DVD to author a presentation would be beneficial for learners who have different strengths with respect to the multiple intelligences. In her DVD, she could incorporate still images and/or video (Spatial intelligence-picture smart). She could utilize images of charts and graphs (Logical-mathematical intelligence-“number/reasoning smart”) to help with her presentation. In presenting her information verbally or through images of text Linguistic intelligence (“word smart”): she could support learners who benefit from an auditory form of instruction. If Anju incorporates a demonstration type activity within her DVD then clients who prefer to learn through a hands-on approach would benefit (Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence-“body smart”). As diabetes requires the manual manipulation of various medical instruments to help with insulin transfer through injections, clients could then practice the skill, gaining knowledge and confidence. I would also remind her that she would best serve her clients if she created a cycle of instruction where her clients watched the DVD on specific weekdays, and then received follow-up personal instruction from her. This face-to-face would help clients clarify any problems they encountered when watching the DVD. I would impress upon Anju that she needs to keep the concept of simplicity in the forefront as she develops her electronic resource for her medically compromised clients. As a former nurse myself, I came to understand that all the well-intentioned education itself cannot effect substantive change within a client’s personal schematic if they are not ready to receive the information because of their medical situation. As stated before, assessing her client’s for their readiness to learn the information that she is planning within the DVD is paramount.
I do have some thoughts that I would like to share with Anju;
· What software is she going to use to prepare her notes (will there be a script for her movie)?
· Will she use software or large 11x 17 paper to ‘Storyboard’ her movie?
· Will she use web sites or books to gather the appropriate information on the intricacies of type 2 diabetes?
· Will she utilize pictures and/or graphics in her presentation?
· If she uses graphics from a book, how will she digitize these pictures (scanner technology)?
· Where will she search for information that will help her support ESL learners?
· What type of computer does she have, PC or Mac. Macs are more intuitive and easy to use, in my opinion?
· Does she have the necessary software on either one of these machines for video editing of the raw video?
· Does she have the DVD ‘burn’ software on her laptop?
· Does she have all necessary cables(USB or Fire wire) to attach her laptop to the camera to move the video from the camera to the laptop?
· Does she have the necessary time to learn how to download the data from the camera to the laptop?
· Does she have the necessary time to learn how to use the editing software?
· Does she have time to learn how to ‘burn’ the video onto the proper DVD disc (most commercial DVD players do not play all the DVD formats-this has improved lately) Most players will not play DVD_RW disks yet?
· Does she have a budget to purchase the DVD disks and the necessary cables if need be. It would be a good idea if she bought an extra long life lithium battery for her camera so she can insert the new battery into the camera when the old battery is drained?
· Does she need a tripod for the camera?
· Has she assessed whether her clients have access to a DVD player?
This project has the potential of being extremely motivating and useful for her clients. If she plans it thoroughly and delivers the information in a simplistic, engaging and informative manner her clients will learn supportive measures for living with diabetes.