As a fellow educator I think Anju is a marvel. Working in a senior’s home and a community center makes it evident that she cares about the human condition. I am flattered that she has come to me for advice. I think her idea to create a take-away DVD resource is fantastic! Multi-media educational tools are excellent for the classroom so why not for ESOL adult education?

• WHO: A local dietician wishes to reach a female, middle-aged Asian immigrant population who are experiencing a late onset diabetes epidemic.
• WHAT: A resource that will educate this group about proper healthy eating habits as a preventative measure for this illness and as an information source for how to manage it.
• WHERE: Community Center in Port Alberni
• WHEN: No time like the present.
• HOW: She will likely need 3 weeks assuming ~10 hours a week.
  • 1st- She can use her existing resources: laptop (assuming it has a DVD burner) which she will use to edit the DVD and burn it; and the new video recorder (to record segments of her workshop). She will also need to locate 2-3 DVD-Rs (she may bungle one or two up while she learns!) and a collection of digital images to use in the DVD. She should allot herself 3 hours to play with her video camera and learn how to use iDVD (if Mac) or Moviemaker. She will need to learn how to record, import, edit and save.
  • 2nd- She will need to script her DVD plan. She needs to consider what she wants to include in terms of video segments, images, audio, length of DVD and ways to keep it ‘ESOL’ friendly. This will take her ~10 hours.
  • 3rd- She needs to prepare the materials she requires for her video segment (flip chart, food samples/portion sizes, food pyramid poster, WOW demos- like how many teaspoons of sugar are in 2L of coke, people to interview-ie. Guest from Diabetes Association and anything else she may require. Also, she will likely need to enlist helpto film the segments of her workshop she would like to be in the DVD. This will take ~3 hours.
  • 4th- Putting it together will take ~12 hours. She needs to input everything into the DVD software program that she is using, add subtitles if she wishes, transitions/effects, title, digital images and video clips. She may also wish to add a ‘soundtrack’. Of utmost importance is the volume. Her voice needs to be LOUD and CLEAR. These ladies can understand MOST spoken English so she will need to remember to annunciate perfectly and speak loudly. She will then need to burn the DVD, check it and make copies.
  • 5th-Share it! ~2hours. Now she gets to reap the rewards of her hard work. She can send the DVD home with clients who fit the at-risk profile and seek feedback from them.