Brenda Neece, Music

The teaching and learning of organology, or material musicology (the study of the physical artifacts of music-making, in particular musical instruments), lends itself to the use of video technology. This semester students taking Music 150S, the introductory course to Western musical instruments, used video technology in interactive assignments about musical instruments. Students have created individual and group video projects to explore and share with their classmates aspects of instrument technology, history, and performance. This presentation is a discussion of the pros and cons of using video technology in the classroom, with particular attention to the software and hardware used, problems encountered, and the overall outstanding results (with examples) produced by the students.

Laura Florand and Anne O’Neil-Henry, Romance Studies

In a multi-section fourth-semester language course thematically centered around film, students produced both short and long creative videos in order to build language skills and enhance understanding of writing, cinematography and important French film-makers. During the first half of the semester, students worked individually to create one-minute videos that integrated with their written work and invited reflection on films and techniques studied, while challenging language skills in a creative way. They interacted with each other’s work via wikis and VoiceThread. Then, over a period of three weeks during the second half of the semester, students collaborated in groups to write, produce, and act in a longer scene that engaged creatively with the films and texts studied during the course.

Sandra Valnes Quammen, Romance Studies

During the Spring 2009 semester, two third-semester French classes used VoiceThread to implement a three-part video journal project designed to enhance students’ skills in listening comprehension, oral expression, and their understanding of aspects of French culture. Over the course of the semester, students studied short French language video clips on topics related to the course curriculum (education, transportation, and cinema) and then used VoiceThread and webcams provided by a DDI grant to record their reactions to this material and to view contributions from their classmates. In this presentation, I’ll share examples of prompts and student work as well as student and instructor feedback on the project. I’ll also discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the VoiceThread tool for this project.