Composition: History & Theory: 2000 - 2009
Kairos, Volume 12, No. 2: 2007
Description
CONTENTS
KairosWiki: Reviews of the 2007 Computers and Writing Conference (C & W). Session 4.7: The Final Cut: The Impact of Video Editing Software on Video Production in the Composition Classroom – (Reviewed by Jill Morris): This session was conducted by Scott Dewitt from Ohio State and Erin Wagner from Michigan Tech. They began by explaining the common assumptions made regarding video in the composition classroom, “that tools operate in the service of rhetoric, that too much time teaching technology is not also time teaching composition, and that product quality if not important as long as good rhetorical intent is evident” (Morris). The presentation worked to refute the claims in part by demonstrating how video and composition can work together in the classroom.
Dewitt’s presentation began with a history of digital composition at Ohio State and how to sustain the practice. Morris reported on an example of how one of Scott’s students was forced to confront the consequences of what you portray in digital media. Apparently, the student completed a PSA documentary assignment on drug use and pretty much incriminated a lot of people. As this was not the goal of the assignment, the student had the opportunity to create anonymity through the software he was using (Flash). He ended up working on it over the weekend and replacing the incriminating images with cartoon drawings during interview sequences and changing the order of the PSA narration. The project turned into something much more valuable to the student and the class because of the ethical issues inherent in new media, and the flexibility and editing that software like Flash provides.
Erin’s presentation concerned using Final Cut in the classroom as an editing tool superior to iMovie, as well as working on a collaborative video project for an entire class (yikes! ). The class was prompted to complete a documentary on a rowing competition with the aims to include as many different viewpoints as possible. Prior to this, the students were primed to make a simple video together to acquaint students new to video editing software and work out fundamentals, and break the collaborative ice. While the students were learning, so was Erin. She found out that using iMovie for collaborative projects is too hard to manage: combining different projects is problematic and you have the whole wiki dilemma of students’ work being edited out. However, with Final Cut, this is less of an issue. Final Cut allows you to combine content from project to project and even editing can be done separately and patched together with other autonomous edits (that basically means they can work on their own and combine their work much easier. As for requirements, Erin had students write out transcripts of their interviews, log their project hours online, draft story boards, and contribute to the revision and editing of the video. The transcripts were used to help guide the editing ‘cuts’ and transitions, while storyboarding and outlining helped to bring ideas together and create a cogent mass out of many pieces. As for logging hours, I really like this aspect because it gives the students a sense of ownership, oversight, and self-accountability (which is a bit underrated by many undergraduates these days). Something like this is painless for a teacher (we can tell if their padding hours via reading class reflections), and it encourages integrity and professionalism.
ADDITIONAL ARTICLES:
- Session 8.1: Show AND Tell: Multimedia Composition as a New Writing Space For Pedagogy and Research - Reviewed by Doug Dangler [Dundee Lackey reported fresh new arguments for expanding the use of multi-media texts in English studies. She states, “academic forms may help bury the truth...as how experiences are more immediate via first-hand testimony than reading transcripts or others’ interpretations."]
- Workshop: Getting Started with Open Source Software, Reviewed by Mary Karcher,
- Session 2.1: Marginalized Groups Online, Reviewed by Dirk Remley
- Session 5.8: Special Delivery: The Production and Distribution of Multimodal Public Rhetoric, Reviewed by D. Alexis Hart
- Session 6.5: Using Digital Technologies to See and Hear Students’ Literacies, Reviewed by Jennifer Niester-Mika
- Session 6.7: Digital Media Studies in Detroit, Reviewed by Jentery Sayers
- Session 7.6: Disappearing Sidewalks, Digital Neighborhoods, Virtual Violence: New Media’s (Un)real Estate Reviewed by Stephanie Vie
[From: Kairos 12.2; KairosWiki: Reviews of the 2007 Computers and Writing Conference]
CONNECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS (Russell C.)
Kairos offers such a wealth of information to those who want it, and I mean anyone with internet access, anyone who walks in a library. I’m not saying that Jane Doe from around the corner is going to walk into the library, randomly search Kairos, and suddenly be inspired to take part in English studies, but the fact that Kairos is just a Google search away while all other journals you must sign in for via the academy does something important; this is one positive step in the direction of equating the access to new literacies of the 21st century, the new realms of influence, articulation, and power
It was interesting to find a review of Scott Dewitt since he was an English professor of mine at OSU. His class began with analysis papers of established documentaries and concluded with our own documentary compositions on Flash. He did a great job demonstrating the software and increasing the difficulty as the course went on. One of the most interesting documentaries we studied was Flag Wars, a look at the gentrification of Columbus’ Old Town East district.
Date of Upload
3/15/09