Point England School students turned their winning NZTA storyboard into live action video.
Video camera, tripod and bicycle were all on the equipment list as three hard-working students took their learning onto the streets around Point England School in Auckland’s eastern suburbs.
Toreka and Selena, both year 8 and Gabriel, year 7 created one of the winning storyboards in the NZTA Primary Years Competition. The initial challenge was to create the plan for a video about safer journeys for children. The trio’s reward for winning included a new challenge – to work with professional educators to improve their storyboard and turn it into a short movie.
E-learning facilitators Stuart Hale and Innes Kennard visited the school and spend an initial two days with the students. They reworked their storyboard to create intersections between the stories of students who walk, cycle or come to school by car.
Once this critical thinking work had taken place, the team was outside, rehearsing what shots to take on locations including a pedestrian crossing, footpath and the driveway to a family home.
Teacher Sandy Lagitupu says doing this video work with coaching from the professionals was a special experience for her students. “The students really enjoyed the opportunity to work with professionals to help them put together their movie. They enjoyed the process of improving their storyboard for the movie. Spending time with Stuart and Innes for a couple of days was a lot of fun. The students said that they were ‘really cool.’”
During a subsequent two day visit, Stuart and Innes gave expert advice as the three students edited their work into a finished video.
Innes says the final product is outstanding work that highlights the three students’ abilities. “It reflects excellent classroom teaching, and the students’ extensive knowledge of visual and digital literacies, a focus on quality, teamwork and collaboration and above all, a pride in and enjoyment of the learning task. It was so much fun to work with such talented students.”
Sandy says the learning experience links back to the curriculum in several ways – writing a storyboard and making a video promotes literacy, the video project supports the New Zealand Curriculum’s emphasis on e-learning, and the context of students making safe journeys to school sits well with the health and physical education learning area. She says the school used its prize vouchers to purchase three iPads and accessories, two cameras and a video camera.
Great outcomes in 2012
E-learning facilitator Innes Kennard says 2012 was an exemplary year for the quality of student work in the NZTA Primary Years competition. He or colleague Stuart Hale ran workshops for the eight winner or runner-up schools.
“I think this year's final products have provided teachers and students with eight exemplary pieces of work, some of which are world-leading. The real bonus is many people will view them for their road safety message, while others who look at these projects for e-learning ideas will still see how the context of safer journeys integrates into classroom learning.”
