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Videotelling an advert
A while ago, I posted the following idea:
- Students choose a TV advert that they like.
- They create a video selfie in which they describe the advert but don’t say what the product is.
- Later, students watch each other’s videos and guess what the mystery products are.
Since that posting (you can see it here), a few teachers got in touch to let me see their students’ work. Ivana Kirin from Croatia sent me this great piece of work by Fran:
You can see Fran’s advert here.
Alessandra Pallavicini from Italy sent me another great video, this one by Cristian:
You can see Cristian’s chosen advert here.
Suzana Oroz from Slovenia sent me six videos. Here they are presented on a Padlet wall:
These six videos actually represent a much larger sample. Suzana set the task for 25 students and all of them got involved. This must have been an experience worth sharing so I decided to ask Suzana about it.
Interview with Suzana Oroz
- Teacher’s name: Suzana Oroz
- Works at: Osnovna sola Medvode, Slovenia (Medvode Primary School)
- Video task: Students made a talking head video in which they described their favourite TV adverts, without referring to the product
- Filming location: Outside the classroom – at home for most students
- Technology: Students’ own devices – mostly mobile phones
- Age of students: 13
- Number of students in group: 25 students (divided between 2 groups)
- Number of students who completed the video task: 25 (100%)
- Method of video sharing: Students used Google Drive to share their videos with the teacher
Jamie: Hello Suzana. So, thank you for agreeing to do this interview. And congratulations on a great job! I can imagine that this project required quite a bit of work on your part. Perhaps we should start with some background information. What made you decide to set this video task for your students?
Suzana: Hello Jamie. Well, My students quite often prepare PechaKuchas and poster presentations for the classroom. But I thought that video cameras would allow them to do their presentations in their own time, outside the classroom. Some of my students get quite nervous when they have to speak in front of the class. I thought that those students might be able to express themselves better through video.
With class 8 we have a text about advertising in our course books. I saw your TV advert video selfie idea [see here] and it seemed to be a natural next step. At first, my students had no idea what I wanted from them so I showed them your example. I asked them to make use of vocabulary from their course books when possible. I also drew attention to the use of present narrative tenses to talk about a video. But apart from that, I didn’t really provide any additional language support. With class 8, this is their 5th year of learning and they should be able to tell a story without my help. They wanted to know if they could write the story down and read it. I told them that they could write a text for preparation, but for the video, they weren’t allowed to use notes. I wanted them to learn the text by heart.
Jamie: And I see that 100% of your students completed the task. That is pretty impressive. So, what happened next?
Suzana: Well, students had to share their videos with me by uploading them onto Google Drive. I had to give them instruction for this. For most students, this worked well. But, of course, there were some problems. Some students needed help from parents or siblings to create videos on their mobile phones – they had never done it before. Some students couldn’t get Google Drive to work (don’t ask me why!) so they handed in memory sticks. Others couldn’t download the videos from their phones. In some cases, I had to watch the videos directly from their mobile phones.
Another problem was that a few students chose to talk about adverts which were not particularly appropriate for class. For example, some of the boys chose adverts that contained women who were half naked, or that made references to alcohol and drugs. I had to speak with them about that!
Once I received all of the videos, we watched them in class. Rather than watching them all on the same day, we played two videos per lesson. Most students felt embarrassed to see themselves on the screen. Some even tried to hide in their hoodies when it was their turn!
After each video, students tried to guess what the mystery product was. Then we watched each student’s chosen video and all was revealed. Students gave feedback on each other’s videos. I gave each student a mark based on their performance and language use. Some of the videos suffered from bad quality (too dark, too quiet, etc.) Although I pointed this out, I didn’t mark any students negatively for this. I think that they have learned a lot and the results will be better next time.
Jamie: So a lot of your students felt embarrassed about watching themselves in class! How did they react to the task overall? Did they enjoy it? Do you think they benefited from it?
Suzana: Well, since we had never done anything like this before, I decided to give them a questionnaire. [Note that you can download the results here.] Out of the 20 students that completed it, only 3 said that they didn’t enjoy it. A lot of students liked the task because it was a new experience for them. A lot of students described it as fun. Some students seemed to like the fact that they had the control. For example, they could create the video in a number of ‘takes’ and choose the best one.
Some students admitted to having had technical problems. It seems that you can’t take anything for granted about what they can and cannot do with their mobile phones. However, almost all students said that it wasn’t a difficult task in itself.
Jamie: So, what about the future, Suzana? Do you think that you will set any more tasks which involve video cameras in your students’ hands? If so, is there anything that you will do differently?
Suzana: Yes – for a start, I would like to repeat the activity later this year when my new year 8 students do the topic in their course book on advertising. What I have learned is that more instruction is necessary. It is important to show them an example video of what you want. But you also have to give a bit of technical instruction as well. I also learned that you should talk to students about what type of video might not be suitable to choose.
Another thing: I have to be specific about what students are being graded on. They focus on the details (grammar, etc.) But the video selfie is an exercise in communication – telling a story. I would like them to think more about that.
A lot of time was wasted on the video sharing. But I learned a lot. For example, there is a Google Drive application for Android and Apple and it would allow students to share their videos directly from their own devices rather than download them to a computer first, and then have additional problems.
Finally, I would change the task so that videos didn’t have to be two minutes long. Two minutes seems a bit long. Also, the shorter they are, the easier they are to mark.
Jamie: That’s excellent Suzana. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your experience. All very interesting!
Suzana: Thank you Jamie!
Please note that Suzana was able to set this task because she obtained parental permission to use cameras at the beginning of term. However, Suzana, and all of the teachers mentioned in this post, needed additional permission to share their students’ videos on YouTube so that they could be viewed on this page.