Turning another flat activity into a super learning mission

Hello everybody!

Continuing with my last post, I will explain our second super learning mission.

If you do not remember my last challenge, click here.

My second flat activity consists of shooting a video about plants summarizing the information that students learnt in the previous sessions. If you do not remember them, click here. 

I did a poster to explain the curricular facts about the mission:

Creating a video de Carmen Olmedo

Students' roles will change. Now the roles will be different:

• Role 1: one student will be the Flora detective.
• Role 2: another one will be the Tourism expert.
• Role 3: other pupil will be the Producer, who will edit the video and embed the pictures into the background of the video.
• Role 4: the last one will be the Climate advocate. 

To explain the instruction to our students we will use the following slideshow:

Learningmission2 from Ana Márquez

Once students have created their comic and planned their video, they will have to proceed and shoot the video. To do that, a green paper cloth will be placed on the wall and students will be able to shoot the video in front of it. Why a green paper cloth? Using that green background, students will be able to embed pictures or videos into the green background of their video. This paper cloth is cheap and can be bought in any shop.

First and foremost, students will write the full script for the video in Google Drive. After that, they will shoot the video in front of the green paper cloth on the wall using a tablet or camera. Learners will have to shoot a video for each scene that they planned in their comics. Once they have all their videos, they will have to edit them using their desktops in order to embed the pictures.

My classmates and I wanted to see if this crazy idea will work, and we proceeded to do it. We looked for an illuminated place where we could shoot our video. We placed the green paper cloth on the wall and started to create the video. We did eight videos: two videos for the opening and ending part; three videos in which each of us explains the content of Indian culture, its climate and its flora; and other three videos to explain the forecast of yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

It must be mentioned that we had written previously the full script in Google Drive. 

Furthermore, we use some colorful scarf to dress up like Indian women and we painted a bindi in our foreheads. In this way, we felt like native girls from India. 

Once shot the videos, we used the tool iMovie to edit our videos and embed some pictures related to India into the background. We add background music and some transitions to make the video more eye-catching. It was handy to be able to use iMovie since we have that tool in our laptops and the results always seem pretty professional. The result was the next one:

As learners have to write the script, shoot the videos, and edit them, we will use two sessions to do this super learning mission. 

When students finish the whole process, they will receive their corresponding badge, in this case they will get these ones:

Created by Lucía

REFLECTION

This challenge was so fun since we dressed up and we were in a Hindi's shoes. At first glance, I thought that this activity will be tricky because I did not know how easy to change the backgrounds of videos using iMovie is. I had used many times iMovie to edit videos, but I had never used this option: embed a picture into a video with a green or blue background. As well as that, we did not need a professional studio to do this video, just a simple paper cloth. As far as I am concerned, the result was almost professional. It will be a good activity for children, they will love watching their final outcome. It was funny even for us! 

I reckon that it can be difficult for students to edit the video, but with the help of the teacher they can do it. They just need to embed the picture into the background of the video (music and transitions are not necessary). 

We used iMovie which is intended for Mac but other tools can be used for this purpose if you have a Windows, such as Sony Vegas, Touch Cast, or Tech Smith. 

I have to say that this super learning mission is perfectly aligned with my Open Educational Project since it includes a part about plants (flora in India). In addition, it is linked to the collaborative project I am collaborating with, 30 Goals Challenge (revamping a lesson) because the lesson was transformed into a learning mission, we added a technology component, and we made the lesson more hands-on. Furthermore, we are also collaborating with another goal from that web site: recognize with a badge. This is the one Lucía is collaborating with, that is why students will receive a badge based on their roles in both learning missions. 

Retrieved from:  teacherrebootcamp.com

It was a pleasure to work with my two classmates Lucía and Ana H. in order to create two super learning missions which are cross curricular. Collaborating is vital and we go further when we do it. We have achieved these two super activities which are cross curricular, in which children collaborate and use ICT tools. Additionally, we are collaborating among us and with the worldwide projects we joined. Thanks to all that, we are enriching our Open Educational Projects. 

Firstly, we thought that it would be impossible to join our three projects, but eventually we did it and I feel so proud of us. 

Doing this activity, learners will practice their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills and they will use past, present and future tenses while they are explaining the weather forecast, so I consider we achieved a pretty complete activity. 

Well, that's all at the moment. 

See you soon and remember,

BE CLEVER, BE GREENER!