Finding Students
Who Learn with Media
CONNECTED CL ASSROOM
Student-created media offer significant op- portunities for engagement and learning. For the past five years, we have explored
ways to incorporate Web-based authoring tools
into the curriculum. A suite of online tools
provides students with access to primary source
documents on websites such as those for the
Library of Congress and the Smithsonian.
Web-Based Authoring Tools
PrimaryAccess MovieMaker ( www.primary
access.org) allows students to combine their own
text, primary source images, and audio narration
to create short online documentary films linked
to social studies standards of learning. Since we
piloted this tool in local schools in 2005, more
than 10,000 students worldwide have created
more than 20,000 short digital documentaries.
Students embed facts and events in a narrative
context that can enhance retention and understanding of historical material.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum
employs PrimaryAccess to allow students to create their own movies in a virtual online exhibit
called Picturing the 1930s. Teachers and students
can explore this era through paintings, artist
memorabilia, historical documents, newsreels,
period photographs, music, and video. They then
can screen the movies they create in a virtual
movie theater on the Smithsonian website.
Incorporating Media into Formal Learning
Through development of PrimaryAccess, we
have gained a greater understanding of the conditions under which educators can best integrate
student-authored media into the curriculum in a
formal school setting.
PrimaryAccess was created to eliminate overhead associated with conventional digital video
editors, so that students can focus on learning
objectives rather than spending class time learning how to use movie-making tools. Even so,
it still takes a minimum of three class periods
to create a short historical documentary: one
period to create an outline, storyboard, and
script; a second period to assemble the media
and sequence it in the editor; and a third period
for narration, titles, and music.
PrimaryAccess is a suite of free online tools that
allows students and teachers to use primary source
documents to make digital movies, storyboards,
and rebus stories.
In Virginia, many schools devote three class
periods to U.S. history of the 1930s. Incorporating a student-authored movie can double that
time to six classes. We began to address the time
constraints associated with student-created media by designing an extension to PrimaryAccess
called PrimaryAccess Storyboard ( www.primary
access.org/story) that allows students to create a visual historical narrative in a single class
period. Storyboard allows teachers to provide
students with access to online primary source
documents that align with the curriculum. The
online storyboarding tool offers a restricted
feature set designed specifically for producing
historical narratives.
In a pilot study, teachers using PrimaryAccess
Storyboard were able to incorporate it into their
classes with no additional class time. Students
using this tool performed as well on the teacher-designed examinations as those who wrote
traditional essays as their class assignments.
Media Engagement Profiles
We were interested in whether students who
authored media were also more engaged. Because PrimaryAccess MovieMaker and PrimaryAccess Storyboard are online tools, teachers can
monitor and analyze student actions throughout
a class period. We created a Web-based word
processor to track the actions of students writing traditional essays in the same manner. One
class of sixth grade students created a digital
