Many of us grew up with a tradition of lecture based instructional media with little or no interactive engagement with students. All this has changed dramatically, thanks to the internet, YouTube and more sophisticated approaches to how students learn. How do all the pieces fit together in one of the largest school systems in the country?
To set the stage, the Fairfax County public school system is the number 1 employer in Virginia with 188,000 students and 24,000 employees. They move more people a day than the Greyhound Bus system. FCPS Digital Media Production has 14 full time employers with 800 projects per year, ranging from PSA's to hourly programming. The subject matter is educational, public information and professional development with some content for broadcast while other programming goes directly to the web. Fairfax Network is the distribution arm for educational programming that is grade level or curriculum specific. The FCPS's YouTube channel has 1238 videos.Their work is 93% grant funded and some of their many educational partners include the Smithsonian, National Archives, Library of Congress, Mount Vernon and NASA. These partners may provide funding but always provide subject matter expertise.
FCPS Media Professionals
Tracy Jewell, Manager of Digital Media Production for Fairfax County Public Schools and her colleagues producers/directors Sandra Brennan and Amy Leniart came to Women in Film & Video's Education & Children's Media (EdCM) Roundtable to share their story as global providers of educational media for the classroom. Tracy attributes their impressive track record for media viewed all of the world on their formula of professional producers, world-class educators and subject matter experts.
As the women introduced themselves it was very clear that we were going to be hearing from professionals who have not only been in the business of creating media for many years, but who have a passion for educational content. Prior to coming to FCPS, Tracey Jewell work for PBS and WVPT where her projects were varied but with a concentration on historical documentaries.
Sandra Brennan worked at Georgetown University producing lectures in many different languages which she felt helped her develop her skills communicating with clients. She indicated her strong interest in assisting teachers in using media in the classroom. Amy Leniart produces, writes and edits programming having completed six educational television programs with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum among many others and clearly has a passion for science education.
Goals and Challenges
A listing of goals and challenges that really caught my attention seemed like a good way to review and share the well crafted presentation. This list is not intended to indicate FCPS priorities although it may be. It is what impressed me the most about the approach they are taking in their work and the hurdles they encounter.
Robinson Astronaut: Kjell Lindgren
1. Student Involvement in the Productions
This is such a great idea. Not only are the students interacting with live video when possible, as in the clip above, but their voices are also included. This clip is Robinson High School graduate/now astronaut Kjell Lindgren talking live to current Robinson students from the International Space Station. Students got to ask him questions. It must have been very inspiring for them to see what he has accomplished since graduating for their school. This short clip is one of numerous snippets of that show.
Students are also involved as narrators. The scripts are written for them but the staff is open to their comments and suggestions. Hearing content from students voices must make it more accessible for many students.
Harnessing the Sun_ Part 5: Studying the Sun from Space
Producing for an academic environment, especially one that has very specific Standards of Learning presents a bevy of challenges. They know that they must be producing content that is useful and accessible to their teachers. These educational media experts continually came back to the curriculum consultants as the funnel for content that they would be able/want to incorporate in their productions. At one point there was a reference to a project on hold while the curriculum consultants figured out what the approach was to be on a specific topic, again tied specifically to SOL goals. This video on the sun is tied to very specific classroom goals.
Harnessing the Sun_ Part 3: The Electromagnetic Spectrum
3. Get Students to Interact with Content
At first this meant what we commonly consider interactivity but as FCPS media producers/curriculum experts researched and observed, they realized that possibly the best engagement was to present information with the purpose of asking a question for the students to solve.
4. Provide Role Models for Students
Meet the Author is a great example of FCPS media that is easy for teachers to use and very relevant to the work students are doing every day. Students need to plan, write, edit, rewrite and craft both stories and course work. Best selling author John Grisham recently appeared on an episode.
5. Empower Students and Teachers to Become Media Producers
This is happening now. FCPS offers workshops on media production for staff and students. Tracey was pleased to let us know that now both teachers and students are creating educational content for the classroom. We know students of all ages are attracted to the technology and FCPS media producers play a role in helping them develop the expertise to become sophisticated visual communicators.
6. Teaching Media Creators How to Tell Compelling Stories by Doing It Themselves
A theme that came up frequently was that specific goals need to be met in a very short period of time. Some of the longer video pieces are cut into segments that are just minutes long. This really requires a great level of expertise as a storyteller/producer to make the best use of little slivers of time.
7. Create Content that is Mobile Friendly
Today's students and teachers want to be able to access educational media from all kinds of devices. The challenge for the media producers is not abandoning those schools worldwide that are still accessing their content via cable. They are in a digital transition that will be sorted out over time.
What are the Challenges?
Standards of Learning
Their work is very driven by the SOL's and the directives they get from the curriculum specialists. Compared to various other styles of media production, they see their goals and production style differ because of these very special requirements to meet classroom needs. To make things even more complicated, Virginia is one of only a very few states that did not adopt Common Core standards. So in order for FCPS content to be relevant to most schools in the USA, they will need to craft projects that address both Common Core and the Virginia SOL's.
Also, programming for new SOL's may be required each year. Examples mentioned were nanotechnology and human trafficking. As you can imagine media for these topics requires careful research and expert input.
Parents and Student Privacy
The students are all minors, so this presents special issues about privacy. Sometimes parents want their kids onscreen and sometimes they don't. Students themselves may be ambivalent.
What's the Future?
It was exciting to hear these producers so dedicated to creating meaningful educational content talk about their work and show us samples. It is also exciting to think of future educational environments that tap into students attraction to technology and harness it. The FCPS Media Production specialists are certainly providing wonderful examples for students world-wide.
Kristin Reiber Harris
www.kristinharrisdesign.com
Creating interactive media for preschool children
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