Is the web dying

IN a recent Wired Article The Web is Dead, Long live the Internet Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff paint a picture of the Internet where the popularity of the web is declining.  The argument is pretty simple.  Applications on phones and other devices are growing rapidly.  Streaming audio and video that don’t travel on port 80 are being accessed more and more by people who discover that they don’t need to plan their schedules around their favorite shows.

The graph that is used to portray this situation is quite startling and may present some problems.  It clearly displays the web as a shrinking proportion of internet traffic.  Here is one of the first problems…traffic is data.  The web is essentially text with some images…pretty small compared to large media files that are the bulk of peer-to-peer and video traffic.  It would be an entirely different matter to compare the number of users, number of server requests or number of sites instead of data.  Just because the web doesn’t use as much bandwidth doesn’t mean it’s any less popular.  Measuring bandwidth usage doesn’t map to time spent, work done, money invested, or wealth yielded.  Wikipedia, blogs, Google.  These aren’t getting any less popular.

The argument itself has merit.  How we use the internet is changing.  More of us will be using smart phones and digital devices to access information over the next couple of years.  It’s fair to say that the web will no longer be the clear majority of internet usage but to claim that it may go away is a little absurd.  I see the future of the internet as a convergence of many types of applications.  Some web based, some not.

So I have trouble with the argument of the article and the image used to present the data.

SMI 2010 Final Project

For their final projects, students are given much more flexibility.  The thought being that at this point, they are equipped with the skills to be able to effectively create and write a story and how that story will be told visually.  Students are able to work independently or in groups.  I’ve definitely found students participating in the program for the first time that are under 16 sometimes have a challenging time coming up with a compelling story idea.   For this reason, I try to encourage the older students to mentor and help support these projects.

Students are given ample time to brainstorm, plan and produce these projects.  Almost three weeks in a six week program.

SMI 2010 Project 2 – Personal Narrative

Students create a 1-4 minute media project that presents a dream or memory.  They write the script and record the narration.  This serves (or can anyway) as the primary mode of storytelling for the project.  The project is designed to emphasis the personal aspect of storytelling, that we each have many stories to tell and to expore various ways of telling story.  Students are able to use the narration, still images, video clips, sounds, music and present them any way they would like. They are encouraged to use a variety of media to accomplish the task.

The project guidelines can be  interpreted quite differently, allowing students a wide range of creativity.  Some students are quite literal with dream that they had while others present a dream or hope for the future.  Still others wrote a dreamlike story.  The project ideas were very creative and I believe that providing the digital story-like structure enabled the students to focus on the storytelling rather than the story itself.

Jason Ohler writes a comprehensive book on digital stories that encompasses the concept, structure, methodology and relationship to the world of education.  We took inspiration from these theories to create our personal narrative projects.

Using skills/content knowledge as soon as they are taught

Traditionally, we have educated our young by giving them knowledge or skills and letting them practice until we think they have mastered it. Then we test them on it and give them feedback about how they did.  This allows us to categorize them based on their response but what else does it give us…and them? Certainly, a type of learning happens but is it the best type?  Does it make learning fun and interesting?  It seems  that a more fruitful approach might be to apply that knowledge or those skills to something meaningful and “real” as soon as they are taught.  I realize that this isn’t always possible; sometimes you need to learn basic building blocks before you move on, and of course there are some concepts where it might be very difficult to imagine what a “real” project would look like.  I imagine that if we tried though, we could do it more often than we have.

I’ve been teaching technology and  video production for the past several years.  These fields allow you to develop projects that allow students to utilize technique and skills immediately after they are taught.  At least, I think these fields allow one to think of these a bit easier than traditional courses like math or science.  Want to learn how to build a web page…ok, here are the tools, now build one.  Want to make a movie.  Here is the process…piece by piece…now make one.  It sounds simple, but I imagine if we thought about different ways we could do this with history, math, science and language, we might be able to provide different approaches to learning.  Perhaps we need to be even more explicit with students about when we need to teach building blocks.

The SMI is a perfect example of these kinds of projects.  We do not wait for mastery of content…We move forward with production as though the students are ready to produce using their own thoughts.  We talk about craft, art, technique, technical skill, but also feel that these cannot be fully realized until they are put to practice.  We give the content knowledge and skills and have the students develop projects using these, in their own voice.

SMI 2010 Project 1 – Silent, In-Camera Edit

The first project is designed to emphasis the importance of pre-production and introduce the concept of creating a reality through visual language.  In groups of three, participants create a 2-4 minute script and storyboard.  Stories are shot in the order that they will be viewed, constraining the participants to the plan (shot list) they create.

To make the project more interesting, groups are given a prop and a line of dialogue that they must incorporate.  Additionally, each group member must appear on screen at least once.  To prepare for telling a story without dialogue or sound, ample practice in developing shot technique and continuity are given.  In addition, we offer an acting workshop where participants explore telling stories through body language and props.

The Summer Media Institute 2010

The Summer Media Institute (SMI) is a six week, media education program that takes place at Cambridge Community Television (CCTV). It is designed to give youth participants  comprehensive training and experience of the video production process.  It is made possible through a partnership with the city of Cambridge Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program (MSYEP).

Participants are 14-18 year old residents of Cambridge and are paid, through MSYEP, to work at CCTV.  They are expected to participate in all of the workshops and trainings that we offer them.  During the SMI, they produce about three video productions, although the program changes every year.  This year, we have 16 participants ranging in video experience, three staff members and two youth trainers.

It’s a summer job, but it has a summer camp feeling, with exceptional opportunities for learning and growth.  Students learn all about producing and sharing video, are exposed to media literacy concepts, practice creative expression, work in groups, give and receive critical feedback, write scripts and personal narratives and plan the final screening.  Student work is presented at the screening, is shown on CCTV channels and is viewable on the CCTV website.

There are several elements of this program that set it apart from other youth media programs.  Our emphasis is on story creation and presentation so we tend to focus on the creative aspect of media creation.  We do also talk about and explore non-fiction work but it doesn’t get as much attention in this program.  Our instructors come from media production backgrounds and the core of the program focuses on the technical and creative aspects of media production.  We do offer a series of special workshops that differ from year to year that give opportunities to develop other skills.  We have offered workshops in acting, social media, media literacy and studio production.

Also, our participants are paid as employees.  Many youth, media production programs our quite the opposite; Participants pay to have access to the equipment and training that is offered.  Thanks to the City of Cambridge and their commitment to youth development, we are able to provide employment opportunities to residents of Cambridge.

Digital Stories in Education

Digital Storytelling is the practice of using digital tools, such as digital cameras and computers, to create audio-visual stories. As with traditional storytelling, most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view.  Digital stories can vary in length, but most of the stories used in education typically last between two and ten minutes. Topics can range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one’s own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe, and literally, everything in between.  The beauty of this form of digital expression is that these stories can be created by people everywhere, on any subject, and shared electronically all over the world.

More about digital stories and see examples, visit the Center for Digital Storytelling – http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html

I’ve used the Digital Story form to introduce media production concepts to students of all ages.   I’ve also used digital storytelling projects to focus on writing, or speaking a particular language. This works extremely well for students who are learning a new language. It allows them to create a story but not rely entirely on their language ability to convey a message.

Your school  may have all of the equipment that you need. If you have access to an Apple computer, then you already have video editing software that makes it very easy to put together music, images and audio narration.   It is called IMovie.  You may additionally need a scanner to use photographs that students bring from home or you can choose to use material found on the web.   Remember, if students are interested in sharing their creations later, the YouTube or some other site, then you should teach fair use and encourage them to not use popular music. I often recommend using material that is created under a Creative Commons license or is in the Public Domain.

The entire process is fairly simple. Begin by choosing a topic. Have the students begin writing about this topic. Whenever they need to take a break, they can search the Internet (I recommend using creativecommons.org or arhive.org) for images that relate or reinforce what they are talking about. They can even search for background music.

Web 2.0 in Public Schools

I’ve been thinking for a couple of months now about how I can make a good  (the best) case for using web 2.0 tools in public school classes.  I mean, not just using them – google maps and other tools are awesome for gathering data – but allowing students to gain skills producing and distributing their ideas into the great platform of the Internet.  This allows them to participate in local, and global conversations and to experience that effect.  While I am interested in full, unhindered access to these tools and the use of them to share content, I’m certainly interested in any attempt to move in this direction.

It seems that many public school systems are fearful or have policy against this idea for one of several reasons.  It is not always easy to ensure the security of content that is published online.  It’s not possible to guarantee the accessibility of that content in the future.  Legally, many schools may not feel that they have control over the content that distributed publicly from the students that they are responsible for. How can a school manage the content that does become available online?

This raises many questions for me.  Is it possible for students to create content, as a class project for example, and post it online without the school system needing to take responsibility.  What kind of legal agreement can be made to allow a teacher to maintain responsibility, for parents to agree.  What burden does this place on the teacher?  How can i engage in a meaningful conversation with the school system about these ideas?

Too much to think about. I’ll be sure to write more as I have these conversations.

RYMAEC Web 2.0 Open Mic

Thursday, March 4, at the ICA in Boston, RYMAEC (Regional Youth Media Arts Education Consortium) hosted an open mic where many educators, researchers and youth media workers shared tools and strategies.  Kara Oehler was the featured speaker and she presented her work with the Mapping Main Street project.  They hope to document in some way all of the main streets in the U.S. – and make them available on a web application where others can share comments or other content.

I presented a project that I worked on with a Spanish teacher in which we used garageband and soundcloud.com to create podcasts as practice for the Spanish AP exam.  The concept is simple: prepare (or find) a sound file that can be used as conversation practice.  The AP exam asks a series of questions in formal conversation and gives the tester time to respond.  We can do this using different tracks in GarageBand (or any multitrack recorder).  The final project can be exported and put on a digital player or shared using a site like soundcloud.

Using Technology in the classroom (a list to start with)