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Article
Camera! Action! Collaborate with Digital Moviemaking
Social Studies and the Young Learner
  • Kathleen Owings Swan, University of Kentucky
  • Mark J. Hofer, College of William and Mary
  • Linda S. Levstik
Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Education
Publication Date
1-1-2007
Abstract

Broadly defined, digital moviemaking integrates a variety of media (images, sound, text, video, narration) to communicate with an audience. There is near-ubiquitous access to the necessary software (MovieMaker and iMovie are bundled free with their respective operating systems) and hardware (computers with Internet access, digital cameras, etc.). This easy access, along with the open-ended nature of digital movies, presents powerful opportunities to design student-centered, inquiry-based history projects. Engaging students as digital directors can not only help them develop historical questions and select and evaluate sources relevant to those questions, but can frame (literally and figuratively) and present historical interpretations. In this article, the authors discuss how they examined the impact of this kind of experience on children's historical thinking and learning through a digital moviemaking project in a fifth grade social studies classroom. In this project, much of the content learning and narrative construction took place prior to working with the technology. On the other hand, the technology did seem to shape students' use of sources in interesting ways. One unanticipated outcome of this project was that all the students in the class were able to participate in meaningful ways. Lessons learned during the implementation of this project, challenges for the educator, and concerns that surfaced along the way are also discussed.

Keywords
  • Grade 5,
  • Internet,
  • Educational Technology,
  • History Instruction,
  • Social Studies,
  • Historical Interpretation,
  • Hypermedia,
  • Technology Integration,
  • Documentaries,
  • Program Implementation,
  • Formative Evaluation
Citation Information
Kathleen Owings Swan, Mark J. Hofer and Linda S. Levstik. "Camera! Action! Collaborate with Digital Moviemaking" Social Studies and the Young Learner Vol. 19 Iss. 4 (2007) p. 17 - 20
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mark-hofer/62/