Finalized Rationale for Video Logs

Casey Eleson

Toso Foifua

Jonathan Sevkov

Dr. Dongping Zheng

SLS 418

Final Project Rationale

12/2/2010

            As an exercise in students learning English as a second language and using video blogging as an exercise in becoming aware and adept of the new literacy of keeping and maintaining a blog, we will present the following classroom project.

            The main target audience for our project will most ideally be intermediate range learners, who are meanly in the 200 level English course.  Our main goal in this, in the language acquisitional sense is to offer the students an opportunity to bridge the gap between beginner level learning, in which the student is most likely not fully ready to express his or herself comfortably, and more advanced level learning, where which the student will be required more to communicate their own ideas accurately in the second language, and thus will see a more concrete language identity begin to emerge.

            The project also gives the students the opportunity to develop a skill in new literacies in an educational context, readying the student to become explore and become comfortable with creating and maintaining an online blog, or specifically a video blog or vlog.

           

The guidelines follow as such:

            The student will be asked to create a video blog in which he or she will record their own ideas on video and post it to their blog at different increments during the semester.

            The first entry will be solidly scaffolded, with the student being given prompts in the second language with which they are somwhat familiar, i.e., "What is your name?" "Where are you from?" "What do you like to do?" "What is your major?" etc.

            The subsequent entries will become gradually more open to the student's interpretation, thus forcing the student to think more subjectively and critically in the second language.  i.e., "Why are you studying English?" "What do you want to do in the future?"  "Explain your interests."

            The latter prompts will be newer grounds for the student, having to answer some questions which they were not taught to answer, thus they would ideally be learning something now that useful to them and at their own pace and level of need.

            This could be done simply as a regular blog, but we feel that a video blog holds distinct advantages for the goals we wish to reach.  First, video is a live representation, and the student can reflect on the images and sounds of themselves acting in the second language, which increases the students' self awareness in the language, highlighting possible common mistakes and allowing the student to become aware of how they present themselves in the second language.

            Secondly, video, in contrast to audio or writing, puts the student in a little but of pressure to perform, which is a benefit for developing confidence in the second language and motivation to do well.  This may also be achieved in other formats, however, the student may simply be able to read from a prompt or guide themselves too much along the process and miss the opportunity for in-motion practice and confidence building.

            Finally, video blogs, or vlogs, are becoming a common part of the new internet media today.  Websites such as youtube serve as a large forum for a variety of topics for many people today, and it would be beneficial to the student if they are given awareness and practice in becoming literate in this new field, allowing them to become an active part of online communities and discussions in the second language community, from wherever on the globe they may be.

Comments on presentation:

The main question from our discussion on that day is "Why" video as opposed to other literacies involving technology?  A video blog is a live presentation and account of the students language use.  It can perform two functions: 1. allow the students to physically see what mistakes they are committing with the language and correct them; 2. a live video recording does not prompt for script preparations; the actions are more authentic so to speak such that the students have to improvise language use for the most part.  

Video log vs. audio blog?

Video blogs are rarely scripted; scripts are used as a reference, but in order for the script to be lifelike, the student has to make it sound like their own.  Thus, there is a tendency to incorporate other aspects such as shaping of sounds, production of sounds and so on.  For audio blogs, the circumstance can be similar.  However, our main argument is that the script can be well thought out, edited and then "simply read".