Tuesday, March 20, 2007
SIGMM Contests
This section is for discussion of the SIGMM Multimedia and Video contests. As previously discussed on the listserv and at our annual meeting at MACUL, we are looking to make some changes to improve our contests. We hope to make some decisions soon, hopefully in the next month or so. Lets discuss here our ideas for possible improvements.
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14 comments:
I hope this blog makes it easier to share information, ideas, questions and comments.
I agree that we need to revise the Multimedia and Video contests. Hosting projects on the web and maybe allowing projects to be put onto a web site (or linked) could build a lot of interests. Simplifying the rubrics, especially for younger children, is a great idea too. Lisa shared some good ideas. Maybe the Powerpoints should be dropped from the high school, but video and maybe animation can be expanded.
For username feel free to use initials since this is technically public.
From Lisa:
Contest(s) in general
-We should NOT withhold prizes if a threshold isn't reached. It's a contest, we should either give prizes or not give prizes. It isn't the kids' fault if our contest doesn't draw enough participants. Also, we're not impressing our sponsor by telling them we couldn't give away all their donations.
-All or most of the prize(s) should go to the kids
-We should think about a 2nd and 3rd place prize (it seems more typical of contests to do this)
-We should do all we can to increase participation
-We should post examples to guide students on a web presence that we develop for SIGMM
-Letters to participants should state how many entries were received and a link to the winning entry
-A new sponsor would be great
-Shrinking the contest (only PPts at elementary and video at MS & HS) might give us bigger prizes with which to lure participants.
Re: elementary division
-PowerPoints are appropriate for the K-5 division (I'm not sure how many video entries we are getting, but maybe we just have PowerPoints at the elementary level)
- Projects should be educational at this level
-A rubric for this level is appropriate, but should NOT be the same as that for MS and HS (I've attached a rubric modeled after last year's, but put into kid friendly language)
Re: MS division
-I'm torn about keeping PowerPoints at this level, I think more kids would participate if we removed the rubric and removed the educational stipulation
-Likewise with the video contest at this division, perhaps remove the rubric and remove the educational stipulation
-Prizes for kids only?
Re: HS division
-We should loose the PowerPoint contest at this level
-We should remove the rubric and the educational stipulation
-There are more and more student run TV stations in high school. Are we getting entries from these programs? How can we advertise to them?
-Prizes for kids only!
I agree we should drop the PowerPoints and open up the video contest at the high school level. I am now thinking about how best to open the video contest. We could end up getting a wide range of videos. I am open to simplifying the rubric but maybe we should require some kind of "educational statement" where the students explain the educational skills that went into their project (how they made it, skills used, copyright issues, etc).
BigMO:
If we find a reasonable space to post video that can be viewed easily and not blocked by school filters, I feel that we should really open it up as far as content. PSAs, Dramas, Action, etc., so long as the enntire project is done by the students. We could have catagories and maybe make one of them educational in nature.
I like MR's idea of requiring a statement that lets the judges know something about the educational component. It might include something about goals and how they changed, resources available, skills used, new things learned, etc. In addition to helping judges, it seems to me to help students review what they learned and plan new projects they might like to do.
I wonder if one of us has some students with whom we could test the idea? That is, some projects being finished up next month might already include writing statements similar to what MR has suggested.
This may be one place we can have videos posted:
http://www.teachertube.com/
Check this out. My preference would be for each entry to be responsible for posting their own video project, at least at the high school level, and then we can just link to it somehow.
Michael Rio
We are discussing now how best to "open up" the high school video contest. We will likely drop the "multimedia" high school contest, as it was mostly PowerPoints.
What about animation? Does it need a separate category?
Some great ideas. I especially like MR and karlzinn's ideas on attaching a statement to the project. I would like to see a few more comments on how we could categorize the MS and HS video projects.
From Lisa:
I spoke with the Video instructor at our HS. His students participate and win lots of contests each year. Here are his general comments:
Prizes are really not that important. We could spend the money instead to get the word out about the contest. We need to flyer every school in the state. Send to art, theater, video and media person. Small tangible prizes (printer, wireless mouse or Best Buy gift card) could be given, but a plaque and ceremony might be enough.
We should offer different categories (perhaps 5) to help judges. One category could be educational.
Limit videos to 5 minutes.
The rubric should be short and easy: -original music, lighting, accurate, overall.
We could check out other contests to see what they do also.
i'd like to know if people are interested in dividing up the elementary to k-2 and 3-5 - i teach kindergarten and it's really hard to compete with 5th graders - and we do make videos - usually with digital pictures and imovie
Publicize, publicize, publicize! There are 780 schools districts that popped up on my search of the MDE site of schools with 5th, 8th, & 12th grade classess (addresses and contact names are provided). We could do a postcard mailing @ $.26 each and reach a lot of people! (About $200 in total.)
~Lisa
I like the idea of the students/teachers posting the projects on teachertube. In the past, some of our problems have come from the mailing of projects on time and the format in which they were received. This would eliminate those problems.
Second, what if we would have a different theme every year. This may reduce the problem of whether we should have an educational statement.
Also, if we posted to a site like teachertube, all sigmm members could then become judges. This way a handful of people would not have to travel from all over the state on a specific day to judge and may even encourage more participation (since more individuals may feel like they are a part of the process).
I agree that there could be many benefits to posting projects online. The only thing making us proceed with caution are copyright and school policy issues. But if we made each teacher post online and take responsibility, then it would not be SIGMMs responsibility.
It would be great to be able to share projects which I think would build interest and participation. A theme for each year might be something we consider in the future if our participation increases greatly. For now I think we just want to open things up and simplify them first.
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