Hi Everyone! My name is Barry Janzen. I am a high school teacher from Victoria, BC. I teach English, Media Arts, and Photography in a school of about 1000 students. Given my background, it seemed logical to take the Multimedia elective in the journey to my MET degree. I have worked with video and editing way back to the days of using two VCR's and have evolved, along with the technology, to using non-linear digital editing in both Media Arts and English classes. I have seen first hand the benefit and impact of documentary film making in core curriculum classes as culminating projects in Project Based Learning to demonstrate knowledge and understanding, while building an educational artifact students can be proud of. It is commonly understood that one of the best ways to demonstrate understanding is to teach it to someone else; this is the focus of the documentary film.
Over the past 23 years of teaching it has become more and more clear that students need to be presented with differentiated learning strategies and the use of multiple forms of media can help to reach the visual, auditory, and tactile learners. It has become harder to engage students in the digital age, therefore it is my hope that through this course I will find strategies to help increase engagement and impact through the use of multimedia.
Last year I entered and won a national video contest on 21st Century Digital Classrooms sponsored by the Mindshare Learning report. It gives a pretty clear run down of my philosophy and strategies in the use of multimedia and integrating technology into my English classes. Have a look!
Awesome video Barry. Your classroom is what I'd like mine to eventually be. Are the computers you use part of a school lab, or are they part of your individual classroom? How were you able to get your district to support (in all senses of the word - pedagogically, financially, etc) your endeavors? I'm excited to be taking this class with you, and look forward to tryout out many of your ideas in my own classroom!
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