Before reading the chapter on crafting video texts, I was unware of just how much thought and work goes into creating a successful video. I realized it takes a lot of awareness of presentation in order to covey points and catch the viewers attention. I often hear my students talk about videos they have seen on YouTube or some other type of video source. "Today, many forms of media surround us and, in various ways invite us to read, listen, view, click, as well-with the advent of smart phones and tablets- tap and touch" (Hicks, 2013, p.104). With the rise of technological devices, we have to be warry of the types of media we are exposed to. As educators, it is our responsibility to make sure our students are able to decipher effective and ineffective media by realizing "anything they watch, purposefully or incidentally, can be a mentor text" (Hicks, 2013, p. 107). Everything they watch can pave the way for how they interpret and construct their own video texts.
It is important for students to "effectively create multimodal texts for different purposes and audiences, with accuracy, fluency, and imagination"(Creating Multimodal Texts). Next year, we have to implement web based standards into our teaching. These standards require our students to perform different activities on computers and also craft some of their own activities. Before we can fully implement those standards, it is crucial for students to be able to view really good mentor texts before creating things on the internet.
After reading the chapter on crafting video texts, I went back and reviewed my first introduction video based on MAPS. Troy Hicks (2017) describes MAPS as an acronym for "mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation" (p. 90). In the first video I created, I attempted to create a professional background by filming in my classroom after teaching that day. I did not realize how distracting the things behind me in the video could have been for viewers. I am extremely uncomfortable in front of the camera. My voice was shaking at times, and although I had scripted out the things I wanted to mention, I still managed to insert "um" a ton of times. I did not know it was possible to be nervous for a video that only I was present for. This is why I chose to create my new introduction video as the narrator, instead of videoing myself and speaking. I have always thought of a video as someone being visible, but Hicks (2013) mentions a video can only include a "narrator: who is speaking and transitions" (p.111). I chose this form of video because it is something I am more comfortable with producing. Check out my revised video!
References
Creating Multimodal Text. Retrieved from www.education.vic.gov.au./school/teachers/teachingresour
sources/discipline/English/literacy/multimodal/Pages/createmultimodal.spx.
Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing text across media and genres. Portsmouth,
N.H.: Heinemann.
Turner, K., & Hicks, T. (2017). Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts: Argument in the
real world. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.
