Making Meaning on the Screen: Digitil Video

Making Meaning on the Screen: Digitil Video Production about the Dominican Republic
Author(s): Jason Ranker
Source: Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol. 51, No. 5 (Feb., 2008), pp. 410-422
Published by: International Reading Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40017667
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^^^^^^^MS^^EMS^^mM^^^^^^^^^^^^SM^MS^^^^^m
Making
meaning
production about
on
video
the
screen:
toe
Dominican Republic
Digitil
Jason Ranker
Digital video preduction can help students
explore topics "midtimodatty"while
enhancing the readingswritings
and discussion processes that
would normally be part of a
2000).
Ranker
teachesat Portland
StateUniversity,
Oregon,
e-mail
USA;
[email protected].
traditional inquiry project.
It is no longerpossibleto thinkaboutliteracyin isolation froma vastarrayof social,technologicalandeconomicfactors....Theseare,on the one hand,the
broadmovefromthe now centuries-longdominance
of writingto the newdominanceof the imageand,on
the otherhand,the movefromthe dominanceof the
mediumof the bookto the dominanceof the screen.
(Kress,2003,p. 1)
Inthe midstof the changesin literacythat Kress
(2003) described,literacyresearchershavebeen
consideringhow digitalmedia (theWorldWide
Web,e-mail,video,instantmessaging)arechanging the natureof literacypractices(Lewis& Fabos,
2005;Luke& Elkins,1998;Snyder,1998).Forexample,instantmessagingand e-mailhavecreated
new waysof usingwritingto communicate;these
new uses have,in turn,shapednew typesof social
interactions.As anotherexample,readingon the
Webnot only involvesprintbut also imagesand
sound.Digitalmediahavecreatednew types of
readingpractices.In the midst of the migrationof
literacypracticesto digitalmediaand the riseof
images(in relationto texts),literacyresearchers
haveraisedquestionsaboutthe role of the school
410
JOURNAL OF HiLESCEil
in helpingstudentsto becomepartof this changing worldof communicationthat is takingplace
2006;New LondonGroup,
(Knobel& Lankshear,
In this article,I exploreone way
that teacherscan help studentsto develop new literacies:by using digital
video productionin conjunctionwith
studentinquiryprojects.The use of
video
productionin educationalsettingsis
digital
a growingareaof interestfor literacyeducators.
Researchershavefocusedon how digitalvideo
productionenablesstorytellingin multiple
modes (Hull & Nelson, 2005;Waire,2006), and
how studentsform a conceptof audience
(Buckingham& Harvey,2001) for the texts they
author.The use of digitalvideo in school-based
curriculaalso has overlapswith approachessuch
as media literacy(Beach,2007;Luke,1999) and
media education(Buckingham& Sefton-Green,
1994),which involvestudentsin both reading
and producingpopularmediatexts.In the pages
that follow,I build upon this workby offeringan
illustrativecase studyof the researchprocessesof
two 12-year-oldstudents,Williamand Alex (all
names arepseudonyms),as they workedon an
inquiryprojectabout the DominicanRepublic
and produceda digitaldocumentaryvideo based
upon what they learned.By readingaboutAlex
and William'sliteracywork,teacherswho wish to
try video projectsin their own classroomsmight
use this articleas a frameof referencefor delving
into this largelyunchartedcurricularterritory.
I ADULT LITERACY
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As Alex and Williamresearchedand producedtheirdocumentaryon the Dominican
Republic,they used two digitalmedia:(1) the
Web (as they conductedresearchfor texts and
images)and (2) digitalvideo-productionsoftware (Video StudioEditor8 for the PC). They
also used more traditionalinquirymethods such
as notebookwritingand book reading.Overthe
courseof the project,they narrowedtheir study
of the DominicanRepublicto focus on baseball
playerswith familialties to the Dominican
Republic(who playon U.S. teams) and music of
the DominicanRepublic.
Alex and William used both texts and
images extensivelythroughout the project.
Throughtheir video production process,they
searchedfor visual images of various aspectsof
the Dominican Republicon the Web,selected
and savedthese images for later use, and then
'
imported and arrangedthe images in Video
Studio Editor.Video Studio allowedthe boys to
weavethese images togetherwith audio tracks
(which they wrote and narrated)into a single,
polished movie project.In the process of producing these audio tracks,the boys conducted
Web searcheson their topics by selecting,reading, and organizingthe informationthat they
found. They used this informationto write their
narrativesin their writing notebook and then
later recordedand imported these narratives
into their movie project.
The boys'video productionprocessserved
as an organizing,integrativecenterfor their researchabout the Dominican Republic.Their
workon the computerin Video Studio drove
theirinquiryprocessesin other modes and media
(webpages,writing,audio).As Alex and William
used the video productionprocessto organize
and understandtheir subjectmatter,they exploredthe Dominican Republic"multimodally"- throughmultiplerepresentationalmodes
(visual,audio,linguistic;Kress,2000). The concept of multimodality- or the idea that meaning
can be representedand communicatedthrough
multiplechannels- has drawnincreasingatten-
JDURNAL OF liOLESCEll
tion from literacyscholarsin recentyears(Kress,
2003;Siegel,2006). This areaof studyis important becauseit recognizesthat the linguisticmode
(althoughthe most heavilyfavoredmode at
school) is not the only mode availablefor communicatingand exploringmeanings.Recognizing
the potentialof multiplemodes of communication in literacycurriculais importantbecause
studentsbenefit from exploringthe full spectrum
of meaning-makingpossibilities.In addition,includingmultiplemodes of meaningmakingin
the curriculumpromisesto bring school-based
literacycurricula"in sync"with the changesin
public communicationthat surroundthe school
in the broadersociety.
Background
As a formerteacherand currentprofessorwith
interestsin and experienceswith new literacies,I
teamedup with a colleagueof mine- a teacher
who was also interestedin using video production as part of studentinquiryprojects.Mr.Clark
and I collaboratedin designinga projectthat resultedin student-produceddocumentaryvideos
about topics of interestto the students.I worked
with Mr.Clarkand the studentson this video
projectoverthe courseof seven months (one to
two dayseachweek). Using qualitativecase-study
methods and principles(Dyson & Genishi,2005;
Merriam,1998),I closelystudiedthe students'literacyprocessesas they workedcollaboratively
while reading,writing,and producingtheirvideo
at the computer.Althoughmy primaryresponsibilitywas for gatheringdata,I also participatedin
the researchby helpingMr.Clarkplan the project
and helpingthe studentswith theirwork along
the way.
Alex and Williammet dailywith Mr.Clark
and six other studentsfor theirEnglish/language
artsblock.This group of studentswas designated
as strugglingwith academicliteracyperformance
in relationto their peers (accordingto test scores
and grade-levelstandards).Mr.Clarkand I decided that the studentsneeded engaging,motivat-
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j^^
ing, and intellectuallychallengingopportunities
to use print and producemeaningsin diverseand
multifacetedways.Our assumptionwas that
strugglingstudents- as much as any other students- will need to developdigitalliteraciesfor a
rapidlychangingsocietyin which new waysof
using literacyand technologyarea necessity
(New LondonGroup,2000). Duringthe project,
the studentspairedup and chose topics of interest, includingthe Dominican Republic,African
AmericanHistory,electricity,WorldWarII, and
Jamaica.In orderto get a close look at the intricacies of using video as part of studentresearch,I'll
focus specificallyon Williamand Alex'sproject.
In the followingtwo sections,I describe
Alex and William'sresearchand digitalliteracy
practicesthroughtwo main phasesof their project as it developedoverthe courseof seven
months.The firstsection describesthe firstphase
of theirwork as they built up a knowledgebase
about theirtopic and decidedon focal subtopics
throughboth book and Web-basedresearch.The
second section describesthe next phaseof Alex
andWilliam'swork as they beganto designtheir
projectin Video StudioEditor.During this phase,
they workedside by side at the computerwhile
continuingand refiningtheir researchbased
upon their emergingvideo project.
a pathway:
Charting
the Dominican
Researching
onthe page
Republic
andonthe screen
Mr.Clarkbeganthe projectby introducingthe
groupto the idea of makinga documentaryvideo
and askingthe studentsto choose threepotential
inquirytopics.Throughconferenceswith each
pairof students,he helpedthem to settleon a
singletopic. BecauseWilliam'sfamilyhad moved
from the DominicanRepublicwhen he was a
young child,he had an evidentpassionfor and
base of knowledgeabout the topic that eventually
412
JtflJiiJtL OF iiiLESCEil
led to his and Alex'schoice of the Dominican
Republicas their inquirytopic.
Figure1 is a reproductionof the firstpageof
the researchnotebookthatWilliamandAlexkept
overthe courseof theirresearchprojecton the
DominicanRepublic.At the top of the figure,they
listedtheirthreepotentialresearchtopics (the
DominicanRepublic,Vietnam,and video games).
At the bottom of Figure1 is a brainstorminglist of
possiblesubtopicsor headingsfor the different
chaptersof theireventualvideo (food, history,
flag,people,video games,dancing,languages,
school,land,animals,games,movies,customs).
This list was heavilyinfluencedby the firstphase
of theirresearchproject,duringwhich the boys
wereengagedin researchusingbooks aboutthe
DominicanRepublicthat they had checkedout
from theirschool library.Manyof the headingsin
thesebooks and the aspectsof the Dominican
Republicthat the book authorschose to focus on
(geography,touristsites,history,food) mirrored
the boys'brainstorminglist in Figure1.
Duringthis phase of the project,Mr.Clark
also scaffoldedthe students'inquiryprocessesby
helpingthem to developresearchquestions(as a
way of drivingtheir inquiriesforward).In addition, as the studentscame into contactwith more
and more information,Mr.Clarkdevelopeda series of lessons on note taking,readingnonfiction
texts strategically,and evaluatingthe qualityand
usefulnessof information.
Mr.Clark'slessons on note takingand sifting throughfactualinformationproveduseful
when the boys beganto conductWebsearcheson
the contemporarymusicalcultureof the
Dominican Republic.(As was seen in Figure1,
the boys had expressedan earlyinterestin dance,
which led to their interestin the music of the
Dominican Republic.)None of the books that
they had checkedout from the library,however,
had contemporaryinformationabout these topics, so the Webprovedusefulto them in this respect. (Williamwas familiarwith bachataand
merenguemusic becausehe and his familylistened to it at home.) Mr.Clarkand I suggested
ft ADULTLfTEiJtCY
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Figure
that the boys conductWebsearchesto look for
contemporaryinformationaboutbachataand
other forms of music and dancefrom the
DominicanRepublic.
The boys'initialWebsearchusing the terms
DominicanRepublicmusichd them to multiple
websites.Fromtheir online readingof these sites,
they learnedmore aboutbachataand merengue
and found out about severalother types of music
(often closelyrelatedto dance culturesas well)
currentlypopularin the Dominican Republic,includingsalve,gaga,merenrap,reggaeton,and
Dominicanrock.The boys also printedthese introductoryarticlesout and includedthem in
1
their researchfolderfor furtherreadingand note
taking.
Overthe course of the next few classsessions dedicatedto the project,Alex and William
specifiedtheir searchesbased upon what they
had found initially.As a resultof their discussions while performingtheir initial searches,
William'sbackgroundknowledge,and their online reading,the boys decidedto focus on
merengueand bachatafor their more in-depth
searches.For example,their searchof several
websitesyielded much informationon bachata,
includingits history and origins and information
about famous bachatamusicianssuch as Joe
JOURNAL OF ADOlfSCEAH 6 ADULTLITERACY 51:5
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Veras,Aventura,El Chavalde la Bachata,and
Monchyy Alexandra.
TheseWebsearchesinvolvednew reading
practicesthat differedqualitativelyfrom their
usualbook-basedresearch.Theirreadingpaths
(typicalof Web-based,on screenreading)were
farfrom linear (followinga clearpath from beginningto end as in the readingof manyprint
texts).Instead,their readingtook nonlinearpathwayssuch as readingselectively,takinglinks as
needed,readingonly the necessarypartsof webpages,and returningto their searchresultsin
searchof other pages.
As they moved backand forth from the
www.google.comsearchresultspage and the actual webpages,Williamand Alex evaluatedtheir
content (in conversationswith me and Mr.Clark)
for potentialusefulness.As they becamemore familiarwith theirtopics,they becamemore discriminatoryaboutwhich pagesto spend time
with and which ones to cast asidein searchof another.Forexample,many of the webpageswere
unhelpfuland were skippedover fairlyquickly.
Some pagesprovidedinformationthat could be
accessedthroughquickonline readingwhile others neededto be printedout and put in their researchfoldersfor readingat a latertime.
Sometimes,the boys took note of findingsand
exploredthem in more depth later.Forexample,
duringa searchusing the termfamous merengue
singers,the boys turnedup a websitethat featured
famousDominicansin other fields.They found
out from this site that therewere a largenumber
of professionalbaseballplayerson U.S.teams
from the DominicanRepublic.Althoughthey did
not explorethis topic until laterin the project,it
eventuallyended up comprisingthe second chapter of theirvideo.
Alex and Williamspent extendedperiodsof
time readingthe articlesthat they had printedout
duringtheirWebsearches.They took notes, highlighted,underlined,and discussedtheir ongoing
findingswith each other,Mr.Clark,and myself.
Oftentimes,their discussionscenteredon the potentialusefulnessof the articlesfor providingin-
414
formationthat they might use when writingtheir
narrativesfor theirvideo.At other times, these
readingsessionsresembledreadingconferences
duringwhich we readand discussedthe articles
with the studentsto ensurethat they comprehended their reading.Forexample,the following
excerptis from a classsession duringwhich
Williamand I were readingan articleabout the
PremioLo NuestroLatinMusicAwardsthat was
This arprintedfrom www.dominicantoday.com.
ticle featuredan updateon the nominationsfor
the awards.
Jason:
This looks like it'sfrom a newspapercalledDominicanToday.
(Williamand I wereboth reading the articlesilently.In the
opening paragraphs,I noted that
the popularrecordingartist
Shakirais listed as a nominee.)
Do you know Shakira?
William: Yeah,I know Shakira.I don't
know how to explain,but I like
it. It'sprettygood.
Jason:
So all of these people werenominated.Do you know what that
means?
William: Um...likepicked?
Yeah.And then they vote on the
Jason:
people who werepicked.
At a laterpoint duringthis phaseof the research,Alex and Williamdecidedthat a listingof
the differenttypes of music from the Dominican
key musicians,and
Republic,their characteristics,
the instrumentscommonly used would be useful
for theirwork.Figure2 is an excerptfrom their
notes at this point, which they kept in their researchnotebook.
As Alex and Williamreadthroughtheir
printoutson these topics and took notes such as
those featuredin Figure2, they discussedthe
types of music in a way that laid the foundation
for theirlaterwritingabout the topic. The following excerptis from one such event.Duringthis
JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT I JtOlfLT LITERACY
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Figure
conversation,Williamand Alex werereadingin
depth about reggaeton.As they read,a classmate,
Tony(who was a fan of reggaetonand reggaemusic) chimed in:
Alex:
Do you know reggaeton?
William: Yeah.Do you know Daddy
Yankee?
Mr.Clark: Is it a style of music?
William: Yeah,it's a style of music. They
rap.
JOURNAL OF liOLESCEH
2
Tony:
Reggaeton?It'slike reggaebut
it's a rap.
Abouthalfwaythroughtheirreadingof their
printoutsabout Dominicanmusic,Alex and
Williambeganworkingindependentlyby dividing
theirresearchprocessesmore clearlythan they
had before.Becauseof William'sintenseinterestin
Dominicanmusic,he continuedto workon that
aspectof the projectby takingnotes that he would
eventuallysynthesizeinto an informationalaudio
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IB
narrativefor theirvideo project.The followingis
an excerptfromthis narrative:
Imagine yourself relaxing at the beach of the
Dominican Republic hearing some beautiful music,
the waves crashing down, and the birds chirping. I'm
hearing a beautiful song on stage. Everybodyscreams!
There are two different kinds of music: bachata and
merengue. Bachatais smooth and soft but not fast.
They use the guitar, bongos, and maracas.Merengue
is fast- not very slow like bachata. In mernegue they
use the drums, marimba, and a metal scraper.The
best music in the Dominican Republic is merengue. It
is heard all around the Dominican Republic. In
bachata there are maybe 5 to 4 people. In merengue
there are maybe 10 to 5 people.
WhileWilliamwas busywritingthe featured
narrative,Alexhad returnedto the computersthis time conductingimagesearcheson the Web
usingthe list of baseballplayersthat the boys had
found earlier(whilesearchingfor famousmusiciansfromthe DominicanRepublic).Basedupon
his initiallist, he searchedfor imagesof David
Ortiz,Alex Rodriguez,SammySosa,and Pedro
Martinez.As he found imagesof thesebaseball
playersthathe thoughtmight be useful,he saved
them in a folderon the computer'sdesktop,later
consultingwith Williamaboutwhich imagesthey
shoulduse in theiractualvideo. However,not until they actuallybeganimportingand arranging
the imagesin Video StudioEditordid the boys get
a clearpictureof the shapethat theirvideo and
the restof theirresearchprojectwould take.In the
next section,I describethis phaseof theirwork.
in VideoStudioEditor:
Working
Adialoguebetweenimages
andtexts
Becausethis section focuseson Williamand
Alex'swork in Video StudioEditor8, I'll begin
with an explanationof the softwareinterface
(meansof operating,functions,and overallformat) as a way of outliningthe options for manipulatingimagesand informationthat it createdfor
416
the students.Figure3 is a "screenshot (a photographof the computerscreen)of the students'
work at one point in the project.It providesan illustrationof the program'sfunctions,which are
similarto many othervideo-editingprograminterfaces(such as iMovie on the Macintosh).
The centerof the screenin Figure3 features
a runningdraftof the video project- a close up
of the particularclip that the user is workingon
at any given moment (at this point the title slide
is featured).This focalwindow highlightsone clip
at a time, selectedby the user from the clips available along the bottom of the screen.Thesemultiple clips makeup the actualdraftor running
versionof the finalvideo project,which arelaid
out in a chronologicalorderingof clips as the
user sees fit. The user can move clips into and out
of the workingdraftof the movie with the use of
the clipboard.The clipboard,locatedon the
right-handside of the screen,displaysthe available clips.The user importsthese clips (which
can eitherbe still imagesor video) from any digital sourceof their choosing (includinga video
cameraor other location savedon the computer's
harddrive).As usersconstructa movie project,
they move clipsbackand forth from the clipboardand into their movie as it takesshapeover
time. The programalso allowsusersto manipulate imagesas they see fit and import audio
tracks,correlatingthem with the video images
(the studentsimportedaudio narration,which
they wrote and then recorded)as well as graphic
and title slides.
About the same time thatWilliamcompleted his narrativeabout Dominican music,Alex
had gathereda sufficientnumberof imagesof the
baseballplayersthat the boys had decidedto focus on in theirproject.At this juncture,they rejoined their effortsas they beganto work in
Video StudioEditor.Theirfirstjob was to begin a
new video project,meanwhileselectingand importing imagesof the baseballplayersonto their
clipboard(from their foldersavedon the computer'sharddrive).
JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENTa ADULTLITERACY 5!:§
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Figure
Once the imageswereon the clipboard,
Alex and Williamselectedand moved images,insertingand arrangingthem sequentiallyonto the
"timeline"(which made them part of the running
draftof their movie). Theirwork at this point was
entirelyvisualbecausethey hadn'tyet conducted
text-basedresearchon these baseballplayers.
Becausethe imageswererandomlyimported
onto the clipboard,they firstneeded to group all
of the imagesof David Ortiztogether,all of the
imagesfor Alex Rodrigueztogether,and so on.
Thesedivisions,in effect,createdtheir firstsubchapterswithin this firstchapterto be realizedin
Video Editor.(Althoughthey had researchedand
writtenabout Dominican music, they had not yet
done anythingin Video Studiowith this material,
which would laterbecome their second chapter.)
3
As the boys beganto import and arrange
the baseballplayerimagesinto Video Studio
Editor,theirprojectbeganto takeform and they
could conceptualizethe scope of theirvideo
(whatwas possibleto actuallyfit in the video of a
reasonableand doablelength) and then focus
their energiestowardaccomplishingtheir goals.
Up to this point, Alex and Williamhad still been
thinkingthat they might include chaptersabout
some of the initialtopics that they had brainstormed (such as history,geography,placesto visit). As they beganto physicallylay out the images
in theirvideo and see the length of time that it
would taketo accomplishwhat they wereenvisioning,they cut these other topics and decided
to divide their movie into two majorchapters.As
was evident in this highlyvisualphaseof Alex
and William'swork on their project,the visual
JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENTi ADULTLITERACY 51:5
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IAfl!liMfl»
mode has its own form of "punctuating"or
"framing"that was centralto organizingthe boys'
literacyand inquiryprocesses.Kress(2003) theorizedpunctuatingin visualcommunicationas
"theframingof an overallorganization,and as
the framingof differentkinds of order"(p. 125).
As a resultof their framingworkwith images,they decidedthat chapter1 was to be on the
baseballplayers(with subchapterson David
Ortiz,Alex Rodriguez,SammySosa,and Pedro
Martinez),and chapter2 was dedicatedto music
(with subchapterson bachataand merengue).
The followingis an excerptfrom the boys'conversationas they arrangedand discussedtheir
project.
Alex:
Can I fix that?(referringto the
arrangementof text over an
image)
William: We haveto takethis guy out.
He'snot a sportsplayer,(referring to an image of Christopher
Columbus)
Mr.Clark: I thoughtyou were going to tell
how he sailedto the Dominican
Republic?
William: Yeah,but this is by the sports
players.
Mr.Clark: So he'sjust in a differentpart?
He'sin a differentchapter?
Maybeyou could draghim back
up here to the clipboard.
William: We don'thavetime becausewe
still haveto do bachataand
Alex:
merengue.
Yeah,let'sjust takethat part out.
We don'thaveenough time. But
maybewe can put it back in
later.
Within each subdivisionon the individual
baseballplayers,the boys arrangedthe images
further,insertingtitles,determininghow long
each imagewas to be displayed,and creating
418
JOUHiJtL OF liOLESCEIT
transitioneffectsbetweenimages.At this point,
they had the imagesimportedand arrangedfor
theirbaseballchapterbut had not done research
or writtentheir narrative,and they had done the
text-basedresearchand writingfor their chapter
on Dominican music but hadn'tfound the images.So Alex began searchingwebpagesfor textual informationon the baseballplayerswhile
Williambegana new chapterin Video Studioon
music from the Dominican Republic(see Figure
4). He createda title slide for this chapterand began an image searchon this topic as Alex had
done with the baseballplayers.
Basedupon this researchand note taking,
Alex wrote a narrativeto accompanyeach of the
subsectionson the famous Dominicanbaseball
players(as Williamhad done for bachataand
merenguemusic). The followingis the beginning
of William'snarrativeon Alex Rodriguez:
"Arad [A-Rod] (a.k.a Alex Rodriguez)"
Alex played for the Yankees. He was born July27,
1975 in New York. Alex was a shortshop. Alex's first
team was the Seattle Mariners. His second team was
the Texas Rangers.On November 17, 2003, Alex won
a player reward.But it went to someone else. Alex first
moved to Miami, FL.Alex was a good baseball player
at Miami at West Minister high school and he was
rewarded.
During this phase of their research,the ways
in which the boys'emergingvideo production
processcreateda dialoguebetweentexts and imagesreallycame into view. In otherwords,their
workwith texts createdthe need for furtherwork
with imagesand vice versa.Thus,a trulymultimodal researchprocessbeganto emerge(especiallyas they recordedand importedtheirwritten
narrativesthroughthe audio mode).
Decidinghow to use and integratethe audio
mode requiredproblemsolvingand discussion
with Mr.Clarkand betweenAlex and William
about how they wantedto form theirprojectand
about the possibilitiesand constraintsof the media with which they wereworking.Forexample,
as Williamwas searchingthe Webfor imagesthat
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Figure
might fit with their chapteron Dominican music,
Alexwas on the computernext to him searching
for webpageswith textualinformationabout the
focalbaseballplayers.The followingexcerptis a
stretchof dialoguefrom their conversationas
they conductedtheseWebsearches:
William: Mr.Clark,do you think that we
haveenough picturesof the
music?
Mr.Clark: Why don'tyou insertyour picturesinto the timeline and then
you can see if you haveenough
or what you might need.Also,
how areyou going to get your
writingin there?
JOUiilL
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4
William: What do you mean?
Mr.Clark: I mean areyou going to videotape yourselftalking?Or will
you just do voice or type it in?
Alex:
I think we can havehalf the TV
with our face.And then we shift
and anotherpicturepops up.
Mr.Clark: I'm not sure it'spossibleto split
the screenlike that.Well,let's
just startwith puttingyour picturesin your timeline and see
what happensfrom there.
Throughconversationssuch as these,the
decided
that they would recordand import
boys
their audio tracksso that they would playsimul-
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|
Miiiiiii^^
taneouslywith the digitalimagesthat they were
findingand arranging.In addition,William
broughtexamplesof bachataand merenguemusic from home and importedthem into the project so that they playedbetweennarrativesin the
chapteron Dominicanmusic. Figure5 is a screen
shot of the different"tracks"(correspondingto
the visual,linguistic,and audio modes) available
in Video StudioEditor.Fromtop to bottom the
trackscorrespondwith still images,moving images (video recordings,whichWilliamand Alex
opted not to use), text (whichthe user types in
overthe imagesor on separateslides),spoken
narratives,and audio imports (whichthe boys
used for importingbackgroundmusic).
Figure
420
for teaching
Implications
Alex and William'sworkwith digitalliteracies
and other inquiryprocessesraisesseveralpoints
relevantto literacyteachingthat incorporatesdigitalvideo production.The firstimplicationhas to
do with what was new and creativeaboutAlex
and William'sexperienceswith digitaltechnologies in the curriculum.Not all uses of digital
technologynecessarilybring somethingnew to
the literacycurriculum.Justlike any other curricularcomponent,digitaltechnologiescan be used
in limiting and uncreativeways (Knobel&
Lankshear,2006). It is in the qualityof uses of
digitaltechnologiesthat createthe potentialfor
somethingnew to happen (Sefton-Green,1999),
5
JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT& ADULTLITERACY 51:5
FERRUARY200S
IB^^
allowingfor a new meaning-makingprocessto
emergeratherthan actingas an addendum.
creativelystructuredthe boys'purposesand interactionswith their subjectmatter.
So whatwas new and creativeaboutAlex
and William'suses of digitaltechnology?How
can teacherslearnfrom their experiences?Kress
(2003) offeredinsightson these questionsby noting that"muchof what we regardas 'creativity'
happensas studentsmove meaningsacross
modes"(p. 36). As was discussedand highlighted
in this article,the students'exploredtheir meanings multimodallyas they moved acrossaudio,
linguistic,and visual modes of communication.
This aspectof theirliteracyprocessesenhanced
and built upon the reading,writing,and discussion processesthat studentswould normallybe
engagedin as part of a traditionalinquiryproject.
ForWilliamin particular,workingwith
subjectmatterthat was part of his culturalidentity was an importantelementof this project.As
severalliteracyscholarshavenoted (LadsonBillings,1994;Moll & Gonzalez,1994),allowing
studentsto drawupon familiarsubjectsand other
funds of knowledge(Gonzalez,Moll, &Amanti,
2005) in school is an effectiveway of creatingculturalrelevancefor students.Particularlyfor students from nondominantculturaland linguistic
backgrounds,culturalrelevancecreatesnew
means of accessto school-basedcurriculaand literacypractices.In addition,the boys'use of the
Weballowedthem to use theirknowledgeand interestsin popularcultureof the Dominican
Republic(contemporarymusicalcultureand
professionalbaseballplayers)as a way of entering
into the literacypracticesat school.As another
way of creatingaccessfor marginalizedstudents,
literacyscholarshavenoted the importanceof
popularcultureas a way of "wideningthe circle"
of what counts as legitimatematerialfor explorationat school (Newkirk,2002, pp. 170-171),
thus creatinga "permeablecurriculum"(Dyson,
1993,p. 217) in which home-basedand schoolbasedknowledgeand literaciescan intermingle.
The new medium (digitalvideo) structured
a dialogicrelationshipbetweentext and image.
This relationshipwas createdby an interactive
synergybetweenthe boys'Webimage searches,
work in Video StudioEditor,Webtext searches,
- thus producinga
and the writingof narratives
multimodalmeans of generatingknowledge
about the DominicanRepublic.
As the boys moved backand forthbetween
workwith imagesand texts,they transformed
theirmeaningsof the DominicanRepublicover
time. At times,theirworkwith imagesservedas
the contextfor furtherworkwith text.At other
times,theirworkwith text servedas the context
for furthermeaningto be made with images.For
example,when they had arrangedtheir chapter
on famousDominicanbaseballplayersin Video
Studio,they realizedthat they needed information about these baseballplayersso that they
could write a narrativeto accompanythem.
Conversely,once they had writtentheir narrative
on contemporaryDominican music (basedupon
theirWeb-basedresearchon the topic) they realized that they neededto conduct image searches
for representationsof Dominicanmusic in order
to import imagesto accompanytheir audio track.
Theiruses of Video StudioEditorwere unique
becausethey createda mode of productionthat
generateditself overthe courseof the projectand
JOURNAL OF liOLESCEil
Therearea few logistic matters,however,
that go alongwith a digitalvideo projectsuch as
the one I describedin this article.First,the fact
that we used Video StudioEditor8 was relatively
unimportant.This programhappenedto be part
of the video packagethat was availableon the
computersin Mr.Clark'sclassroom.Therearea
wide varietyof similarprograms(MovieMaker
for PCs,iMovie for the Macintosh)that use a
similarinterfaceand underlyinglogic.Any such
program(that is often includedas part of the
softwarepackagesthat come with computers)
would servea similarpurpose.Forteacherswho
may be deterredby the technicalaspectsof such a
project,I should note that Mr.Clarkand I
learneda lot about usingVideo StudioEditor
along the way.We didn'tcome to the projectas
I ADULT UTEiJtCY
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expertsin using this particularprogram.
Technologicalexpertisehad little to do with what
enabledthe studentsto explorenew, digitalliteracies duringthis project.In fact,learninghow to
use the^technologies
was part of the inquiryitself.
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The NationalRetiredTeachersAssociationhas partneredwith Curriki,a nonprofitopen sourcecurriculumsourceto providelearningresourcesto studentsaroundthe world.Retirededucatorscan volunteerto developeducationalmaterialsfor studentsand theirteacherswho may lack accessto
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or www.curriki.org.
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