Task/Purpose: This semester-long learning experiment involves choosing an activity you’d like to learn (e.g. how to play guitar, how to sew, how to meditate, how to code, how to speak Italian, etc.) and attempting to learn it. Throughout the semester your task is to shoot short video journal entries that capture your process of learning. Then, at the end of the course, you will edit your footage to create a mini documentary about your experience. You will have a chance to share your doc at a screening party near the end of the class. The purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to apply what you have been learning about learning to your life through a hands-on experience. Below I have provided more specific information, but if you have questions or problems at any point, I’d be happy to chat with you one-on-one.
What to Learn: Choose something that you’d genuinely like to learn how to do. Since you’re going to be spending the semester practicing this activity, it will be much easier if you are motivated to learn how to do it in the first place. Whatever you choose, please be smart about it. Do not choose activities that are illegal or dangerous, or ones that might be harmful to yourself or others. The other thing you should keep in mind when choosing an activity is that you are not expected to master it by the end of the semester. In fact, you may not improve at all. That’s OK. The point is to capture your attempts to learn something. I’m not interested as much in the outcome as I am in the documentation of your experience. Early in the semester, I will ask you to email me your topic as well as a practice schedule.
Practice Schedule: You need to come up with a detailed plan for trying to learn your proposed activity. How much time you decide to devote to your activity is entirely up to you (be sure to consider things like your course load, the amount of free time you have per week, etc.). For instance, you might want to practice for 15 minutes a day, or for 30 minutes 3 times a week, or for several hours on Saturdays. However you decide to break up your practice time is fine as long as you are doing your activity every week.
What Goes in Your Doc: Every week or so, you should shoot a video journal entry. In at least a few of your entries, you should actually perform your activity (e.g. have someone film you trying to juggle, or playing an instrument, or whatever). In other entries, you might want to explain to the audience how things have been going up to that point, what difficulties you’ve encountered, etc. Or you could reflect on the experience of learning more broadly—perhaps mentioning how the class has made you think about your learning process differently (or not). The key to this documentary is reflection. The goal is to reflect on your experience of attempting to learn, so make sure that your entries feature reflection prominently. Some questions you might address in the conclusion of the video include: What have you learned about learning from this exercise? What have you learned about yourself as a learner? What could you have done to have made your learning experience better or more effective? What was the most challenging aspect of this project? The number of entries and the way in which you order them in the documentary is up to you. However, I would highly encourage you to film yourself each week. It’s better to have too much footage at the end than not enough.
How to Film Your Doc: I’m not expecting these videos to be professional by any means. You can use your phone or computer to film yourself. When you want to edit your footage at the end of the semester, you may use any video editor you wish. For instance, you can use iMovie or one of the many free video editors out there, or something more sophisticated like Final Cut Pro. Windows Movie Maker isn’t ideal since I cannot open that file format on my Mac. The Robertson Media Center in Clemons Media Library has plenty of computers that you can use for video editing. In addition, they have savvy staff who can help if you are having trouble. Once you have finished editing your film, save it as a .mov or .mp4 file. Or, if you’d like, you can post it to YouTube or Vimeo. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the technical aspects of the project.
Editing Your Doc: It would probably make sense to make your video chronological to give the audience a sense of what you learned over time. That said, you don’t have to use every single video you shot (you probably won’t have time to do that anyway). You can cut down clips so that only the most relevant material is used, and you may delete some clips altogether. While it’s not required, feel free to add a title screen, music, or special effects to your film. You have total creative freedom, so have fun with it.
Length of Doc: Your mini documentary must be a minimum of 3 minutes and a maximum of 3 minutes and 30 seconds.
Due Date: Your documentary must be completed and emailed to me (either as a .mov or .mp4 file, or as a link to YouTube or Vimeo) by 8pm on Wednesday November 30. We will be viewing the docs in class the day after, so I need to have them ready in advance.
Assessment: I am not grading you on the quality of your filmmaking skills. This exercise is more about the process of learning than the product of the video. To get credit for this assignment, you simply need to stick with your learning practice and complete the video by December 1. [*in the rare case of a tech emergency, we can discuss alternative ways for you to provide evidence of your experience]
Have fun and happy learning!
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Experiments in Learning 