Magical Movie Students

The movie for week 2 was very interesting. I watched Digital Generation Project Youth Portrait: Nafiza. Watching this series just leaves me in awe of our children. They are so amazing and continually teaching me. I have learned so much just from the first two Digital Generation Project Youth Portraits that I have watched.

The video talks about Nafiza and other students making movies. There were two things that stuck out to me as I watched this. One was that these students are making actual movies. The only thing is they are not using cameras or video equiptment. The entire movie is made using the Internet and computer technology. Here I am struglging to keep up with the assignments and blogging site for the technology 4 teachers class and here are these students making movies. The other thing that stuck out to me was how the movies they make are addressing real and serious topic of our world today, such as the situation in Darfur.

We never had anything like this in school when I was younger. I feel like I keep saying this and I do because it is a fact. We would get to watch movie (as a whole school group) at the end of each semester. The movie was played from a movie real and showed on one of the walls in the gym or cafeteria. With this technology we could have made and shown student made movies!

Nafiza gained so much more than just technological knowledge and training. She learned about situations and people from other cultures and places in our world. Nafiza also developed leadership skills. As her skills grew, the other students started coming to her when they needed help. Now they look up to her as a role model. Nafiza also grew in personal development. She gained confidence and strength. Sometimes it is hard to stand up and speak about topics that other people would prefer to not think about. I am not sure how much movie making would fit into a 4th grade class room but I am intrigued by the use of this technology. If they opportunity should arise to incorporate movies into my lesson I would be willing to include it.