The course will provide the students with knowledge of various types of visuality in different media, competences in conducting and presenting a visual analysis, and insight into visual and analytical methods. The teaching by student teachers is designed to give the students an opportunity to apply and acquire important concepts and theories from the lecture in several different ways. The students will also experience the potentials and limitations of the analytical methods for themselves.
The activity will cause the students to work actively with the theories and analytical methods of the subject. In contrast to a presentation, a short video requires more consideration regarding choice of words and visual communication. Moreover, the videos prepared in the activity will be used by several students to review the texts as preparation for their exam later in the semester.
The activity is motivated by a wish to arouse enthusiasm for the methods and theories of the subject, and to create a different and fun approach to the revision of texts. The activity is inspired by the TED Talk phenomenon and is meant to inspire students to reflect commitment and inspiration when communicating their knowledge clearly and comprehensibly.
The activity is a compulsory group assignment (four to five students per group) requiring the students to produce a subject-related video on the basis of a key text from the course.
The videos indicate that the students have worked extensively with the texts. The video products have turned out to constitute a good basis for speaking about the key texts in the classes taught by student teachers. They reflect creative solutions and great variation among the groups. The students find this to be an interesting assignment, but also challenging, since it is very loosely formulated. The students hardly ever ask for supervision during the production period. Moreover, many students say at the end of the semester that they remember better the texts which they communicated and work with in this video activity, compared to other texts in the course.
Do not include any requirements regarding technical skills, but let the students submit the product they are technically capable of producing. Let them use their own mobile phone for a hand-held recording or submit an edited version produced on their own computer, mobile phone or using free software.
You should ask the students to pay attention to the sound quality of their recordings, as this is essential for the experience of the audience.
Consider which texts students should use for the assignment. Some texts are better suited than others for visual presentation and interpretation.
Also remember to allow plenty of time for feedback. The students have spent much time on the videos and look forward to presenting and discussing them in class.
