STUDENT DIGITAL MEDIA GROUP

At a recent ADE retreat we were given time to work on something. That's right... 'something'. Given a rare moment to work on something that has been sitting at the back of my mind but never having the hour or two to sink my teeth in to get it done has always been a regret, and a frustration.

My 'something' was the creation of a Student Digital Media Group (SDMG). I have already held a meeting to gauge interest and with the help of colleagues refined where this group may venture to. I was amazed to see 21 interested Year 7/8 students who lapped up the possibilities and offered some amazing suggestions arising from the passion in using digital media.

The goals of the group are:

• Provide a pathway for highly proficient technology users amongst student an opportunity to develop their skills and harness their knowledge for self-improvement, self-esteem and to assist the school;
• Provide an opportunity for students create and engage in non-academic activities;
• Develop skills of students with a passion for digital technology;
• Provide the student body with help from their peers during break time, via a student help desk;
• Provide an avenue for students to assist teachers as needed during class time.

Opportunities for group members:

• Contribute resources for students and staff in academic areas (eg Hyperlinked Keynote quizzes for study);
• Create regular podcast episodes highlighting school activities (eg interviews of recent incursions);
• Help students and staff on the student help desk (eg answer the "How do I print this document?" and "How do I use iMovie?" questions);
• Creating photo reflections after significant events, possible inclusion at assemblies (eg photo montage after a sport carnival to display to the school community);
• Service learning hours can be accrued for students;
• Autonomous task/projects completed during break times (eg build a website, create a school widget);
• A one/two day retreat with projects, guest speakers and visits to businesses who utilise new and innovative technologies (eg visit the ABC and see how cameras, greens screen, auto prompts are used);
• Participate in informal school-based and formal state, national and global competitions (eg short film festivals);
• Contribute to parent PD sessions as roaming problem solvers.

I am excited about what these guys can come up with, particularly due to one student creating a stop animation movie to show me and outlining how it could be used in a regular school video podcast. More to come!




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.