We have a perennial problem at our school. The kindergarten students have trouble logging in to the board-wide computer system. The login uses a general user name and a shared password. This system is handy for sharing bookmarks and works perfectly for first grade and up, but it baffles many four and five-year-olds.
The biggest problem is the user name. This is a collection of letters and numbers assigned by the IT department that is too hard for kids who are still learning their letters. For them, uppercase and lowercase aren’t yet clear concepts. How are they supposed to press CTRL+ALT+DEL?
When classes were smaller, by doing a lot of hands-on training, I could have most of the senior kindergarten students logging in by the end of September. The juniors, who are four or nearly four, take much longer.
Right now our kindergarten classes are crowded with nearly thirty students each. Giving each kid one-on-one attention in a forty-minute class split between book exchange and computers is tough. I could give up and admit that for some little people, telling the ‘o’ key from the ‘0’ key is only a small part of why this is too hard. Instead, I did what I love to do. I made a movie.
Yesterday I had a couple of cheerful, cooperative grade eights come into the library during part of their lunch hour. Using a simple camera, I took footage of them following the instructions to:
- Wake up the computer
- Hit the correct keystroke combination to reach the login screen (CTRL+ALT+DEL)
- Check the whiteboard for the user name and password
- Type these in the right places followed by the right mouse click combinations
- Log out using the correct keystroke combination
The whole video is about two and a half minutes long including the opening titles. I edited it in Windows Moviemaker to practice because I’m going to be using that program with another class next week. That means I’m rehearsed and ready to demo editing for them. It’s important to teach children to edit their own footage, because only in editing does your movie become complete.
“Let’s Log In!” the movie, is fun, short and very clear. I have lots of close-ups on fingers on the keyboard and the screen. I’m so proud of my student volunteers for the excellent job they did.
Results?
Today I showed the kindies the movie, emphasizing that it was special, and that the grade eights made it just for them. They enjoyed watching it, applauded for the grade eight demonstrators, and tried very hard to log in afterwards.
Was it worth the time I spent editing the movie? Worthwhile, and fun. Would I do it again? Absolutely! Do the kindies all know how to log on now? Well, let’s give that a little more time….
Other fun video ideas for movies and media studies:
- Public service commercials for behaviours (I love the idea of older kids making demo movies to show younger students examples of good, useful or helpful behaviour)
- Scary film trailers with a purpose (Right now I’m planning on making some ‘environmental horror story’ clips with one class. We have a ‘green’ school and we’re always thinking of ways to make things more environmentally sustainable)
- Book trailers (These are very fashionable among big publishing houses and indie publishers. Have your kids watch a few good examples and then suggest they do a book trailer instead of a book report for their next reading response project.)
I’m sure your imagination is as good as mine. Now that I have lobbed a few ideas your way, why not do a brainstorming session with your class? There’s always a good reason to make a movie!