What schools need for Digital Competence.

What is the period between 2010 and 2020 called? Next decade will be easier as it'll be the twenties again, anyhow, whatever its name is, I think it's fair to say, kids in this decade love technology. Perhaps no more than other decades since the 80's but there is a difference. Technology nowadays is much much easier to use. Back in the 80's my friends Dad used to edit wedding videos, he had a room dedicated to it, full of camcorders that were bigger than size 14 shoe boxes, video players, mixers, wires everywhere, a commodore 64 (just for the titles) video recorders and of course massive CRT TV's. It was impressive, but farcical. Nowadays, a camcorder and laptop will produce results that would shame his efforts. Some of the school children I've taught have less, and already have their own youtube channels.... with more subscribers than me!

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The opportunities in digital technology are also many. And obviously the next generation of budding film makers are in schools now. The DCF (Digital Competence Framework in Wales) is an excellent starting point for accelerating Digital Media learning, but currently it's written on hope. 

Getting kids involved in all aspects of digital media creation from KS2 and up is a commendable goal, but it irks me that the school are being stripped back to bare bones, and the more resourceful are having to rely on fundraising days, just to get the money required for the right equipment. Not only that, but teachers are having to learn even more digital media skills themselves, taking time from their own, already hectic schedules to learn new skills to teach the kids, unless they get specialist outside help in, like Rough Cuts. 

In addition we have companies determined to profit from schools by selling them equipment that is either over inflated in price, or poorly aligned with what the schools actually need. I've seen schools offered Multi media suites inflated to 400% of their actual value, or camera's worth £1000's of pounds which is way beyond what a 10 year old needs to 'learn' with. I've seen expensive and overly complicated Radio broadcast equipment, that literally no one (including me) knows how to use (and bears no relevance to the DCF). 

When the advice given to head teachers is not aligned with the DCF,  and while headteachers are losing sleep (and indeed council officials) over where the money for school books, paper and pens is going to come from, it illustrates a problem that we need to fix. 

For example, the Chromebooks (see previous post). 2 local schools have a suite of them, each. Coupled with the firewalls schools have to sit behind, these machines are challenging for achieving the goals laid out by the DCF. Sure, they're superb for storing pupils work in the cloud, word processing, presentations using slides and spreadsheets. But when it comes to photo manipulation and especially video editing they fall far short of what's necessary. Find me one professional company that uses a Chromebook for video production or photo manipulation, or even desktop publishing and I will find you all of the others; who don't. 

If we want to get serious about teaching our kids digital media, then we need to equip our schools with the right hardware and software. 

A primary school now, where children are expected to leave after year 6, should have access to a variety of machines (Apple and PC) and a variety of software choices for video editting, photo manipulation, effects etc. We shouldn't be having to find ways to work around the problems created by having the wrong equipment in school. 

iMovie is the standard for many adults who simply want to make holiday or party movies easily. Hobbyists and budget professionals alike use it and it's a tremendous starting point for children. 

These applications shows how simple Movie making can be and are enough to inspire kids to create more. There's no clunky uploading of clips to a central server (like WeVideo on the Chromebook needs) There's obviously no firewalls to contend with (like Youtube Creator Studio) as everything is stored rendered and manipulated locally. Files are managed on the system, not in the cloud. Having a few machines, both Windows and Mac illustrates the differences between them, helps kids get to grips with technology that they may have at home (so they can carry on with work) and lets them make an educated choice on which system they prefer. It also makes the Digital Media tutors job easier as they don't have to coerce equipment into playing ball!

In addition schools should have access to

A DSLR Camera capable of video recording*, mic input and flash hot shoe. (Microphones and flash too!)

A Tripod and or stabiliser.

Oh... and a Drone (but thats a whole other conversation)!

* Or something else capable of capturing 1080p video, sound and photos, but with manual control over ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed. 

With the right equipment in schools, the right attitude and the right planning, I am confident we can inspire the next generation of film makers and digital media creators from an early age. But it starts with equipping schools correctly and for that, they need more money!