We watched a PSA last week that talked about a young individual that had won multiple championships in several sports. Then at the end, we found out all the accolades were only in video games. Not diminishing the skills of video players, but playing the real sports are usually harder than they look on screen. Few if any people pick up a sport and become a champion without much hard work, practice, and learning.
I have been thinking that students see creating video the same way. They get a camera and expect the results to mirror what they have seen in professional venues. It takes a lot of background building to show students the many levels of learning they need to master to even begin to produce decent video. On the other hand the whole experience is a great task for thinking skills. There is just so much going on in creating video that even when the teacher scaffolds the learning and assesses the project in stages, there are still so many variables that students can choose to explore. It is in these situations that I often find the gems of student learning as students decide to tackle a problem and find a solution. These gems are rare but definitely valuable.
