Sean O'Sullivan, Deputy Head of Frank Wise School

A seminar entitled, The Impact of Digital Video, was given at the ´Special Needs Fringe´ event sponsored by Inclusive Technology & Special Children. Sean O´Sullivan, deputy head teacher of Frank Wise School in Banbury, showed how the use of digital video could be of great benefit in the classroom and as a tool for learning. The seminar looked at the impact of using digital video with pupils with special needs, with examples of how the pupils were able to actively participate. He showed a range of short films made by the pupils from the school and how these activities related to learning across all areas of the curriculum. The films also act as an evidencing tool and a record of the pupil´s achievements.

In the classroom the children use the Apple software, ´I-Movie´, to make their films. Frank Wise School have a history of making films with pupils. Since digital video it has become much easier to do and it has had other benefits too. ´With digital video there suddenly was a whole new aspect´we were still using it with the expectation of creating end products with the pupils, but it quickly dawned on us that it was the process of being involved with the whole video, coming from in-front of the camera to being behind it and in charge of making the films, that had a whole new area of motivation for the children´ said Sean. The more able children have become so used to using the software that they have recently been using it to create their own Podcast´s using Apple´s ´Garageband´ software and they have begun to use other software packages to create their own web pages.

Each child in the school has a set of targets in the use of ICT. Digital video is included as part of this learning, although in most cases, the use of digital video takes the form of supporting the other areas of curriculum. Sean talked about how digital video is used in Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE). Using clips that the pupils have made helps then to learn about respecting other peoples feelings and rights, and the social boundaries in particular situations.

Digital video can also help the pupils with engagement, motivation, thinking skills, visual learning, and to learn about teamwork. The pupils made a short film about the history of medicine. They used it to talk about the difference between the past and present, it helped some pupils to think about the future. The skills acquired in making the film, although they don´t relate directly to the subject, would be summarised in the child´s annual report and kept on record.

´One of the big things that digital technology can do, is to allow our children to recognise that have a say in things and a voice´, said Sean. He went on to talk about the audience and the part that the local community has played in the promotion of their work. Sean feels it is important that the children recognise that they have an audience and a message.  ´Obviously, the made-up story can be fun to do, but there is a place for the children making a message´ This awareness of an audience and learning to engage with it, becomes part of the children´s learning.

´Our society invest so much, when you consider the whole system of conventional literacy, i.e. reading and writing´ began Sean, ´ we invest a huge amount to ensure that the population can deal with it´we then wring our hands about the numbers of children who can´t do it and say it´s appalling. Well most of our children find that way into communication difficult, although, they may get somewhere down the line at some point in their school career, video work allows them to get involved, with telling stories´their sense of visual awareness is often far beyond their ability with literacy. Video is a tool that allows them to have a voice and express themselves in the same that some of their mainstream peers would do via written word.´