DIL: Editing my video

The Digital Literacy Research Project in which I am a participant, is coming to a close and this is probably one of my last posts on the subject. I have my plan and I have researched the principles for making a video. Once I have made the video, then I need to think about how to edit it.

Have I got the right medium?
It is probably too late to ask this question because I have already made up my mind to make a video. However, Dan Meyer has a very important point: using video to get a message across complicates things considerably. So make sure video is the right medium to use, as opposed to more traditional mediums such as text.

I am using video to talk about portfolios because of my own need to learn about that medium. But I also think midwives will appreciate something a little different from plain text, and I am hoping it will catch their attention.

Keep it simple
The other invaluable rule that Dan Meyer passes on about making videos and editing is to keep things simple. What I do not want is to make life too complicated for myself as well as time-consuming.

I want to make a short and sweet video that gets a message across in a way that is accessible to students, yet costs me little in terms of emotional energy and time consumption - have a look at the comments to Dan's post for discussion about sustainability of video in education.

Editing video
There are a huge number of resources on the Internet that will help with the actual editing of a video using Windows Movie Maker, not least on the WMM web site itself.

As for putting the 'story' together, I have found Langwitches' post on digital story telling to be very useful. In it Silvia explains that digital story telling is about connecting, communicating and collaborating:

• Connecting - midwives telling stories about their portfolios will forge a connection with the audience on a personal level that may be missing from plain instructional text. The video will give a personal context to portfolios and link the audience with the midwives telling their stories because of shared experience.
  
• Communicating - information about portfolios is communicated.
  
• Collaborating - working with midwives to tell and share their stories.
  

Silvia has also put together an amazing page on how to use WMM.

Evaluation
Helen Barrett has collated a number of resources for digital story telling. Included is a rubric that the video can be evaluated against. Amongst the things I will need to consider are:

• the purpose is articulated at the beginning and the focus is maintained throughout the video
  
• it is clear that the audience's needs are met in terms of audio, graphics and vocabulary
  
• voice quality is clear
• there is a conversational style throughout the video
• all music is original and creates emotional response
• images create atmosphere and matches story
• timing is appropriate.

DIL participants, video participants and midwifery colleagues will be asked to give feedback about the video.

Is there anything I have forgotten? Can you suggest anything else I need to consider with regards to editing my video?