Skip to main content

Let’s get fired up! CNN Ron Clark Academy Global Citizen






The Ron Clark Academy - CNN Global Citizen and Global Leader
CNN's piece on how RCA teaches its students how to be global citizens and global leaders.
Uploaded on May 3, 2011

Assessment criteria: As part of authoring critiques of digital storytelling in INTE 5340 three criterions are selected from Jason Ohler’s assessment traits.

Research (Score 1-10: 10 Points)

Presentation of facts necessary to support the story. The audience’s questions are answered in the facts presented.

Comments:
As I was watching this video I had doubts. Doubts about the ‘real’ success of a school that actually shows kids having fun AND performing well on tests. As these doubts or questions entered my head the story presented factual information to help me buy in to what is being presented. The factual information also answered my questions about tuition, who goes to this school, and how much do the kids actually enjoy it. Very brief yet informative - excellent.

Story Flow (Score 1-10: 10 Points)

Information was presented concisely and in organized fashion. No detours or tangents.

Comments:
The story began with the CNN journalist and narrator sliding down the slide into the school. This definitely grabbed my attention and helped me enter the mindset of ‘this is a fun school’ as well. The rest of the story unfolded from describing the brief history of Ron Clark Academy and how and change in mindset and pedagogy created the school. From there the audience can see the school from both student and teacher perspectives and then finally rounding it out with happy and engaged students performing at the top.

Engagement (Score 1-10: 10 Points)

The content in the story kept the audience involved as the story unfolded.

Comments:
This story was very inspiring to me. I was overjoyed to see the kids so happy and participating in an educational environment that engaged them. Naturally, I wanted to see this from a teacher’s perspective as well so just as I was getting ready to look for another video about teacher’s perspective the story showed how Ron Clark Academy trains their teachers. It was very interesting to hear “his real mission is teaching teachers.” This made me think about what teachers should be doing or learning and kept me engaged through the remainder of the story as it was shown from a teacher’s perspective and then finally back to the students.

Total Score 30/30

Other characteristics this assessment fails to capture:

This assessment fails to mention the requirements or other potential bureaucracy issues that are part of the considerations for launching and attending a radically different school. How did the academy craft education to meet both state and federal government requirements? I would like to see the sort of ‘how did they do it?’ and behind the scenes story as well.

How could this digital story be improved?

Someone really needs to find the original recording and increase the resolution and upload it!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

VR ‘Redefining’ How We Design

SAMR: REDEFINITION. Image courtesy of Christina Moore 2017. In recent years virtual reality (VR) technologies have gained popularity for enhancement of a myriad of industries and experiences. It’s hard to dispute VR has the potential to transform. It’s exciting to consider exploring these technologies for the purpose of education, but before putting VR into practice in the classroom, it’s important to apply the study of theory to VR potential. The SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition) is a great way to apply rather basic theory to VR tech. Although it’s possible VR practitioners and learners can traverse SAMR, based on how VR is used, “redefinition” may be the most impactful way to demonstrate use of these technologies for learning. Redefinition, in regards to SAMR, refers to the ability for technology to “create tasks and ways of learning that were previously inconceivable.” (Technology Is Learning 2014) From the perspective of a CAD and Int

Another Blog Post About CARP. This Time It’s Personal!

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/2187718-181/some-fishermen-complain-that-carp CARP, not referring to a fish, but rather it’s an acronym for Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, Proximity. Sometimes referred as CRAP! Or so I have found by doing a brief search for CARP on Google. There are already so many great resources out there describing CARP, however I first learned about it in Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds  (2008). Check out the .pdf describing CARP from pages in “Presentation Zen.” Somehow I managed 5 years of design school in the early 2000’s without hearing about this acronym. It’s likely the acronym did not reach the height of popularity until after I graduated. Nevertheless, I entered design school for ILT grad studies in the twenty-teens and picked up where I left off in Joni Dunlap’s “ Creative Designs” course . These CARP principles were already burned into my brain but one has always stuck out for me ̶

The Most Ridiculous Preflight Checklist for A Short Webinar

In practice of my first webinar I forgot to do some basic things prior to running the event in order to make things run more smoothly. Because of this, I created a checklist of things to do prior to launching the webinar.  Here’s my most ridiculous preflight checklist prior to running the short webinar: Give The Dog A Bone If you run webinars at home and have pets, keep them happy and quiet for the duration of the webinar by making them as comfortable as possible. Take your dog for a walk, give her dinner, or give her a bone. Turn on some calm television programming in the background in your house that may drown out some other neighborly sounds your dog may bark at. For me, giving Bella a bone usually keeps her quiet for 30 minutes or more. Turn Off Your Cell Phone Notification tones are really annoying during a webinar. Turn your phone on silent or off. Also remember to move the phone away from the microphone or anything it may vibrate against if you leave it on vibrate. Show o