Task 3 Evaluation

Task 3 Evaluation

Task:	Introduce each other
Main focus of contents:	Looking at how the children represent themselves in different media

The third task has tried to continue the search for answers to our two main issues (see introduction) -helping children to be more competent with media messages and finding structures which help children of different cultures to communicate with understanding. As well as an introductory exercise we incorporated two new elements: the use of the internet and the introduction of sign language. Additionally we introduced video editing with the children, although this happened six months later and only in Berlin (the editing will be evaluated separately).

The internet workshop happened alongside the project work. Nearly all participating children (and our friends from Israel and America) created a page with their own photo, text (often in different languages) and sometimes additional graphics. Five children were not allowed by their parents to publish their pages - these children created a page which was not published. The children designed and produced the pages themselves, there was some input from the teachers concerning some technical details. All pages were published on the project website. The Spanish class kept their pages on their school server to be able to update them whenever they wanted to. Those pages are linked with the project site.

With the exception of the class in England all children had access to the internet in the school. They were able to look at the pages from the other children, explore the pages from the children from the other countries. We motivated them to contact the partner children via email, looking for similar interests, asking each other about other issues. This has failed, mainly because the schools didn't have email addresses for the children. A few did this through their computer at home. Our Israeli friends were very enthusiastic to communicate and wrote a questionnaire which was then sent to the other classes.

The video introductions followed the same format we had used in the beginning of the first year. The children recorded themselves in front of the video camera. They spoke in their own language, other project languages and sign language. The material was collected in Berlin and then again sent to all the partners. The children in Berlin produced a liveshow where they presented the project and some of the material of the partners. Felix and Christian edited a ten minute programme using sequences of all of the video material (roughly two hours of source material). They tried to select an equal amount of material of all five participating schools (the EU partners plus the friends from Israel and America) and added titles and music.

Using sign language was new to most of the children apart from our English partner school. Thorn Grove Primary School has a small group of deaf children who are partly integrated into the classes. The children there were familiar with sign language - this is part of their school life. The other children learned basic expressions (the alphabet and some common words) to communicate with each other. All the children recorded introductions using sign language.

As with the other tasks we tried to stimulate the children to engage critically with what they did. The theme of representation was again (as in task 1) central many of the discussions. The children in Berlin answered a series of questions before they started their first recordings: "What would you like to say? Which language would you use? Which facial expression would you use? What impression would you like to create with your introductions?". The results of the web pages and the video interviews were discussed. We asked the children what they thought other children (who hadn't have met them) would make of them and how they felt when they were recorded. Was it embarassing?

We examined the raw footage as well as later examining the finished programme. This was particularly worthwhile because the pace of the sequences was a lot slower and there were no additional layers (sound, titles, image overlays). In Berlin we tried to strip the layers off the finished programme. We looked at an introduction of one deaf girl, Hannah, from Cheadle Hulme on three different levels:

1. Introduction with no sound (only sign language)

2. Introduction with English soundtrack (another child commentated Hannah's hands)

3. Introduction with soundtrack and German subtitles

With each introduction the children had to write down what they understood. We then discussed what happened during each round and how the overall impression changed. Each layer revealed more information, from very general ('this is a deaf girl who wants to communicate with us') to specific ideas ('she likes cycling'). We discussed how it would be if we couldn't hear anything, what we would miss. Finally the children were asked to write a short message to Hannah. The sign language exercises were generally received with a lot of interest from the children. Most of them learned the letters very quickly. The deaf children in England appreciated the efforts very much.

The third task prooved to be worthwhile although it was planned rather as an informal exercise. The design of the introductions could have been more creative. There were further ideas of presenting someone else (for example someone I would like to be). The personal elements of the internet pages have been very positive and have helped to build relationships (continuing the goals from the second task), more than just a video exchange. The children were able to access information about the other children at their own choosing rather than a single viewing of a video sent by a class.