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Documentary Project: An experiment in cooperative learning

Article · January 2014

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Simeon Flowers
Aoyama Gakuin University
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PeerSpectives Issue 12, Spring 2014 ! ISSN 2187-1191

!
Objectives!
!
Documentary project: One of the major objectives of this course was that
students gain confidence through experience. The
An experiment in project was designed such that completing earlier
stages of the project would require contact with

cooperative learning! many different international students on campus. It

was hoped that the amount of contact would
provide significant experience to overcome the
fears students typically have when making contact
Simeon David Flowers
with the international community.!
Tokai University! !
! Another related, but perhaps more important
objective, was that students gain a deeper
Abstract!
!
Recently, an experimental course in documentary
understanding of their international peers through
extensive contact. It has been argued that when it
comes to experiential learning in intercultural
filmmaking was presented at the 2014 Paperless:
situations “cultivating and understanding human
Innovation & technology in education conference
relationships is more important than abstract
held in Chiba, Japan. The course used cooperative
knowledge” (Yamazaki & Kayes, 2004, p. 26). With
learning theory to manage learning. Students in the
this in mind, it was decided that the documentaries
course created mini documentaries about
should focus on one individual in depth, as this
international students on campus, as part of an
would provide opportunity to cultivate a meaningful
English elective. A summary of these proceedings
relationship and develop a deeper understanding of
and an example of one of the student projects is
the culture the students would be interacting with. !
included in this article. Feedback from audience
members attending the conference revealed
!
A final objective of this course was that students
interest in the management of student learning with
produce a documentary that would enable them to
regard to the technical aspects of the filmmaking
extend communication beyond their own campus.
process.!
! As such, students were encouraged to produce
their documentary for the world-wide web. !
Introduction!
! !
Procedures!
As teachers, many of us have faced situations
where class sizes are too large, resources are too !
This course used a term-long documentary
minimal, or teaching time is too limited to carry out
interesting ideas we may have. This instructor filmmaking project to guide the learning experience.
recently designed a course for Tokai University The overall structure of the course was designed
which used documentary filmmaking as a method by the instructor; however, many of the technical
for providing extensive contact with international details were managed by the students. For
students on campus. This one credit English instance, students were encouraged to form their
elective ended up being highly popular, and 73 own project groups and elect roles within their
students registered for the course. Due to groups. Each group was responsible for finding
enrollment size, limited time and limited resources, their own subject to interview. In addition, all of the
the course adopted a cooperative learning logistic details regarding filming and editing were
left to each individual group to manage.!
approach to achieve its objectives.!
! !
In filming the documentary, many groups chose to
Theory!
!
Perhaps the most important benefit of cooperative
use their smartphones. A 2010 article in Media Shift
investigated the use of smartphones in professional
journalism courses, noting that "[Smartphones] are
learning is the increased connection students make
light, unobtrusive and non-threatening for folks not
with the learning material, and with each other as a
used to media attention" (MacPhail, 2010). With
social collective (Barkley, Cross & Major, 2005).
this in mind, it seems that many students who
This interdependence allows students to “teach”
chose this technology simply because they were
each other. Cooperative learning allows for the
most familiar with it, may have also selected the
teacher to maintain control over the overall
best tool for making documentaries.!
structure of learning while students are responsible
for combining their resources to complete learning
!
Another major technological task, video editing,
tasks.   !
was also left to the project groups to negotiate.
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PeerSpectives Issue 12, Spring 2014 ! ISSN 2187-1191

Some groups chose to film with a camcorder and a direct result of this course.!
edit on a desktop computer, some chose to shoot !
and edit entirely on their smartphones; in many Discussion!
cases, the technical quality of the smartphone
recordings was superior to those made by
!
One question which came up at the conference
camcorder and edited on the desktop computer. involved students’ use of technology. Teachers
Though each of the group’s final projects differed wanted to know exactly what technology students
greatly in content and quality, each group was able had used to create their documentaries. The truth
to complete their project on time. As a medium for is, this instructor has limited knowledge of that
extended communication with the international aspect. Students were required to make those
community, a selection of student work was decisions within their project groups. There were a
uploaded to YouTube. !
! few reasons for this. The first reason is very
practical as this instructor simply did not have the
Assessment! time or resources to provide the tools or instruction.
!
Students were assessed using a combination of
The second reason is one of lack of need in that
most students are already familiar with how to
group score for their project, and individual score shoot video and many already know how to edit
for participation. As part of the process students video as well. The third reason involves a deeper
were given on-line surveys to assess themselves educational philosophy regarding learner autonomy
and their group members. Peer evaluations were and technology. Especially with regard to our
taken into consideration by the instructor. As an rapidly changing technological landscape, this
example, one student received a negative instructor believes it is more important that our
evaluation by many of their group members. Their students develop personal strategies for coping
final grade suffered accordingly.! with technological challenges than that they “get it
! right”.!
!
Evaluation!
! ! The example work displayed here was created
Sixty-one students responded to a post course using an iPhone and edited on an iMac, using
evaluation given through an on-line medium. iMovie. The student said that it was her first time to
Students were asked to report on challenges they use the iMovie software. The technical quality of
faced and changes in confidence they experienced this work supports the theory of cooperative
as a result of the course. Qualitative analysis of learning used for this course, suggesting that we
student commentary revealed that most students may not need to actively teach technology to
felt language itself was the biggest obstacle for motivated students at the tertiary level. In addition
them to overcome with group member cooperation to technical quality, the narrative quality of this work
being the second most significant challenge. surpassed instructor expectations. !
Results of a Likert scale suggested that net gains in
confidence with regard to approaching non-
Japanese peers for conversation were achieved as

<Link to Video>
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 PeerSpectives Issue 12, Spring 2014 ! ISSN 2187-1191

!
Conclusions!
!
The results of this course show that cooperative
Using Dragon
learning can be used for English study in the
Japanese tertiary setting. The major course
Dictation VR
objective of developing confidence in intercultural
communication was achieved through the software for more
cooperative approach. The willingness of some of
the students to tackle more difficult intercultural
communication genres, such as religion, may have
objective
been inimitable; however, this instructor was
excited to see such challenges faced, and feels pronunciation
results like this open up the door for further
research into amateur documentary filmmaking and
how it can be used to develop intercultural
feedback and guided
awareness in the Japanese tertiary setting.!
! self-correction for
References!
! EFL students!
Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P., & Major, C. H. (2005).
Collaborative learning techniques. San Francisco,
James Henry III
CA: Jossey-Bass.!
!
MacPhail, W. (November 29, 2010).  Why we gave
Research Institute of English Language Education /
Kobe Shukugawa Gakuin University

our students droid smartphones to capture news.
Media Shift.  Retrieved from  http://www.pbs.org/
!
Abstract

mediashift/2010/11/why-we-gave-our-students-
droid-smartphones-to-capture-news333/ ! !
This talk demonstrates a practical application for
Yamazaki, Y., & Kayes, D. C. (2004). An
experiential approach to cross-cultural learning. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) software in
Academy of Management Learning and Education, the EFL classroom, as a tool to facilitate
3(4). Retrieved from http:// customized pronunciation feedback and correction. 
learningfromexperience.com/media/2010/08/ The hardware used was the Apple iPAD, and the
Yamazaki_and_Kayes.pdf! software is Nuance's Dragon Dictation. As this
! software is designed for practical speech-to-text
applications in the target language, it is ideal both
Bio: !
as a gauge for speech accuracy as well as a
A fifteen year veteran of English teaching, Simeon
feedback mechanism to aid pronunciation
likes to keep things fresh while also serving a
improvement. Using this software in conjunction
pedagogical purpose. He enjoys teaching beyond
with instructor feedback is seen as potentially a
the language and providing authentic experience
more effective alternative to the typical subjective
through creative adaptation of technology.!
feedback from the instructor (by itself), whether
<simeon.d.flowers@gmail.com> <CastleCLP.org>!
modelling/chorusing, using diagrams about mouth-
shaping and tongue positions or other common
approaches. This paper will discuss how this
approach was used for these purposes with
Japanese 1st and 2nd-year University students,
promising ways to build on this approach, as well
as limitations encountered and expected. Also
taken into discussion will be similar research with
ASR software applications for customized
pronunciation feedback for EFL students.!
!
In today’s world, we have increasingly innovative
ways to interact with technologies for solving
problems. Voice controlled software is becoming
more prevalent as a means to achieve hands-free
control of devices and systems. Speed and
convenience are the oft-cited benefits received by

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