The Small World Project

Communication

Connect with media arts and our own culture

Extend our worldview by creating and sharing media

Challenge ourselves to engage with international peers

The Small World Project is an international media-arts workshop that gives students the opportunity to creatively share their world through real dialogue and artistic exchange with international peers. We observe, analyse, create, share, and explore.

As in the student version of the workshop, teachers will engage with various forms of media and be challenged to create media products of their own. By the end of the workshop, teachers will have a deeper connection to their own creativity and have the technical skill to engage students in the same activities. They will also have the resources and connections necessary to carry out a Small World workshop in partnership with another classroom around the globe.

Learning Objectives

• Think and learn creatively -- diverge from the one-answer model
• Deepen your “reading” of media to find messages and issues relevant to your students – including video, written words, sound/music, and more
• Develop the creative capacities and technical skills to create and teach the elements of new media required to carry out a Small World exchange workshop with other classrooms around the globe
• Creatively explore and reflect upon the lives of real people at home and around the world
• Study student media from past Small World workshops to develop an understanding of the effective focuses and themes for media projects
• Connect Small World themes and techniques to your own subject area

Activities

• Watch and analyse historical and contemporary media
• Record & Remix Sounds
• Compose a soundtrack to an animation
• Investigate structure of literature/poems, and apply to video storyboarding
• Plan, Shoot, and Edit a short video
• Interpret and Critique other teachers' work
• Comment on past and current student and teacher videos on the Small World website
• Develop a plan for integrating Small World into your subject area
• Contact potential teacher-collaborators around the world about a Small World exchange project for your students

Learning Outcomes

• Increased confidence in one's own capacity as an artist and creative thinker
• A deeper awareness of media and how to interpret it
• Expanded skill set for generating media
• A deeper, personal connection to youth and youth culture around the world
• A stronger connection to one's own community
• A greater capacity for empathy through peer engagement and reflection
• Actionable plan for a Small World exchange project for your students
• Sense of shared purpose with other teachers around the world looking to broaden the horizons of their students

What Teachers Get

• Teacher account on Small World Project international website
• Arrange for international collaborations with other SWP classrooms around the world
• Exhibit student work for global audience
• Engage in conversations and critique of international student media
• 2. Media Resource Pack
• DVD of example student projects
• Example media for viewing / media literacy lessons
• Starter projects for GarageBand and iMovie
• Certificate
• Teaching materials
• Suggested curriculum with warm-ups, media, and example projects
• Materials list
• Recommendations and past workshop daily plan
• Assessment Kit

Workshop Details