Our Grade 8/9 Storytelling Through Media Option at Southwest Junior High started the year with an introduction to Clipchamp, Microsoft’s simple and accessible video-editing tool.
Our first assignment was to create the “Opposite of a Good Video.” Students began by thinking about what makes a video engaging, entertaining, and informative. What keeps an audience watching? What makes a message clear? What makes a video enjoyable to watch?
We then turned those ideas upside down.
Students were let loose in Clipchamp and challenged to experiment with as many of the software’s elements, graphics, transitions, sounds, and effects as possible. Their task was to create a very noisy, distracting, and intentionally “bad” 33-second video about their favourite animal.
During the Showcase phase of our Design Process, students reflected on the specific and intentional choices they made to create their “bad” videos. They identified which choices were ineffective, explained why they made the video harder to watch or understand, and considered what creators should think about when making better content. Sometimes, one of the best ways to understand good design is to experience bad design!
Our next projects in the course, and beyond, will benefit from the experimentation, discoveries, and insights students gained from the “Opposite of Good” video project.
This blog post was enhanced using ChatGPT with the prompt: “Review this blog post for grammar and flow for an audience of students and famillies at a junior high school in Canada:…”
STEMIA Journal 