Who Would Have Thought?
Twenty years ago, who would have thought Ottawa Catholic School Board’s (OCSB) high school students would share their knowledge of virtual reality, drones and Automated Dialogue Replacement (ARD) with grade 4-5 students? Who would have thought these topics would even be part of the high school curriculum? But that is precisely what happened between the All Saints Information and Communications Technology Tech (ICT) class and a Grade 4-5 class at St. Gabriel Catholic School.
How Did It Happen?
Brett Jewitt (All Saints) and Brian Laverne (St. Gabriel) are OCSB educators who wanted to showcase collaboration, communication, and innovative Deep Learning opportunities between high school and elementary students. Knowing that both age groups are interested in videos, movies and technology, they brought their students together, and the results are outstanding!
What Happened?
Mr. Jewitt’s Communications Technology class (including SHSM students) created videos. The St. Gabriel’s students did voice-overs for the videos through the magic of Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR). ADR involves replacing one voice recording with another, such as when North American films are dubbed into a foreign language for release overseas. The high school students filmed themselves and replaced their voices with the recordings of grade 4-5 students.
It Takes Time!
So, just like in the movies, it takes time to make a film. So when the elementary students weren’t recording their voices, they got a hands-on crash course in drones, virtual reality, and much more. The elementary students were thrilled to use this equipment at the nearby high school as it allowed them to work side-by-side in the high school environment.
Deep Learning In Action
The All Saints students developed valuable technical skills, and working with the younger students helped them hone their problem-solving, teamwork, communication and collaboration skills. While the elementary students got to see how welcoming and fun, high school can be. It is a safe bet that most of these students will be signing up for a few tech courses in the future!
Watch Party
The project ended with a “watch party” where both classes gathered to watch the finished videos together – just like movie stars do when their films are completed!
