The entire program for Inauguration Day 2009 started as a simple concept: Students on the Close-Up trip would record video diary entries while on the trip. Those videos would then be edited into a production that could be uploaded on the web as a podcast, and also be used to create a documentary detailing what the Close Up experience was like for the students involved. That plan while still implemented in its entirety, gave rise to other aspirations which included plans for a full-day television broadcast covering the Presidential Inauguration and the following.
Production and Direction of the Broadcast
Broadcast Journalism Classes
Students in the SHS Broadcast Journalism classes controlled all in-studio technical aspects of the production. They were responsible for managing the studio anchors, the streaming video feed from the field, pre-recorded packages, graphics, music, etc.
Studio Anchors
Broadcast Journalism Classes
Selected students in the SHS Broadcast Journalism classes acted as anchors in the studio. They filled the role that any anchor at any news network would fill. They provided information and commentary, interacted when possible with the student reporters in the field, introduced the pre-recorded packages, and offered opportunities for audience participation in the form of discussion boards, e-mail, etc.
Supplemental Packages
Broadcast Journalism Classes
The Broadcast Journalism students, with the assistance of other content-area teachers and students, will produce 25-40 packages, 2-5 minute videos on subjects related to Inauguration, the presidency, the Constitution, musical performances, public speaking, etc. These will be used as supplemental information, filler for times with minimal action, and as a backup in case of technical failure.
Field Reporters (Washington, DC)
Close Up Students
The students on the Close Up trip focused on the trip itself, and the originally proposed video diary,l discussing on camera their perspective on the day’s events, interviews from other students, and spectators in the crowd. The students also sent still images, audio, and video through the internet, back to SHS and schools across the Commonwealth
Field Reporters (National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, PA)
Broadcast Journalism/Honors Government Students
Selected students came to the National Constitution Center on election day as correspondents reporting back to their school, along with their counterparts in D.C. relaying information about the programming happening there, and on Independence Mall where the speech was broadcast on a large screen. Students interviewed other students and adults that came to the center to watch the inauguration and participate in the festivities.
Students blogged throughout the process leading up to inauguration day as well as during and afterward. Check out what they had to say about the experience at http://shsinaugurationproject.blogspot.com/.
SHS Project Survivor
Students in Miss Butler’s English class at Springfield High School have recently read the Holocaust survival memoir Night, and have decided to expand the themes addressed in the story into an original civic initiative in which their entire school and community can become involved. This project is student developed and directed.
Project Survivor attempts to bring the issues of Night into the 21st century, issues of indifference, hunger, prejudice and discrimination, and to do it in an engaging way on a local level.
The students taped 1 minute commercials about their project ideas which were shown to the entire student body. The student body then voted on the project ideas which they thought were the best, through the use of technology, primarily wiki spaces and discussion boards. The students whose project ideas were voted into the top five then developed a video 1-3 minutes in length of student-created, original material (text, photo, music, etc.) to publicize their project ideas. Students watched the videos and once again voted for best project idea. The top three videos received a portion of the PennCORD stipend in order to carry out their plan.
The top three winning projects were:
Group #1: A proposal to enhance the community recreation center.
Group #2: A coat drive.
Group #3: Invisible Children project: an organization that aims to help the night wandering child soldiers of Uganda.
