Hello World, I am back again after completing yet another project. Its been a while due to the fact that I didn’t have a a PLP course last quarter but here I am. Anyway let’s talk about what this new project is about and what we PLP 9s have been doing.
For starters, this project is called “The Great War Exhibit” and as you can guess it was about World War 1 (WW1) but more specifically, Canada’s involvement in the conflict. The project required us to use artifacts and film to explain the significance of the First World War as can be seen with our new driving question: “how might we use artifacts and film to prove the significance of the First World War?”. You may wonder, “what do you mean artifacts?” so let me explain. Thanks to our teachers, we managed to receive a special WW1 box from the Canadian War Museum (you can visit their website here) that included a huge variety of artifacts from WW1. The artifact that I ended up choosing was the Canadian Service Dress Jacket and I’ll talk more about it later. Another important thing we did to help us prove significance of the Great War was by researching and using a soldier. Basically, we got to go through the WW1 archives and choose a single soldier among the thousands of them to use in our videos; but you may ask, “what videos?”, so allow me to explain an overview of the what we did throughout the 6 milestones of this project.
What we did:
To begin, let’s talk about what we were working towards. Our end goal in this project was to run WW1 exhibit in our school that would convince other students why WW1 was significant to them. We learnt about the war while building an understanding about each of our individual artifacts and soldiers. If milestone 6 was to make run the exhibit then milestone 5 was the build up to this. This milestone was to create a video answering the driving question using the knowledge we gained from all the past activities in the other milestones. We wrote an essay, a screenplay and did many other things in preparation for the video. We even called in one of the Canadian War Museum coordinators for this video alone. Now if you want to see the video I created, you can find it below:
After finishing the video we vegan prepping for the 2 day long exhibit. Due to the fact I chose the Service Jacket, I ended up getting to have a partner to present with me, as another artifact in the box was the Canadian Shoulder Pin which goes hand in hand with my artifact. Nathan, another member of PLP 9, was this co presenter and you can find his blog here. We presented our artifacts to hundreds (more like 200) of students and all went smooth. Here is a picture of me with my artifact area:
That’s an overview of what we kind of did so lets move to my answer to the driving question.
My Answer to The Driving Question:
Now after understanding what we did in this project, how did I use artifacts and film to prove the significance of World War One. Well using my milestone 5 final video (Hi Ms. Maxwell) as an example, it is clear that I used many techniques such as:
- Using the story and consequences of my artifact to explain the effects of WW1 on the world
- Using a soldier who used my artifact to tell the perspective of a group in this event
- Using Ken Burns to bring the viewers focus onto certain details in an image key to the event
- Using captions and audio to explain why this event is widespread, significant and notable
- Using a modern day example of my artifact to explain to the view why th event was even relevant to them
These are a some of the examples which I believe helped me prove WW1’s significance and it’s relevance today but did this mean I learnt anything?
Evidence of My Learning:
I have learnt many things in this project from WW1 knowledge and trivia to how to use film better to assist my explanations in videos. An example of the knowledge I have gained about WW1 can be seen in my notes. Here is a link to them to them:
As mentioned above, I didn’t just learn trivia but I also improved my writing and video skills. I think the best way to show these things would be to use the curricular competencies as a guideline so here they are.
Global collaborator:
I believe one of the tasks assigned in this project that really helped me grow in this competency was the actual exhibition itself which is also the final milestone. The exhibition required me to not only show off my video skills but also skills and apply to a conversational setting. Some of those skills include using attentional and layout techniques to focus the viewer or even just knowing how to bring and relate the story to the audience. Another example in which I believe I excelled in this competency was none other than the call PLP had with the Canadian War Museum coordinator, Jocelyn Brooks. I was one of the speakers and from teaching us things from how the artifacts were chosen to where the box went, many of the things we learnt were included in our videos. However this does not show me using technology to connect to the world but one thing that I did do was use the new information to better tell the story of my artifact and connect it better to the audience.
Establish Historical significance:
Now one thing obviously that we did that really emphasized on this competency was milestone 2. Milestone 2 task was to write a mini essay on the significance of our chosen artifact. From establishing how it was widespread, notable and symbolic, this was one of our key tasks to help us build a better understanding on this curricular competency. One key thing I learnt was establishing a soldiers or artifacts symbolism as I understood that one individual may not be significant but rather that that, you must look at the collective that one person represented. If you want to see my milestone 2 mini essay, here it is below:
Conclusion:
This project has been a long one and soon I will begin my first exhibition. From learning about WW1 to making videos it truly has been another PLP journey. I hope to see you all in my next post.
Fin