Royal Oak students win statewide multimedia contests

 

By Jennifer Sakey

C & G Staff Writer

     Students who attend Royal Oak Neighborhood Schools are proving they’re on the right track toward becoming technology savvy.

     For the third year in a row, students from the district are winners in the annual Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning Multimedia Contests.

     “This year was pretty cool because we had a winner at the high school level and at the elementary level,” said the district’s technology resource teacher Laura Cummings.

     Oak Ridge Elementary teacher Mary Kosnik’s 2002-03 fourth-grade students won in the elementary multimedia category with a PowerPoint presentation that demonstrated core democratic values through photos, clip-art and illustrations. Her students were given cameras and were instructed to photograph evidence of these democratic values in action. A child putting books away in his locker, for example, represented the need for citizens to take care of their environment.

     “They just really were so in tune with what the core democratic values are,” said Kosnik.

     Kosnik adds that she thinks the students’ project was a success in the MACUL contest because the photographs were particularly moving.

     “The pictures spoke for themselves,” she said. “Everything they found, I thought, was so eye-catching.”

     Kosnik says that multimedia projects like this are often beneficial to kids who are more receptive to visual learning. The project also helped the students become better acquainted with technology. They learned how to scan photos, import graphic art and put it all together using PowerPoint.           

     As the winning school, Oak Ridge received $200, which Kosnik hopes to use for future technology projects.

     At the high school level, Dondero junior Matt Wilkinson won the video- editing category for his short video “Ein Tag in Deutsch,” which translates to “A Day in German.”

     “All that really happens in the film is two guys are hanging out and talking about what they should do for the day and cracking a few jokes,” said Wilkinson. “All the dialogue and all the music is in German, and what makes the film unique is that it has subtitles, which is a really long and boring process to put in.”

     According to Dondero teacher Dick Rockwell, Wilkinson enlisted friends from his German class to act and serve as the film’s camera crew. He also recruited other students to double-check translations to ensure the subtitling was accurate.

     “Matt’s video was particularly well-received because he subtitled the entire project — a sizeable task,” said Rockwell. “Not only was Matt’s project a well-made video, it also demonstrated the team building and research skills needed to complete a project of this type on a professional level.”

     Wilkinson and Rockwell traveled to Grand Rapids last month to show off the project during the MACUL’s annual conference.

      “This year, for the first time at the contest, they actually showed the winning entries,” noted Cummings.

     Also, for the first time in the contest’s history, judges provided students with feedback on their projects.

     For more information on the MACUL, visit www.macul.org.

     You can reach Jennifer Sakey at jsakey@candgnews.com