Our group’s production of a PSA on school bands ran quite smoothly. Shannon first set up a Google Docs wiki that we could use to upload all of our contributions to the project. We also each got a Skype account prior to beginning and created a Skype group. This turned out to be a great way to track our conversations and questions through the chat history.
Since I don’t work outside the home and I have helped with four successful bond elections, this topic was one I was comfortable with. I submitted a complete script and a script outline to the group wiki. Julia also submitted a script, and our audio editing person – Lynne, combined the two to create our narration script. I submitted an audio file of me speaking the entire PSA as did others. Lynne has a friend with a great radio voice and he recorded all of the explanations.
Once we had our script, we all went looking for video to fill the background. Each group member submitted video footage and/or some stills. I submitted school photos, research articles on bonds, the Boerne ISD board policy on employee behavior during bond elections and I took photos of senior citizens. Shannon worked on the video and would submit a trial run on Sunday and we would plan a Skype chat to discuss it on Wednesday. One goal I felt important was that the video be useful beyond this assignment. One picture that we had used was of a crowded school - in Africa. Since it could be construed as deceptive by anti-tax voters, we changed that picture.
There are a few things we could do to improve the PSA, but only in the interest of making it bullet proof from complaints in a bond election. I think we could have made two changes to the script to make the PSA more accurate. One, when the narrator says taxpayers are responsible for paying back the interest; it should have said “interest and principle”. Also, in the script when we discuss what the bond election will do to our taxes, we could have said that “in the current economy” it is possible to refinance debt without significant change to our tax rates. Since the economy changes, the PSA would have more staying power. Many school districts have no choice but to raise taxes for a bond election.
Our PSA has a Creative Commons license and we identified all the people in our video in the credits.
Our team effectively collaborated according to the definition given by Randy Nelson in the video - “Learning and working in the collaborative age: A new model for the workplace.” Each person accepted a job with which they felt skilled and able to do time-wise for their life. Everyone was respectful of each other’s opinions and appreciative of other’s contributions. We hope to work together again.
Nelson, R. (2008) Learning and working in the collaborative age: A new model for the workplace. Edutopia. Retrieved Sept. 21, 20 http://www.edutopia.org/randy-nelson-school-to-career-video10
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