What is the Digital Directors Guild?

The Digital Directors Guild (http://www.ddguild.org) has been developed to provide a space in which K-16 educators can explore digital moviemaking, its place in the curriculum, and its impact on student learning.

Housed within the site is an expanding matrix of student-created digital movies including examples across all grade levels and content areas. Along with profiles of educators who have employed digital movies in the classroom, an extensive collection of pedagogical and technical resources is also incorporated to assist teachers in the implementation process. A FAQ section has also been developed with a discussion board providing opportunities for educators to share ideas, resources, tips and tricks.

Ultimately, the intention of the site is to provide a forum in which educators can become collaborators on an evolving, shared research agenda that measures the impact of digital moviemaking projects on student learning. We hope to facilitate multi-site action research studies and longitudinal work by connecting educators “engaged in kindred pursuits”, traversing traditional curricular boundaries.
For any questions about the Digital Directors Guild, please contact Mark Hofer or Kathy Swan. In the meantime, please turn off your cell phones, sit back and enjoy the show...

What is Digital Moviemaking?

With the development of free (Windows MovieMaker and iMovie) or inexpensive (Microsoft PhotoStory, Roxio Easy Media Creator) video creation software, K-16 students can easily create digital movies. Utilizing intuitive, user-friendly software programs like those noted above, K-16 students can craft projects that fuse images, music, video and narration to demonstrate their understanding of a topic. These videos can then be shared on the web or distributed on CD or DVD.

Student-created digital movies present teachers and students a chance to explore topics that are personally important while providing opportunities for the writing process, content investigation, collaborative and authentic assessment, as well as 21st Century technology skills.