February 11, 2012
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AECT’s International Student Media Festival (ISMF) Honors Student-Produced Media
The International Student Media Festival (ISMF) has been sponsored by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) since 1974. The Festival celebrates outstanding classroom media projects by honoring students and teachers from Kindergarten through college in a three-day event that includes workshops, screenings of winning entries, and an awards ceremony. Its recent growth has surprised even the leaders of its sponsor organization.
Entries are eligible in five age-group classifications: K–3rd grade, 4th & 5th grades, 6th–8th grades, 9th–12th grades, and college/university. While categories may change from year to year, this year productions were entered in the following:
- Podcasting
- Live Action Video
- Animation
- Sequential Stills
- Interactive Stills
- Web sites
- Photos and Photo Essay
- Poster
- Music in Production
Each year, the ISMF accepts entries from March 1 to May 15. A teacher or parent agrees to be the sponsor of each student’s entry and submits the entry information to ISMF through an online entry process that is available March 1 on the ISMF Web site. Upon completion of the online entry process, the sponsor prints and signs a copyright release form and mails the media, signed form, and a $20 entry fee to the International Student Media Festival by May 15.
This year’s entries have already been submitted and are now in the process of being judged. Honorees will be announced soon. The Festival will take place November 5–8, 2008, at Buena Vista Palace Hotel in Orlando (Lake Buena Vista), FL—in conjunction with AECT’s International Convention. Honored student producers and their sponsors will be in time to allow them to make plans to attend the Festival.
The ISMF competition does not pit one entry against another. The entries are judged for their excellence in production, writing, creativity, lighting, and impact. The Festival judges and AECT leaders seek to recognize a high quality of workmanship and thoughtfulness—therefore, first, second, and third places are not awarded. As AECT’s Executive Director, Phillip Harris says: “It’s either an ‘A’ or an ‘Incomplete.’” Student producers and their sponsors all receive comments and criticism of the projects they entered. “If they didn’t hit the standard, their feedback would tell them what they need to do next year in order to have a higher quality piece of work,” Harris says.
He also points out that the number of entries to ISMF has increased dramatically since 2000, with a 25-percent increase each year since 2004. Student-produced media is a hot topic among teachers and students who recognize that it’s not just “fun with film”—it’s about enhancing teaching and learning. Student media projects foster learning across the curriculum, helping to develop reading comprehension, writing skills, and math facility. In addition, many students, especially those in high school and college, increase their abilities to plan, analyze, and interpret results by working through a student media project. While creativity through technological proficiency is encouraged, cooperation and leadership also flourish.
In addition to a series of informative workshops,* a viewing session of all the honored entries and educationally significant field trips are folded into the Festival experience. If you haven’t participated in the past, plan to do so next year. For more information, go to the AECT Web site.
Read our Featured Interview with Mr. Jeff Rudkin, a multiple-award winner at the ISMF and recent Milken Teaching Award winner, in this month’s issue of Technos e-Zine.
* Here’s a partial list of planned workshops at this year’s Festival:
- Stop Motion Animation
- Creating Online Storybooks
- Clay Animation
- Enhancing Curriculum with Multimedia (Teacher Workshop)
- Non-Digital Game Design Class
- Create High-Quality Interactive Multimedia Presentations in Minutes
- GarageBand
- Podcasting
- The Kaosscilator Orkestra
- Photo Safari: Hands-On Digital Camera Photography Workshop