Evaluation of Andrew G.

Curtin Middle Schools WAGC Television Studio

Conducted by: Stefanie Welty

Submitted to: Williamsport Area School District Administration and School Board

July 2010

Introduction The mission of the Williamsport Area School District Technology Department is to provide opportunities for students and staff to grow and effectively serve the community. In order to fulfill their mission, they aim to provide the most advanced technology to serve as a tool for learning and growth. One of the ways in which the Williamsport Area School District (WASD) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania is meeting their technology goal is through faculty advised student run television studios at the high school and middle school levels. What started out as an extra-curricular activity in the high school just four years ago during the 2006-2007 school year has become a graded course at the high school level and an ever-growing extra-curricular opportunity at the middle level. The purpose of this evaluation is to examine the merit of the television studio at the middle level. As the district begins a large restructuring campaign in which they will downsize from three to one middle school, they have asked to assess the value in investing the money to continue this program at the new middle school that will be built in the next two to three years. Specifically, administrators and school board members in the district are looking to see what long-term benefits there are to including such an expensive activity at the middle level. This evaluation report includes the findings after a semester long evaluation of 15 middle school students who participated in their school TV studio. Included is a brief description of the middle school program, the evaluation methods used, the results of the evaluation, and a brief recommendation to the WASD School Board and Administration.

Description Two of the three middle schools in the Williamsport Area School District have student run TV studios. This evaluation looks at only one of those schools, Curtin Middle School whose program began three years ago during the 2007-2008 school year. Curtins program (WAGC) involves 15 8th grade students coming together each morning during homeroom to deliver the news via the in house broadcasting system.

WAGC started with one camera, two microphones, and the broadcasting system and has now evolved into a studio that includes two cameras, four microphones, the broadcasting system, a video mixer board, studio lighting, and a green screen. Students participate in one day of training prior to the beginning of the school year and from then on utilize the learn-as-you-go technique by teaching each other. Each student takes a turn at every position in order to better understand how integral all eleven jobs really are. The WAGC news crew delivers top stories, or new announcements, along with sports, weather, birthdays, a brief history lesson, and the lunch menu every morning during homeroom. Although WAGC is an extra-curricular activity, it does meet many state and national standards in communication and technology as it works toward meeting the program objectives that focus on 21st century learning skills. The objectives are as follows (1) Practice public speaking opportunities in a professional environment, (2) Demonstrate creative thinking through the use of technology, and (3) Use technology/media to work collaboratively in order to produce an end product for others in the school.

Evaluation Method The focus of this evaluation was to assess the students attitudes about collaboration and teamwork, individual technology skills, and creativity as it pertains to producing a daily newscast. In order to collect data in these areas, various methods of summative assessments were utilized. The evaluators visited the studio on several occasions to observe the process that exists between the students and the faculty advisor. A pre survey was given to all 15 students to assess their attitudes on teamwork and collaboration. Questions ranging from how well they think they work with others to how they believe they produce their best work were on the survey. The purpose for using the survey was to understand what attitudes and beliefs students have about working with others before beginning the evaluation. The same attitude survey was given to students at the end of the semester as a post survey to see if there were any attitude changes throughout evaluation time frame.

A second survey was used to assess technology skills at the end of the project. Because WAGC is an extra-curricular activity and there is no curricular grade attached to it, a self-assessment survey that addresses the technology skills acquired throughout the semester. Questions about basic knowledge of hardware used in the studio to how comfortable students are with the equipment and producing a broadcast were on the survey. The final area of concern in the evaluation is creative thinking. Rather than using another survey, basic observations provided the information as to whether or not students were exploring their creativity. The creative thinking aspect came into play with regards to two jobs in the studio, on-air anchors and graphics generators for the green screen. A checklist was used during the observations to determine whether students were bringing their own personal style into the broadcast or they were using nothing more than the template presented to them. Results A survey was given to the 15 students at the beginning of the semester and once again at the end of the semester to determine attitudes toward teamwork and collaboration. The same survey was given both times in order to determine if there was a shift in attitudes among any of the participants. The results of the survey show that 13 of the 15 students at the beginning preferred to work alone to solve problems, but only 5 out 15 felt the same way at the end of the semester. All 15 respondents said that they strongly dislike being assigned a partner for collaboration on the pre survey, and on the post survey 11 respondents strongly disliked being assigned a partner. The last major finding from this survey was that on the pre survey 11 of the students felt they could solve a problem better with help from others and on the post survey only 2 students felt this way. One of the main objectives of the TV production program is to help students become more comfortable with technology and give them opportunities to use technology in ways they may not have previously. To assess whether students actually learned anything about technology throughout the semester, a technology self-assessment survey, shown in TABLE 1, was given at the end of the semester.

The results show that there is a mixed range of technology abilities. On a consistent basis, more students said that they can run a video camera (11) as compared to the amount of students who said they can run the broadcasting system and chroma-key, or green screen, software (5). Additionally, fewer students (5 and 4 respectively) said that they could always complete tasks like incorporating audio/video and controlling the graphics that get put onto the air. The complete results can be found on the next page. Evaluators came into the studio four times (once a month) throughout the course of the semester in order to conduct observations on student creative thinking. Observers focused their attention on the on-air anchors delivering the news and the students running the graphics machine. Using a checklist and brief dialogue with the students if needed, the results show that two out of the four students observed on running the graphics machine took it upon themselves to seek out new graphics on a daily basis that related to the news of the day. The other two simply used the stockpile images that sometimes didnt coordinate with the news being delivered. The results for creativity during the delivery of the announcements were similar to the graphics results. On average, at least two of the four anchors per visit were allowing their personality to shine through on air. Every visit had creativity showing through the weather reporter, three of the four visits had the weather reporter and one news anchor showing personality and creativity, and one visit had creativity showing through all four news anchors.

TABLE 1. Technology Assessment Survey Results Please answer the following questions about your experiences with technology this semester.

Question

Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never

1. I can turn on the announcement equipment. 2. I know how to use the video mixer with the chroma-key software. 3. I can use the video camera to record the daily announcements. 4. I can edit a feature video piece using iMovie. 5. I can adjust microphone audio levels during a broadcast. 6. I can incorporate music, other audio files, and video files into the daily broadcast. 7. I can run the graphics machine to apply images to the chromakey software.

11

Discussion The evaluation of Curtin Middle Schools WAGC student-run television studio shows that this program can be an effective way for students to learn teamwork and collaboration skills as well as a good outlet for students to let their creativity shine. The program was not as successful at meeting their technology objectives, but can continue to build those successes in the future. The surveys given to assess attitudes toward teamwork and collaboration show a positive change in student thinking. Many students started the semester believing that they preferred to work alone and could accomplish more and a better result by working alone; however, through TV production many of those same students were able to learn that working with others can improve your outcome or product and help with the workload in a positive way. As the semester went on, students were more inclined to ask one another for assistance before going to the faculty advisor. Students learned how to work as a cohesive unit in order to produce a quality product for others to benefit from each and every day. The results from the technology self-assessment show that most of the students did learn something about the use of various technologies needed to produce a live broadcast. However, the results also speak to students tendency to lean toward a job or task that they were comfortable with or were easy. For example, a task that was deemed more complicated like running the chroma-key green screen software or running the graphics machine, fewer students said that they could always complete the task. A better assessment for determining the level of knowledge gained would be to give a pre and post survey like the teamwork attitudes. Another way of finding more concrete results would be to have the students produce something of their own to share over the announcements using each of the pieces of equipment the advisor deems important to the broadcasting process. Finally, the results from the creative thinking observations do not provide a wealth of information. Observations only occurred four times throughout the semester so the data comes from four students instead of fifteen. The observations show that on any give day, depending on who the anchors were on-air, the creativity could be higher than others. Additionally, the results from the graphics machine show that its split down the 7

middle as to who adds their own creative flare to the images and who uses templates and default images. This unfortunately does not prove creativity any more than it proves a work ethic. Those students who were observed using graphics may have been running late that morning and not have had time to prepare as they normally would have. A better way to carry out this type of observation would be to visit the site more frequently and include an interview portion in addition to the observation. A time for students to show what they have done throughout their entire 2-week cycle may provide more relevant information. It is recommended from this evaluation that the Williamsport Area School District School Board and Administration maintain the television production program at the middle school. The results may not be there yet, but the data show that they are meeting objectives, even if it is happening slowly. This opportunity is not only providing these students with the opportunity to practice 21st century skills that will be vital in the work force, but it is also preparing students advance their skills in this area at the high school level.

Project Cost Personnel Professional Salaries Stefanie Welty: (6 days x $250/day)

$1500.00

TOTAL PERSONNEL: $1500.00

Travel and per diem 6 site visits (includes per diem and mileage) ($50/day)

$300.00

TOTAL TRAVEL & PER DIEM: $300.00

Miscellaneous Communications, supplies, postage, etc.

$50.00 TOTAL MISC.: $50.00

TOTAL BUDGET: $1850.00