Introduction
As the push for teaching across the curriculum increases, it is important to develop new and innovative ways to teach different subjects through the use of one vehicle. Programs currently in place strive to integrate the academic subjects (English, mathematics, language, history, etc.) into the technology education classroom. However, the connections are mostly unrealized by the students who take the classes. Another aspect of teaching across the curriculum is that of collaboration. It has long been a struggle to integrate teachers of academic subjects with projects technology educators are accomplishing in classrooms. One suitable solution may be to use communication technology as a content deliverer and more specifically, a video production technology course, to serve as the vehicle to integrate teacher collaboration among the variety of academic subject areas (ITEA, 2000/2002). Television production has been in place in middle and high schools for the past several years. Once thought of as an English elective, media communications, or journalism class, these courses have begun to evolve from a focus on news reporting to encompass many technical aspects of the television production process. Many schools now have facilities where students can produce and broadcast news programs, special events, and television shows they have created and developed. Although these courses and facilities were not necessarily designed for student use, they could be redesigned in a project-based setting to teach the elements of video production and its many entities through a standards-based communications technology course sequence. The first course, Communications Technology I, would introduce students to the many communication systems available: printing, digital photography, desktop publishing, web-page design, and audio and video production. Whether called Video Production Technology, TV Production, or Communication Technology II and III, the next courses would focus on the content and processes of video communication. Links to Standards for Technological Literacy Technology education is the study of technology and the preparation of learners to be technologically literate. To be technologically literate, students must know how to use technology to identify problems and opportunities to solve problems or meet human needs; identify, select, and use resources; identify, select, and use appropriate technological processes; and evaluate finished solutions (ITEA, 1996). Video production technology is an excellent model for application of both content and process-based learning, with the goal of preparing technologically literate students in the area of communication technology. Properly planned, a video course will give students an opportunity for intensive research and design during the scripting stages, and exciting hands-on work during taping and editing. In video production technology, students learn and demonstrate many of the Grade 9-12 benchmarks of Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology (STL) (ITEA, 2000/2002). The students learn and demonstrate that: * Information and communication technologies include the inputs, processes, and outputs associated with sending and receiving information (STL 17-L). * The video production design process includes defining a problem, brainstorming, researching and generating ideas, identifying criteria and specifying constraints, selecting the correct approach, and developing the film proposal (STL 8-H). * Systematic planning in video production involves logic and creativity with appropriate compromises in complex real-life problems (STL 2-W). * Video projects can be used to inform, persuade, entertain, control, manage, and educate (STL 17-N). * Film language communicates using visuals, audio, and graphics that incorporate a variety of visual and auditory stimuli (STL 17-Q).
