Video series for teachers now online

Three professional-development videos for secondary-school teachers are now available on the Institute’s website. The videos, which average 25 minutes in length, delve into the theory and practice of using testimony for education and digital tools such as IWitness.

Constructivist Theory and the Use of Video Testimony in Education connects the principles of teaching with testimony to Jean Piaget’s Constructivist Learning Theory, which is based on the notion that learning is an active process of creating meaning from different experiences and that students learn best when they try to make sense of something on their own with the teacher as their guide.

“[It’s] very important that student’s opinions are sought and valued. It isn’t until you really understand what they’re thinking that you can really maneuver in the classroom,” says Sheila Hansen, the Institute’s former Senior Trainer and Content Specialist. “You have to meet students where they are…you have to know what their preconceived notions are and find common ground… and testimony can help you do that.”

In Listen and Listen Again, USC Shoah Foundation Institute Executive Director Stephen D. Smith examines the nature and complexity of memory and narrative through the testimony of Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter.

“[As] we listen more deeply and we think about the context, and we think about the individual, and look at the way in which they structure their testimony, there are many, many more layers,” Smith says. “As we listen to those layers and associate them to our own lives…we [not only] develop a greater literacy around the testimony, but…learn to listen to the other more profoundly.”

Ethical Editing: A Workshop for Teachers using Video Testimony in Classrooms introduces Professors Holly Willis and Steve Anderson of USC’s Institute for Multimedia Literacy as they lead a discussion with educators about considerations for making “ethical” editorial decision when developing videos that use eyewitness testimony.

“Ethical editing designates the practice of selecting, combining, and presenting clips of testimony in a manner that honors and respects the truth,” Willis says.  “It also acknowledges the possible vulnerability of the interview subjects, and acknowledges as well the trust of viewers.”