Take the 2018 IWitness Video Challenge

IWitness is a valuable digital resource with more than 2,500 survivor testimonies to the Holocaust and other genocides and student centered activities designed to engage multiple literacies. As an educator with over twenty years of teaching experience and now as Head of Programs in Education here at USC Shoah Foundation, I know firsthand the transformative power of teaching with testimony through multimedia activities.  While we have a wide selection of actives across curriculums, I encourage you to introduce your students to the 2018 IWitness Video Challenge.

The challenge invites students to positively contribute to their communities, and submit short videos explaining the inspiration behind their actions and extraordinary impact. The IWitness Video Challenge is open to all middle and high school students in the United States and Canada who attend public, private or home schools. More than $10,000 in prizing from Ford Motor Co. will be awarded to students, teachers and schools who submit wining video essays about their experience.

Through IWitness students are able to strengthen digital literacy skills and 21st century competencies while also impacting their social-emotional development. Each multimedia activity, including the IWitness Video Challenge, guides students through the framework of the 4C’s: consider, collect, construct and communicate.

In the IWitness Video Challenge activity, students watch clips of testimony, create an action plan to make a difference in their community, and capture the impact of their work on video. This year’s themed challenge, Stronger Than Hate, asks students to consider the extraordinary change that can occur when individuals recognize acts and beliefs that are motivated by hatred and take action to counter them.

Tips to introduce your students to the 2018 IWitness Video Challenge — Stronger Than Hate

• Register for IWitness
• Attend the webinar on the IWitness Video Challenge
• Assign the activity to your students
• Encourage your students to submit their videos

The IWitness Video Challenge is a 21st century skill builder – teaching students how to use digital tools such as video editors to craft multimedia essays. Most importantly, the challenge provides students the opportunity to positively enhance their digital citizenship as they network and collaborate with others to deal with real world problems.