TEL.A.VISION Helped Me Create a Doorway to Discuss ALC Student’s Futures
Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Power of Vision, TEL.A.VISION Stories
By Tom Wendt
St. Croix Valley Alternative Learning Center
I recently used TEL.A.VISION with two of my classes at the St.Croix Valley Alternative Learning Center (SCVALC). The students got into it. They took ownership of their videos. They all finished the project. The software was simple to use and there are online lesson plans to follow.
TEL.A.VISION got the students looking ahead; looking to their future. It was a doorway to open for me to have discussions on where they are headed and what they are doing.
I’ve often said that the hardest students to work with are those who have no direction. When a student has dreams and goals you have something to work toward. If you don’t have goals and you get knocked off course there is nothing to help steer you back. TEL.A.VISION gave them a foundation of goals that they can go back and change over time.
I’d highly recommend TEL.A.VISION for Alternative Learning Center students.
Digital Story Telling with Homeless Students
Posted on 02. Jan, 2010 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Power of Vision, TEL.A.VISION Stories
Lanise Block enjoyed using TEL.A.VISION in her classroom and decided to use it in a “Digital Story Telling” project with the homeless. She was surprised by how well the project was accepted by her students.
Use in a High School Classroom
Posted on 02. Jan, 2010 by Ringmaster in All Posts
We caught up with Lanise Block, a teacher at Henry High School in Minneapolis, at the recent TIES Conference. Here is what she had to say about about using TEL.A.VISION in her classroom.
Vision Videos Empower Students – District Administration
Posted on 12. Jul, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Media, Power of Vision, TEL.A.VISION News
A new Web-based tool, Tel.A.Vision, inspires young people to dream the possible dream.
By Mary Johnson Patt June 2009
District Administration Magazine, the magazine of School district Management, completed a three page article on TEL.A.VISION in its June/ July NECC issue. Here is an excerpt: 
In early March, as he addressed the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., President Obama spoke at great length of the reforms he believes will give Americans “a complete and competitive education, from the cradle up through a career.” The proposals he laid out for improving early childhood education, K12 standards and assessments, graduation rates, teacher quality and college funding will be debated for months to come by thousands of school administrators, teachers, parents and politicians. It was the voice of a single teenager, however, that helped drive the president’s messages home that day.
At the end of his speech, Obama quoted Yvonne Boroquez, a California student whose high school class recently made a video exploring the impact of the economic crisis on their dreams of higher education and professional employment.
“It was heartbreaking that a girl so full of promise was so full of worry that she and her class titled their video ‘Is Anybody Listening?’” Obama said. “I am listening. We are listening. America is listening,” the president assured Boroquez and her classmates.
“We have a huge vision deficit in this country,” Johnson explains. “There is so much fear and negativity, especially in the media. I decided to start a movement about bringing more hope and possibility into the world, and to do it by helping kids create little three-minute visions of what they want their life to become.”
Enter Tel.A.Vision. Johnson’s free Web tool gives today’s tech-savvy youth everything they need to create and share “vision videos.” A Tel.A.Vision is essentially a highly personal montage combining a student’s written hopes and dreams with still photographs, music and computer animation—created with tools available online at www.telavision.tv.
Research points to the importance of instilling hope and optimism in youth
Posted on 15. Jun, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Power of Vision
University of Minnesota Medical School researcher Iris Borowsky, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues found that one in seven adolescents believe that it is highly likely that they will die before age 35, and this belief predicted that the adolescents’ would engage in risky behaviors.
“While conventional wisdom says that teens engage in risky behaviors because they feel invulnerable to harm, this study suggests that in some cases, teens may take risks because they overestimate their vulnerability, specifically their risk of dying,” Borowsky said. “These youth may take risks because they feel hopeless and figure that not much is at stake.”
This fatalistic view varied notably across social groups with significant differences by sex, race/ethnicity, family structure, and receipt of public assistance. More than 29 percent of American-Indian, 26 percent of African-American, 21 percent of Hispanic, and 15 percent of Asian youth reported believing they would die young—compared with 10 percent of their Caucasian peers. Nearly 25 percent of youth living in households that received public assistance also shared this belief.
“Our findings reinforce the importance of instilling a sense of hope and optimism in youth,” Borowsky said. “Strong connections with parents, families, and schools, as well as positive media messages, are likely important factors in developing an optimistic outlook for young people.”
Native Americans, blacks and low-income teens – kids who are disproportionately exposed to violence and hardship – were much more likely than whites to believe they’d die young.
“We know some things about how to promote optimism and hope in youth,” Borowsky explained. “Parents matter — involved, caring, connected parents,” she said. “Schools matter — school connectedness, creating a climate where students feel a part of their school and safe at school, and media matters — given the power of media to convey both positive and negative messages to a large audience of young people.”
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