(제10권 제1호) Korean Journal of General Education 2016. 3, Vol. 10, No. 1, PP. 185~218 Animating Academic Writing Skills Through Creating Animated Educational Videos1) Peter Lane2)·손승남3) <목차> 1. Introduction 2. Literature Review 3. Research Methods 4. Results and Findings 5. Discussion 6. Conclusion and Suggestions 1.‌Introduction‌ Digital technologies are playing an increasing role in our daily lives. How we communicate and interact with one another has been transformed through social networking applications such as kakaotalk 1) 본 논문은 2015년 한국교양교육학회 추계학술대회에서 발표한 내용을 수정·보완한 것임. 2) 제1저자, 순천대학교, [email protected] 3) 교신저자, 순천대학교, [email protected] 185 186 ― (제10권 제1호) and Facebook or media sharing sites such as YouTube or Line. We comment, post, discuss, and share more of our lives and more of ourselves online than ever before and writing remains a key part of this sharing and communication. However, in spite of the potential of technology to transform our learning experiences (Laurillard, 2002), how we teach writing remains relatively unchanged. Learning how to write continues to be a frustrating or negative experience for many students and many teachers are overly dependent on approaches and methods which do not take students needs and previous learning experiences into account, which lack authenticity and purpose, and which do not develop students digital literacy skills. As suggested by Brantley-Dias & Ertmer (2013), the keys to writing and learning in the 21st Century, such as creating digital media, collaborating with others, and communicating and sharing ideas in creative and engaging ways, requires 21st Century learning approaches. In response to the issues above, the aim of this research project is to use the process of creating animated videos to develop students’ academic writing skills in more authentic and meaningful ways. More specifically, the research project sought to explore the following questions: - How will creating an animated video impact the development of students’ academic writing skills? - How will creating an animated video impact students understanding of the topic? - Will students perceive creating an animated video as a more meaning and authentic approach to academic writing? AnimatingAcademicWritingSkillsThroughCreatingAnimatedEducationalVideos ― 187 In essence, by working collaboratively in pairs to write a script on an educational topic and then using that script as a foundation when creating their animated videos, it is predicted that this activity will help students develop a deeper understanding of their chosen topic, develop their academic writing skills by scaffolding their learning, promote collaboration and peer feedback, and provide a more purposeful and authentic academic writing experience. Data was collected using an online survey, the student’s scripts/essays and animated videos, and an interview. 2.‌Literature‌Review 2.1. Approaches to writing essays According to Hylands comprehensive review of teaching and researching writing (2009), there are three main approaches to writing essays which are relevant to this research project. The first approach, known as a product based approach to writing, is a traditional approach where the teacher presents essays or examples of good writing (products) to the class and the students then try to imitate or reproduce those essays. By getting students to copy or imitate many essays it is believed that students would eventually absorb or develop their own writing skills over time. However, it often encourages students to memorize many written texts or essays and reproduce these in high stakes exams. The second approach, a process based approach to writing, is the 188 ― (제10권 제1호) most widely used approach at universities around the world (Hyland, 2009; Nation, 2008; Nilson, 2010). Students learn about the different stages of composition (prewriting, first draft, revision, and publishing) as well as individual writing strategies and techniques such as brainstorming, planning, editing, reflecting, giving and receiving feedback, etc. In essence, students develop the strategies and techniques that expert writers use when composing (Barnard & Campbell, 2005). However, critics point out that the writing process fails to account for the learning preferences and experiences of students from more collectivist countries, it has become oversimplified and formalized into a narrow model suitable for tests, and it lacks focus on writing for authentic, meaningful contexts and purposes (Yancey, 2009; Hyland, 2009). Finally, a social based approach to writing focuses more on the purposes, goals and uses that the completed text may eventually fulfill. With this approach, writing becomes a social act, a way to communicate learning and ideas with others. Teachers should give students opportunities for peer feedback and develop contexts for writing which are authentic and purposeful where students are not just writing essays to get a grade but are writing essays in order to help others learn by communicating their ideas and understanding clearly. Publishing their ideas for their peers or other stakeholders better reflects the authentic writing tasks students will engage with in the real world. For example, teachers will need to communicate educational ideas and concepts or justify their pedagogical approaches and plans with other teachers, the principal, or parents and may do so in different contexts such as at school meetings, on a school blog or newsletter or AnimatingAcademicWritingSkillsThroughCreatingAnimatedEducationalVideos ― 189 at seminars and conferences. In other words learning to communicate academic ideas clearly through writing helps students develop writing skills which they will use in the real world with real audiences. This approach is more difficult to introduce in high stakes testing situations. 2.2. Animated Videos and Academic Writing A lot of research on animated videos relates to using animated videos to develop students understanding of the course content on distance and blended courses or increasingly on MOOCS (Guo et al, 2014; Milne & Brown, 2011; Meyer, 2005). Some research has also been done on students creating their own videos to demonstrate their understanding of the course content (Bijnens et al, 2007; McGarr, 2009, Bell & Bull, 2010; Cochrane & Bateman, 2010; 이일석, 2013; 2015). However, research on creating animated videos as a learning approach to develop students’ academic writing skills is still in its infancy as easy to use animation video tools such as PowToon, and VideoScribe have only recently been available (2012) and their most popular current uses are to deliver and share content related to education or business (Spitalnik, 2013) rather than specifically providing opportunities for students to improve their academic writing skills. However this does not have to be the case as creating animated video has a lot of similarities with writing an essay. The process of creating an animated video frames and scaffolds the processes, techniques, and strategies which students engage in when composing an essay such as researching their chosen topic, brainstorming collaboratively, giving and receiving pair feedback as 190 ― (제10권 제1호) well feedback from and to their classmates, revising, editing, organizing and supporting their ideas, etc. A good script mirrors a good academic essay as it usually includes an introduction and thesis statement, 3 or 4 topic sentences, and a conclusion. In their script students should explain and support their topic sentences or main ideas with relevant evidence, examples, or details. In other words, a good academic script contains the same features and qualities of a good academic essay. For the research project, students had to work in pairs and create an animated video on an educational topic. Students had to first explain their topic clearly and afterwards they had to explain how to apply their ideas in the classroom. This would allow students to develop their writing skills, help them to demonstrate their understanding of the course content and its practical application in the classroom and then share their learning and ideas with the rest of their peers. Having an authentic audience is one of the greatest strengths of creating and publishing animated videos online. Students are not just writing for their professor as they would in a more traditional writing class but they are also writing for a wider audience, which encourages students to ensure their topic and ideas are clear and easy to understand (Hyland, 2009). An additional advantage of creating animated videos is that animating the academic script allows students to engage more deeply with the ideas in the script by thinking about how to present those ideas in visual form (Meyer, 2005). To achieve this, students may also have to revise and improve their script as well as come up with creative and engaging ways to clearly communicate the content. AnimatingAcademicWritingSkillsThroughCreatingAnimatedEducationalVideos ― 191 3.‌Research‌Methods 3.1. The Participants The participants were 16 university students (3 male, 13 female) studying Intermediate English Composition at a national university in South Korea. Most of the students (81%) were pre-service teachers studying education, with the rest studying non education majors. One student was in her first year of studies, 9 students were in their second year, 5 students were in their third year and one student was in her final year. There was a mix of English levels