Vision videos empower students: a new Web-based tool, Tel.A.Vision, inspires young people to dream the possible dream.

Vision videos empower students: a new Web-based tool, Tel.A.Vision, inspires young people to dream the possible dream. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN EARLY MARCH, AS HE addressed the U.S. Hispanic Chamber ofCommerce in Washington, D.C., President Obama spoke at great length ofthe reforms he believes will give Americans "a complete andcompetitive education, from the cradle up through a career." Theproposals he laid out for improving early childhood education, K12standards and assessments, graduation rates, teacher quality and collegefunding will be debated for months to come by thousands of schooladministrators, teachers, parents and politicians. It was the voice of asingle teenager, however, that helped drive the president'smessages home that day. At the end of his speech, Obama quoted Yvonne Boroquez, aCalifornia student whose high school class recently made a videoexploring the impact of the economic crisis on their dreams of highereducation higher educationStudy beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. and professional employment. "It was heartbreaking heart��break��ing?adj.1. Causing overwhelming grief or distress.2. Producing a strong emotional reaction: heartbreaking loveliness. that a girl so full of promise was sofull of worry that she and her class titled their video 'Is AnybodyListening?'" Obama said. "I am listening. We arelistening. America is listening," the president assured Boroquezand her classmates Classmates can refer to either: Classmates.com, a social networking website. Classmates (film), a 2006 Malayalam blockbuster directed by Lal Jose, starring Prithviraj, Jayasurya, Indragith, Sunil, Jagathy, Kavya Madhavan, Balachandra Menon, ... . What of the myriad young people who aren't as far along in thelife-planning process as Boroquez, students who need help identifyingtheir dreams before they can be heard and mentored? Increasing numbersof school districts are starting the higher education drumbeat See Drumbeat 2000. by thefreshman year of high school, employing 21st-century technology such asthe popular career-based software developed by Naviance to help studentsmap their school and life journeys. But what is the first step ininspiring those teens to define and pursue their passions? "Nothing happens without a vision," says George Johnson George Johnson may refer to: In politicsGeorge Johnson (English politician) (1626–1683), Member of Parliament for Devizes 1669–1679 George Johnson (Manitoba politician) (1920–1995), Manitoba Lieutenant-Governor ,a former special education teacher and self-described "serialentrepreneur Serial entrepreneurBusiness person that successfully starts (does not kill) a number of different businesses. ." Johnson founded several successful technology andInternet companies in his home state of Minnesota, including InternetBroadcasting Internet Broadcasting (formerly Internet Broadcasting Systems), or IBS, is a provider of television station web sites. IBS hosts over 70 local stations' sites, and co-produced NBCOlympics. and TECHIES.com, before becoming what he calls a"vision coach" for scores of other business and communityleaders. While heading up Entrevis, a company he founded that motivatesadults to reach their full potential, Johnson realized he could dosomething similar for young people while they are still in school. "We have a huge vision deficit in this country," Johnsonexplains. "There is so much fear and negativity, especially in themedia. I decided to start a movement about bringing more hope andpossibility into the world, and to do it by helping kids create littlethree-minute visions of what they want their life to become." Enter Tel.A.Vision. Johnson's free Web tool gives today'stech-savvy youth everything they need to create and share "visionvideos." A Tel.A.Vision is essentially a highly personal montage montage(mŏntäzh`, Fr. môNtäzh`), the art and technique of motion-picture editing in which contrasting shots or sequences are used to effect emotional or intellectual responses. combining a student's written hopes and dreams with stillphotographs, music and computer animation--created with tools availableonline at www.telavision.tv. "Tel.A.Vision could never have been done before," Johnsonsays. "It took the combination of high-speed Internet See broadband. access (whichwe now have in most schools and over 50 percent of American homes For the American mortgage lender, see .The American Home is a center of intercultural exchange located in Vladimir, Russia. The home is designed to model a typical American suburban home and its main focus is the ESL school that provides lessons for Russian students. ),low-cost computer storage devices, access to music and photo files, andWeb 2.0 software which means there is no software that you have to buyto make this happen. Any kid who has access to a computer and theInternet can do this." Several months before Tel.A.Vision's official launch inOctober 2008, Johnson tested the vision video concept in the StillwaterSchool District, east of Minneapolis, which serves the children in hishometown of Lake Elmo, Minn. The free online creation and sharing of personal videos instantlyproved both appealing and accessible to 120 tech-savvy fifth-graders atLake Elmo Elementary School elementary school:see school. , including Johnson's own son, Adam.Johnson says the reaction was just as positive among the 700 middleschool kids who created Tel.A.Vision videos at nearby Oak-Land JuniorHigh. "One of my favorite stories is about an eighth-grader who hadchecked out, had not completed one assignment all year," Johnsonsays. "She did her Tel.A.Vision video. And what she wrote in herdiary was, 'It's about time somebody asked us what wewant.'" The completed pilot videos were shared during school communitygatherings, as well as on the Tel.A.Vision Web site. This gave teachers,parents and peers new insights into each filmmaker--and often broughtadults to tears during public viewings, Johnson says. One after anotherthese imagined life stories were told as if they had already becomereality: Madison, a horse lover, saw herself as an equine equineAny member of the ungulate family Equidae, which includes the modern horses, zebras, and asses, all in the genus Equus, as well as more than 60 species known only from fossils. Equines descended from the dawn horse (see Eohippus). vet who would"adopt a starving child." A boy named Nate would earn aculinary arts degree, open a beach restaurant, marry a pop star andteach skydiving skydivingSport of jumping from an airplane at a moderate altitude (e.g., 6,000 ft [1,800 m]) and executing various body maneuvers before pulling the rip cord of a parachute. Competitive events include jumping for style, landing with accuracy, and performing in teams (e.g. . A seventh-grader named Haley charmingly sharedmultilayered mul��ti��lay��ered?adj.Consisting of or involving several individual layers or levels. plans for a happy, healthy life that include family andcareer goals. And then there was T.J. "T.J. was a little kid with reallyskinny legs who was on my son's basketball team," saysJohnson. "His whole video was about playing basketball for theUniversity of Wisconsin. After seeing his video at a parent night,T.J.'s mom contacted me to say, 'Thank you. I have alwaysknown that that was his vision, and I have always told him why it'snot possible. What I realized after watching his video is that itdoesn't matter if he ever plays basketball at the University ofWisconsin. What matters is that I support him in his vision.'" It's now a year later, Johnson continues, and "T.J. isthe best player on my son's team. His mom and dad and sisters andbrothers come to every game. The dad is at every practice, alwaystalking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to"lecture, speechrebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to the coach. T.J. has found his spark." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Johnson credits his use of the word "spark" to PeterBenson Peter Benson can be:Peter Benson the authorPeter Benson the Heartbeat actor , president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of the Minneapolis-based Search Institute,which works with leading researchers to improve the lives of youngpeople. "Peter Benson says the key to a healthy upbringing of anyyoung person is to help him find his spark, and then have at least threeadults that will support him in bringing it to reality," Johnsonexplains. Shelly Landry, lead counselor for Minneapolis Public Schools Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is a school district that covers all of the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. LeadershipThe Minneapolis Board of Education describes itself as a "a policy-making body responsible for selecting the superintendent and overseeing the , wasat a Search Institute conference last fall when a presentation on thepotential use of Tel.A.Vision sparked her interest. Landry, who is alsothe president of the Minnesota Counselors Association, realized howeasily this new video Web tool could dovetail dovetail(dov´tāl),n a widened or fanned-out portion of a prepared cavity, usually established deliberately to increase the retention and resistance form. with a career-planninginitiative already underway in Minneapolis for the start of the2009-2010 school year. "Our district has a new requirement for graduation that wecall 'My Life Plan,'" Landry explains. "It's acurriculum framework for college and career planning, with studentsneeding to meet certain milestones in grades nine through 12, whetherwriting a resume, researching colleges, doing mock interviews A mock interview is videotaped interview, and one of the very best ways to prepare for a real life employment interview. It allows you to gain experience and practice in answering questions which you are likely to be asked by the recruiter. orparticipating in real internships." To graduate, seniors will needto complete a capstone project that reflects back on their high schoolcareer and clearly communicates their post-high school goals to others."Tel.A.Vision fits very nicely with the personal, social and careerdomains that all school counselors need to address," she says. Tel.A.Vision also fits with the Minneapolis Public Schools'use of the Web-based tool Naviance, Landry says. "Counselors canuse Naviance to track student progress in academic, college and careerplanning. For example, the college search is built into Naviance.Students can upload their resumes into Naviance, so if they do aTel.A.Vision, they can upload that into their portfolio," she says. Also excited about Tel.A.Vision are the 50 Minneapolis counselorsand scores of AmeriCorps program directors throughout Minnesota who havealready been trained in creating Tel.A.Vision videos, Then there'sthe National Youth Leadership Council, which showcased Tel.A.Visionduring its service learning convention in Nashville this spring. And ina letter of support to Johnson, David Walsh, founder of the NationalInstitute for Media and the Family wrote that Tel.A.Vision "is anexciting technology and one capable of enriching the lives ofmillions." In fact, Johnson says, there's nothing to keep every teacherand student in the country from accessing the free vision videotutorials and curriculum guides available at www.telavision.tv, thensharing the results. "My vision is I want kids all over the world to createTel.A.Visions," Johnson says. "The most important thing youcan do for kids is help them discover what they want their lives tobecome." RESOURCES National Institute on Media and the Family The National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF), founded by psychologist Dr. David Walsh in 1996, is a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis, MN. It is a nonsectarian advocacy group which seeks to monitor mass media for content that it deems is harmful to www.medialamily.org National Youth Leadership Council www.nylc.org Naviance www.naviance.com Search Institute www.search-institute.org Tel.A.Vision www.telavision.tv Mary Johnson Part is a freelance writer who lives outsideSacramento, Calif.