If it ain'r fun, it shouldn't be done...

I started playing with digital video in my Educational Technology program. I firmly believe that playing and exploration are some of the best ways to learn anything, and I usually take that route when trying to learn things myself. I took our school digital camcorder and started videoing my students to use in a cute short movie.

Our school's Technology Integration Facilitator and teacher of teachers Noel Forte quickly came on board to help. Noel has used quite a few video applications, but most of all she is an absolutely wonderful person to work with. Looking at the two of us talking about what we could do, you would think that we were the elementary school children. We talked about effects, transitions, scripts, acting, music, etc, and the great thing was that our discussion went far beyond the one video that we were filming at the time. We were writing out a digital wish list of sorts - thinking "What can we do?", "What would we like to do?" and "What CAN'T we do?"
We even got our principal involved, as well as a few other teachers. Of course, yours truly prefers to be on the side of the camera opposite the lens.

I finished the video today, and the kids loved it. It makes me laugh every time I watch it, but I learned something myself. It wasn't made for any specific technical competency (although I did learn how to reverse video!). It was that we must have fun. When I do my best work, it is because I am intrinsically motivated in a quest to excel. Nobody can get me more invested in a task or project than I myself can, no matter who they are. I was fortunate enough to enjoy what we were doing despite it being challenging as well as new and intimidating. My kids were also very much into it, and I wonder if my excitement was contagious as it was visible how happy I was to be doing this.

If it ain't fun, don't do it. Does something that is labor-intensive always have to be laborious?