In this fascinating age of the social media free-for-all, there is a lot of trivia and silly video out there. But three emails that recently made their way into my inbox highlight videos which demonstrate that quality video can be very powerful in sharing messages across the Internet. Clicking on an image will take you to the video. Enjoy:

1. Learning and doing: Prescott students push for race-based school logo reform

Daniel A. Young in the Office of State Representative Jim Soletski shared this video about a group of Prescott High School students who concluded that it is disrespectful for schools to use Indian logos and mascots for their sports teams. And they decided to do something about it. Wearing T-shirts with the message “Teach Respect, Not Racism; Indians are People, Not Mascots,” the students from Jeff Ryan’s social studies class came to Madison to testify in favor of a bill to limit the use of race-based names and images from public school sports teams. They not only fought for something they believe in, they learned a great deal about the process of government. After passing both houses of the Legislature, Governor Doyle signed the bill into law in May. This story is told in a video produced by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.

2. Living with MS

WEAC Retired member Steve Prahl sent this next moving video from the MS Society. It is about former Wisconsin teachers Joe and Karen Crisman, who are dealing with Joe’s MS. As Steve tells it: “Joe and Karen were former teachers in Wisconsin and WEAC members. Joe was at Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua until January of 2000. Teaching became too difficult so he had to go on disability. Karen was at Lac du Flambeau Grade School. She was able to go on early retirement soon after. Because of the Wisconsin winters, they moved to Florida for most of the year so Joe could be more comfortable.” The MS Society project We Keep Moving makes great use of video to humanize the story of MS. Their tagline for this video is: “Meet Joe and Karen Crisman, whose enduring partnership is only getting stronger after more than 30 years of living with MS.”

 

3. 'The Library is Closed'

Finally, Southern Lakes United Educators UniServ Director Susan Cameron shared this student-created video about school funding. The video by Waukesha West Junior Jacob Berg took third place in the short documentary category in the C-SPAN StudentCam Contest. It is titled “The Library is Closed”. Congratulations Jacob, and thanks for standing up for schools!