Students Representing Mathematical Knowledge through Digital

During initial attempts at filmmaking by my Year 7 class my focus was on the technology. However, I observed many positive learner behaviours inherent in the filmmaking process. Could these positive learner behaviours be harnessed, through filmmaking, to improve learner outcomes in mathematics? Two trials were conducted comparing a mathematical mini-documentary making revision strategy with pen-and-paper revision. It was concluded that mini-documentary makers retained information at least as effectively as, if not better than, students who used pen-and-paper strategies. This implies that mathematics educators can be confident of positive effects on students ’ knowledge retention through student filmmaking in mathematics. As a teacher of Year 7 students I was attempting to incorporate digital filmmaking technologies into my classroom. Initially my aim was to develop students ’ familiarity with the technology. The first production attempts were not aligned to mathematics. Production was slow and we encountered many difficulties, which were overcome, and from which, we learnt a great deal. For me, at this stage, the focus had remained on the mechanics of the filmmaking, but my attention was drawn from these processes to the discussions of th