It was fascinating reading all your posts on last year’s videos. A few of you suggested that you didn’t feel fully comfortable judging them in this way. To be fair, last year’s group were told from the outset that they wouldn’t be graded on style, form, or technical issues. (You guys will be!) On the other hand, even if you are merely giving a presentation to camera then, much like an in-class presentation, you should be thinking about how to be most effective in conveying either information or argument.
And in the end, how better to set the standard for what you are doing this semester, than by looking at what was achieved by people like you before?
Anyhow… drum-roll… the winners are…
Best videos:
- The Terror (12 votes)
- Towards an Uncertain Future (8)
- Independence Narratives, Past and Present (4)
- Signs of Crisis in a Gilded Age (3)
- The Colonial Experience (2)
- Commerce, Coercion, and America’s Empire (1 1/2)
- Citizenship and Rights in the New Republics (1)
- Power to the People (1)
- The Export Boom as Modernity (1/2)
Worst videos:
- Speaking Truth to Power (12 votes)
- Caudillos Versus the Nation State (11)
- The Meeting of Two Worlds (9)
- Power to the People (1)
Some quick observations:
There was pretty much unanimity on which were the three worst videos, and mostly for the same reasons. Though I would again point out that you can give a thought-provoking presentation (and so an effective video) even without flashy visuals.
When it came to the best videos, The Terror ran out an easy winner, and Towards an Uncertain Future wasn’t seriously challenged for second place.
On the other hand, there was less unanimity, and it’s worth noting that every other video also got a vote (except for the three that were judged the worst). In other words, people saw positive qualities in most of the videos, and just about every one was somebody’s favourite.
Perhaps because there was such a disparity between the bottom three and the rest, however, it’s interesting to see that only one video is on both best and worst lists.