Britannica LumieLabs helps students become digital storytellers
January 22, 2019

“Everyone has a story to tell. For today’s students and educators, LumieLabs can help them tell it.”

Groundbreaking video-production platform promotes media literacy, inquiry, curiosity, creativity and collaboration.

CHICAGO: JANUARY 22, 2019—Students and educators across the world can become accomplished digital storytellers with LumieLabs™, a powerful yet intuitive online platform from Britannica Digital Learning. The platform enables students as young as elementary school to create, collaborate, and share video projects.

The new product for K-12 schools, named as a tribute to film pioneers the Lumière brothers, provides students with a copyright-cleared multimedia library, search and editing tools, and a safe environment to hone their video-based storytelling skills and share their stories with the world. It also enables educators to harness students’ passions, stoke their creativity and apply them to learning.

The simple interface and clear instructions makes it easy for teachers to guide even young students through the production process and bring a subject to life. A rich library of curriculum-supporting video content inspires curiosity, inquiry and creativity. (Students can also add video footage of their own.) By creating a digital story students gain a deeper understanding of their topic, learn the importance of story structure and become media-savvy creators.

“Media literacy is a critical 21st-century skill that encompasses access to analysis and creation of media in a variety of forms,” said Karthik Krishnan, global CEO of the Encyclopaedia Britannica Group. “Besides knowing how to consume media critically and intelligently, students must also be able to create stories and presentations that express what they know and contribute to the conversation.”

LumieLabs enables students and educators to do so easily, said Krishnan. It lets them produce digital stories in three distinctive video-creation modes:

Create videos from scratch

Students or educators build videos frame by frame, leveraging over three-million rights-cleared video assets, music, text, and more.

Digital stories on demand

Students or educators start with an existing digital story template and then modify it to create their own unique video. They can then swap out, delete, or add elements–such as blocks of footage, narration, or text—within the video.

Use prepared lesson plans to assign video projects

The Video Project Tool allows educators to assign and manage student video creation all in one safe platform. Educators can leverage LumieLab’s digital storytelling lesson plans tied to specific learning objectives and assign them to students, provide feedback within the platform, grade completed work, and even host a video competition, all in one class period.

LumieLabs is particularly strong in protecting student privacy, giving educators complete control over the distribution of the videos they produce. They can share them only with people they select or publish them more widely.

The platform also helps teachers explain the importance of copyright and permissions. All of the videos and images in the product are rights cleared, so students can use them freely with confidence, unlike media assets they might find somewhere else.

“I am very excited to be a part of Britannica’s pioneering move to empower teachers and enable students to find their own voice in video,” said Anthony Copping, CEO of Binumi, whose platform powers LumieLabs. “With a universe of footage, tools and educational projects, LumieLabs is a game-changer, and out of the box it will engage and inspire a new generation of video storytellers for the exponential need for video in the global digital economy.”

Forward-looking educators increasingly agree that digital storytelling is a vital and valuable 21st-century skill for students.

Teachers who use digital storytelling in their classrooms “watch students gain proficiency in writing and research, visual literacy, critical thinking, and collaboration,” said Edutopia’s Suzie Boss.

“Digital storytelling is a fantastic way to implement technology and digital literacy into the classroom,” said Dr. Matthew Lynch, writing on the Education Week website.

Digital storytelling is not about creating “a new generation of Spielbergs,” according to Paul J. Chilsen of Middle Tennessee State University. Rather, it aims “to enhance [students’] problem-solving abilities, and to participate in cultural and social processes as capable, engaged interpreters.”

“Everyone has a story to tell,” said Krishnan. “For today’s students and educators, LumieLabs can help them tell it.”

# # #