Resources to Get Started

Don’t wait! Develop your own Public Service Announcements (PSAs) now!
Follow these steps:

What issues or problems do you care about? They can be big or small, global or local—even things that are happening in your school or home. Are you concerned about the environment? Social justice? War? What in the world do you want to improve?

What’s the problem? Who’s involved? What can be done about it? Who can help solve the problem? And who can help you find answers to these questions? Think about the questions, and plan out how to find answers. Use other kids, and adults, as resources. While you can certainly work solo, it¹s usually easier if you can find a production partner or a group of friends who can help share the workload. There¹s a lot of learning that happens when we connect, communicate and share.

Once you have a plan for getting information, carry it out. And keep good records of where you look and what you learn. (And take a look at step 5 before you go very far.)

Now that you’ve got information, you need to make sense of it. Organize it. Decide what information is important and what isn’t. Decide what is reliable and what isn’t. Choose the information that will help you communicate the issues. Identify potential solutions.

You need to start thinking about your PSA as you collect information. What do you want your Public Service Announcement to do? It can inform people about an issue or problem. It can persuade them that the problem is important and needs attention. It can point the way toward one or more solutions. It can inspire people to get involved in the solutions. Each PSA will do one or more of these things—no PSA needs to do them all. Decide what you want to accomplish, and pick out the information, images, sounds, etc. that will help you reach your goals.

Use multimedia tools such as these:

• Photo editing: Seashore (free photo editor)
  or PhotoShop Elements
• Video editing: iMovie
• Music editing: Audacity or Garageband (free on Macintosh computers)
• Drawing program: Paintbrush (free painting application)
• Animation program: Animation-ish from FableVision

Explore more tools and resources from member partners of the
Constructivist Consortium, including Dr. Gary Stager, LCSI (Logo Computer Systems, Inc), Tech4Learning, SchoolKiT, Generation YES, Inspiration Software and FableVision.

World Problem Solvers Agency’s PSA posting/sharing features are not yet up and running. Once it’s operating, you’ll be able to post your PSAs here. Until then, use the social networking sites that you are familiar with, or use your school’s website if it is set up to display student work.