Performing, Watching: Reaction videos to film trailers

NuttyMadam is a young, self-professed Twilight fan. So excited is she about the the popular series that she tapes herself watching the film trailers as they are released and then publishes these videos on YouTube.

NuttyMadam’s videos are shot in extreme close up of her face and consist of a lot of swearing, screaming and high emotion. They are also very popular. Her reaction video for the latest film has been viewed more than 900 thousand times at the time of writing after being featured on Perez Hilton.

The story of Courtney Malt viewing Wall•E

Another video maker, Courtney Mault, posted her reaction to the Wall•E teaser trailer when she realised it made her cry on cue. In a charming tale, Courtney blogs how exhausted Pixar employees found and used her video as motivation to complete the film and as thanks, flew her to the wrap party screening of the film.

The reaction video has a dark history of people either willingly watching or being set up to watch obscene or humorous videos and taping their reactions. The more extreme or funny the initial video, the bigger the reaction and the more entertaining the resulting reaction video (Tossell, 2008). For NuttyMadam and Courtney, they are conscious of their viewer and the genre of the reaction video in setting up the camera, constructing their image, editing the video and posting it online. In taking a private experience into a public forum, they break down the barrier between the spaces raising the question to what extent the reaction is genuine or performed (Lange, 2007).

If you can bear the noise (and language), the reaction video is an interesting genre to bring in to the class room to talk about performance of identity and fandom. Just imagine in an alternative universe a young David and Margaret starting out their reviewing career pointing webcams towards their faces as they sit down to watch film trailers.

NuttyMadam: Breaking Dawn Trailer Reaction video, July 2011



References

Lange, P. G. (2007), Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13: 361–380. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00400.x

Tossell, Ivor (2008, July 18). Every action's reaction, now online, The Globe and Mail, 

Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

It will rot their brains (won't it?)

Television and film have been used in schools since the 1960s. One of my earliest school memories is squeezing into a classroom with my excited peers and our equally excited teachers to watch the astronauts of Apollo 11 land on the moon. Technology has certainly come a long way since those grainy, black and white images were broadcast around the world in 1969 but has our use of television and film in schools kept pace?

Increasingly, schools use popular media culture such as the internet, social media and hand-held devices in innovative and creative ways as educators become aware that this helps young people feel more connection between school and their home and social lives. Larger schools invest considerable financial resources in digital video systems such as Clickview and DVC to record, share and broadcast television programs and films into classrooms. However, unlike other digital media, television and film are often still used in schools in traditional, passive ways. This may be as consumers of informative and worthwhile programs or simply as a treat at the end of term or when sport is cancelled (Harrett & Benjamin, 2009).

In this blog, I will first share some ways which innovative educators suggest television and film can be used in the classroom to stimulate creativity and to provide a further connection between children’s social practices and their educational experiences. I will then discuss how reflective literacy activities using television can develop students’ general capabilities as outlined in the Australian Curriculum.

Children from a very early age are exposed to popular culture in multi-textual formats. Leonie Arthur (2001) gives the example of Winnie the Pooh which is available in traditional print form but which is just as likely to be experienced by young children on television, in computer games, board games, play dough or Lego. By interacting with these text types children can develop a range of literacy practices such as following instructions for games, consulting diagrams, and creating backgrounds for stories (Arthur, 2001). At the same time, children’s prior knowledge is being acknowledged and valued.

Children can be encouraged to use television and other popular culture characters creatively to “innovate, improvise, subvert and reinterpret characters and plots” (Arthur, 2001, p. 303). The development of critical and creative thinking skills is one of the Australian Curriculum’s seven general capabilities. Over the course of their schooling, students should develop the skills which “support them in becoming successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens” (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, n.d.). Linking literacy activities to children’s prior knowledge of popular culture characters seems an excellent way of beginning their creative journey.

In British nursery schools, a research program engaged children in literacy experiences through the use of the Teletubbies (Arthur, 2001). The children in this program, mostly boys from low socio-economic and bilingual backgrounds, had not previously engaged with their educators, but showed a positive response to literacy activities when they were linked to the Teletubbies. Perhaps this program would not even have been attempted following the Teletubbies controversy discussed in the Blog TV Villians: Media Panics!

A program to enhance literacy of older children was trialled in Wales using the theme of the television series “Doctor Who” (Harrett & Benjamin, 2009). The aim was to improve the standard of creative writing although some episodes provided cross-curricular links to history, science, music and geography. Even using a short video like the following BBC trailer for Doctor Who could be a motivating creative writing stimulus.

Some classes in the Doctor Who trial then went on to use media to create their own digital stories which is becoming an increasingly popular way for children to publish their work. My experience as a teacher is that children love to see their work published on a screen. They also love to see themselves on screen and combining the two could be a motivating way to encourage children to create and share their writing.

As already discussed in the Blog “Combatting Stereotypes” there is also a role for television and film to be used in schools to discuss and critique cultural values. Through television and film, whether intentionally or not, we are often exposed to dominant values at the expense of the ethnic or gendered “other” and it is important for young people to be aware of this and reflect upon it (Pohan & Mathison, 2007). Developing ethical behaviour, including an understanding of ethical principles, values and virtues and developing intercultural understanding are also two of the Australian Curriculum’s seven general capabilities (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, n.d.).

Well selected television and film (including popular cartoons) can provide a context for discussion about cultural diversity, working together, resolving conflicts and compromise. These are personal and social competencies which is another of the Australian Curriculum’s seven general capabilities (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, n.d.). For younger children, positive films about team work include A Bug’s Life and Toy Story and for older students, The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Films and television programs which send negative messages could be changed by students re-writing a part of the script or adapting character descriptions or roles to give positive messages.

Selecting appropriate resources will be critical and will of course depend on the teacher’s knowledge of students’ existing knowledge, beliefs and experiences (Pohan & Mathison, 2007). Here are some guidelines from Berry for teachers who are planning reflective literacy activities using television (in Pohan & Mathison, 2007, p. 24):

• Be aware of the role and instructional power of television in our culture;
• Understand how to design meaningful assignments;
• Possess the ability to teach students how to evaluate program content; and
• Educate and inform parents/caregivers about the use of television in school, as well as strategies to monitor television viewing at home.

“It rots your brain,” claimed Grandma, talking about television in an episode of Doctor Who set in 1953 (in Harrett & Benjamin, 2009). In the hands of innovative educators, it certainly won’t!

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). General capabilities. [Web log post]. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/English/General-capabilities#Critical-and-creative-thinking

Arthur, L. (2001). Popular culture and early learning literacy. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 2(3), 295-308. Retrieved from http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/validate.asp?j=ciec&vol=2&issue=3&year=2001&article=Arthur_CIEC_2_3

BBC. (2010, February 20). New Doctor Who trailer featuring the Doctor and Amy! - BBC One. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpbmMhNe6aA

ClickView. (2011). The digital video solution for schools [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.clickview.com.au/

Command Systems. (2011). About DVC [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.commandsystems.com.au/dvc/about-dvc

Harrett, J. & Benjamin, T. (2009). Travel with a time lord: using media to enhance literacy. Literacy 43(3), 134-142. DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-4369.2009.00510.x

Pohan, C. & Mathison, C. (2007). Television: Providing powerful multicultural lessons inside and outside of school. Multicultural Perspectives 9(1), 19-25. DOI: 10.1080/1520960701333757.

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the ring official theatrical trailer. (2001). [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pki6jbSbXIY

Silent and Sexy

A study published in USA Today shows the gender messages being sent to audiences through film today: women are seen but not heard, preferably adorned in sexy or no clothing and the younger the better (Hellmich, 2011).

The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California analysed the 100 top-grossing movies of 2008 and came up with disturbing findings about the sexualisation of women and particularly teen girls in movies (Hellmich, 2011).

Here are some of the statistics about films revealed by the study:

• men had two-thirds of the speaking roles;

• 85 percent of film directors, writers and producers are male;

• female characters are more likely to dress provocatively or appear partially naked.

Most disturbingly however, was the sexualisation of teenage female characters who were 40 percent more likely to appear provocatively dressed than older female characters and 30 percent more likely to appear partially naked.

Heading the most successful films in 2008 were Twilight, the Dark Knight and Iron Man. This poster is from “Step Up 2 the Streets” which ranked 53.

Researcher, Stacy Smith believes that the data reflects an “overemphasis on beauty, thinness and sexualisation of women at younger and younger ages” (as cited in Hellmich, 2011).

In his article in the Sunday Age in 2010, John Bailey claimed that anxiety surrounding the sexualisation of teenagers bears “all the hallmarks of moral panic” and wrote that it was “ironic” that recent pop culture films such as Twilight do not depict teenagers actually engaging in sex (Bailey, 2010).

I believe that Bailey is missing the point here. Anxiety about the sexualisation of young people, particularly girls, is much more than a fear of potential sexual promiscuity. It is about the potential harm that can occur to girls’ social, academic and career development if they become obsessed about whether their appearance conforms with the unrealistic standards of beauty and sexiness dictated by films and other forms of popular culture (Curry & Choate, 2010).

References

Bailey, J. (2010, July 4). No sex please, we’re teenagers. The Sunday Age. Retrieved from http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/no-sex-please-were-teenagers-20100703-zv3v.html

Box Office Mojo. (2011, October 17). 2008 Domestic grosses #1-100 [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2008

Curry, J. & Choate, L. (2010). The oversexualisation of young adolescent girls: Implications for middle grades educators. Middle School Journal 42(1), 6-14. Retrieved from http://gateway.library.qut.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/760810993?accountid=13380

Hellmich, N. (2011, April 24). Film study: Men talk and women show skin. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/2011-04-21-movies-men-women-roles-speaking-sexy.htm

Step up 2 the Streets. (2008). [Image]. Retrieved October 18, 2011 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1023481/

When Parents Choose to Home Educate...
the Education Advisor's Dilemma

By Jenny

Despite the digital culture promoted in most educational arenas of today, there exists a minority of students not exposed to, or denied access to, many of the texts usually so freely available. These multimodal texts feature with great predominance in the Australian Curriculum, which defines multimodal texts as: combining “language with other systems for communication, such as print text, visual images, soundtrack and spoken word as in film or computer presentation media” (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2011a).

Multimodal texts are historically, in the forms of film and television, and usually taken, by most of us, for granted. New technologies have aided the universal spread of these text forms, and have created “individualisation and the associated trends of consumerism, globalisation and democratisation (Livingstone, 2009, p. 151). Their dynamic nature, as an entity of popular culture sees daily changes, “to such a degree that it is often difficult to make any coherent sense of it” (Pomerance & Sakeris, 2010, p. xi).  It is for this very reason critical literacy/media skills are necessary to face the challenges of understanding issues in both a domestic and global sense. The Australian Curriculum acknowledges this priority through its seven General Capabilities to support students to become “successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens” (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2011b).

 (Bika Masr Staff, 2011)

There quite likely exists young people, whose parents have shunned multimedia and as such, endeavour to deny its access. These are the offspring of ‘digital disbelievers’ or ‘digital dissidents’; parents who champion philosophies of Natural Learners (or Unschoolers), Classical Educators, Steiner or Warldof and Charlotte Mason, just to name a few. These are the students not enrolled in formal schooling, children, whose parents have decided, often due to moral, religious or ideological convictions, not to ever send them to school, or have withdrawn them, for a plethora of reasons (Jennens, 2011, p. 146).

Within Queensland, it is a legal option for parents to Home Educate their children if they do not attend a formal educational setting (Department of Education and Training, 2010). In my role as an Education Advisor, for the Home Education Unit, I am expected to assist “parents to comply with legislative procedures should they wish to register their child for home education” (Department of Education and Training, 2010).Parents must “comply with the standard conditions of registration by providing their child with a high-quality education which is detailed in the child's education program and demonstrated in the annual report” (Department of Education and Training, 2006).  There is no obligation for these parents to follow a timetable, school-like curriculum or actually formally teach. So as previously suggested, many home-schooled children are at risk of becoming, as Henry Jenkins termed, part of the “participation gap” within the “digital divide”(Jenkins, 2006, p. 258). Zingrone, as cited by Mackey declares “a one-medium user is the new illiterate” (2003, p. 403).

It is highly likely many home-educated students are at risk of becoming the “vulnerable citizens… (those) in the media and communications context… (with) limited digital literacy” (Australian Communications and Media Authority, 2010, pp. 6-7) . This notion is recognised by UNESCO’s Declaration on Media Education, the Grünwald Declaration, which outlines the value of instilling critical understandings of various communication forms in “fostering greater citizenship and social participation through the use of the media” (O'Neill, 2010, p. 324).

The challenges many fundamentalist, home-educating parents pose to core values of citizenship, by rejecting them, is the subject of a study by Ross. She argues that democracy relies on citizens who share core values of citizenship and calls for the reform of home schooling; in particular to encourage homeschooled students to be allowed the “exposure to mainstream norms of tolerance” (Ross, 2010, p. 1013).

These students miss the usual enculturation of formal education, especially when parents snub the basic ideals of citizenship, including the most prevalent and culturally popular of media forms: mainly film and television. These are media, which also closely align to the internet and other forms through convergence. It is therefore imperative to promote the importance of media literacy to these home-schooling parents. Unlike the study conducted by Bullock to investigate “the role of technology in home school environments in Southeast Ohio” (2011, p. 19), the parents I am concerned about are the ones not using any technological media. A study by Princiotta and Bielick in 2006, found only 41% of the home-schooled students participated in learning programs provided by their parents that used “media such as e-mail, the Internet, television or video” (Bullock, 2011, p. 40).

Consequently, in my role as an educator, it is not so much innovative pedagogy that I must consider, but innovative andragogy. Understanding the relevance and motivation of these adults (Riggs, 2010, p. 388) I deal with, who are their children’s educators, is paramount. With this in mind, a careful balancing act of respecting parental choices and supporting the provision of quality education ensues. Jennens (2011) questions whether upholding the rights of home educating parents’ freedom of choice is an acceptable outcome, in relation to the access and openness of their child’s education. He considered the implications of acquiring "such freedom raises questions about the very essence of education" (p. 145). Whereas in contrast, Kinz advocates and cites Bourdieu’s opinion of considering worldview whereby “people are conditioned by their social and material conditions to a habitus” or unconscious perceptions that classify those who are different (Kintz & Lesage, 1998, pp. xi-xii).  

Examples of these diverse views range from the Natural Learning Australia website suggesting “Turn off the TV and…”. Yet upon this same webpage, going “to the library… (to) find DVD’s” is advised. The Steiner education clearly avoids the use of electronic media until students are in secondary school. Yet another viewpoint comes from the advocates of the Classical Education which declare “in front of a video screen, the brain can sit back and relax; faced with the written page, the mind is required to roll its sleeves up and get back to work.” Proponents of this philosophy believe their language-focussed approach, achieved via written and spoken words as opposed to images, has the mind working. The theory is that different 'Habits of Thought' are required for language learning which encourages the brain to translate symbols into thought from words on a page whereas an image learnt via pictures, videos and television causes the brain to be passive.

There are; however, other parents who are purely anti-technology as discussed in a Technology in Education Blog from last year, or in a Charlotte Mason blog promoting ditching the TV and taking up sewing instead! Unfortunately, many of these parent educators are not valuing the power of film and television as conduits to learning, but using it merely as a babysitter. The flipside to this techo-aversion is the acknowledgement by Henry Jenkins in 2004 of a home schooler embracing technology and researchers such as Templeton who are considering future directions and the need for collaboration (Templeton & Johnson, 2008). 

Gunther Kress posited the necessity for educators to embrace a new theory of semiosis as a way to acknowledge content and process of the embedded cultural resource of various multimodal text forms. He also acknowledges the demand for transformative action to develop literacies of critique and design. These 21^st Century media forms afford potential of both representation and communication by consumer/producers within social, cultural and economic fields. He goes on to call for precise transformative action, for now and in the future (2000, pp. 156-161).  

 (Vilimaka on cruiselyna, 2010)

It is therefore vital for me, as an educator, to engage in, not necessarily pedagogy, but the innovative andragogy previously highlighted! To these parents, I must seek ways to promote the value of multimodal texts and media forms, while still respecting their diverse views. A conclusion reached by Ross, is that democracy requires similar views (2010, p. 1013). It is not, after all, my responsibility to educate these home-schooled young people, but their parent’s job.

Conversely, when I was a classroom teacher, I was the one accountable for the students within my class, now; I am expected only to assist parents to ensure they provide their progeny with a high quality education. The regulatory nature of my work leaves few avenues in which to promote media use within home education programs. Hopefully information disseminated via the Home Education website (which is in need of an upgrade), links to The Australian Curriculum and our quarterly Newsletters may help spread the message! As Ian McShane, suggests “it has been necessary to build an alliance between schools and homes as co-contributors to digital education” (2011, p. 387), but in some instances with home educators and their children, where the home is the school – even more so!

References

Australian Communications and Media Authority. (2010). 'Citizens' and the ACMA - Exploring the concepts within Australian media and communications regulation. Retrieved from http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib311886/citizens_and_the_acma.pdf.

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2011a). The Australian Curriculum v1.2 - English: Content structure. The Australian Curriculum  Retrieved 15 October, 2011, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/English/Content-structure

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2011b). General Capabilities  ACARA. ACARA  Retrieved 26 August, 2011, from http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/general_capabilities.html

Bika Masr Staff (Producer). (2011) new-media-literacy-lesson-one.jpg. Turkey: Journalists’ Arrests Chills Free Speech - Bikya Masr : Bikya Masr. JPEG image retrieved from http://bikyamasr.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/new-media-literacy-lesson-one.jpg

Bullock, K. K. (2011). Home Schooling and Technology: What is the Connection? A Collective Case Study in Southeast Ohio. Ohio University.

Department of Education and Training. (2006). SMS-PR-014: Home Education in Queensland. Department of Education and Training

  Retrieved October 12, 2011, from http://education.qld.gov.au/strategic/eppr/students/smspr014/

Department of Education and Training. (2010). Home education legislation Department of Education and Training  Retrieved 12 October, 2011, from http://education.qld.gov.au/parents/home-education/legislation.html

Jenkins, H. (2004). Why Heather can write. Technology review, 6.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide: NYU Press.

Jennens, R. (2011). Professional knowledge and practice in health, welfare and educational agencies in England in relation to children being educated at home: An exploratory review. Child Care in Practice, 17(2), 143-161.

Kintz, L., & Lesage, J. (1998). Media, culture, and the religious right: Univ Of Minnesota Press.

Kress, G. (2000). Design and transformation: New theories of meaning. Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures, 153-161.

Livingstone, S. (2009). Half a century of television in the lives of our children. The ANNALS of the American academy of political and social science, 625(1), 151.

Mackey, M. (2003). Researching new forms of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(3), 403-407.

McShane, I. (2011). Public libraries, digital literacy and participatory culture. Discourse, 32(3), 383-397.

O'Neill, B. (2010). Media Literacy and Communication Rights. International Communication Gazette, 72(4-5), 323.

Pomerance, M., & Sakeris, J. (2010). Popping Culture: Pearson/Education.

Riggs, C. J. (2010). Taming the Pedagogy Dragon. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 41(9), 388.

Ross, C. J. (2010). Fundamentalist Challenges to Core Democratic Values: Exit and Homeschooling. Wm. & Mary Bill of Rts. J., 18, 991-1129.

Templeton, R., & Johnson, C. E. (2008). Homeshool Learne. 21st Century Education: A Reference Handbook. SAGE Publications. Thousand Oaks, USA: SAGE Publications.

Vilimaka on cruiselyna (Producer). (2010) medialiteracy.jpg. JPEG image retrieved from http://cruiselyna.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/medialiteracy.jpg

Combatting Stereotypes

How do we engage young people in discussion about stereotypes and the influences on our identity formation in a way that is motivating? The following short film, “Slip of the Tongue” provides a visual performance to a slam poem and uses the type of language young people enjoy and respond to. The poem examines identity formation on two levels, gender and ethnicity, stemming from the question a young man asks a young woman at a bus stop: “What is your ethnic makeup?”.

Slip of the Tongue manages to pack some powerful metaphors and intense messages about ethnic and gender stereotypes into four minutes. Adriel Luis reads his poem with a visual performance by two actors, the film’s director, Karen Lum and William Tsang. It won the Jury Award at the Sixth Annual Media that Matters Film Festival a film festival open to young, independent film makers about topics of current interest, globally or in local communities.

The Media that Matters Film Festival website provides a higher quality video of the film than is available on You Tube. It also provides background information to the film’s creation and “take action” links, including to About Face "Empower Yourself 10 things you can do in your own life”, which is aimed at young women accepting themselves, rather than being governed by the ideals dictated by popular culture.

There are some disadvantages to using this pop culture film to stimulate discussion about stereotypes (including the short, cigarette smoking macho scene) and these might preclude its use in some schools. I believe however that if you look beyond this, the messages about identity formation and the rich metaphors used in the text make it a very suitable film for senior high school students.

References

About-Face (2011). Empower yourself [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.about-face.org/making-changes/empower-yourself/

Arts Engine, Inc. (2011). Media That Matters [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/

Media That Matters (May 4, 2007). Slip of the Tongue [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1zpX4R33CA

Film, Television and Transforming Pedagogy

By Sue

As modern educators, teachers are not only responsible for traditional education – “the 3Rs” – but also to educate the students in topics of the 21^st century.  These include media literacies. The internet and mobile media are important, however film and television, as two of the older media continue to be a vital part of most children’s lives.

My major focus in teaching and learning is that I believe learning should be an active process, with inquiry at the centre and the teacher as the facilitator of learning. I employ a constructivist approach to teaching and learning and believe in setting up a problem or a 'quest' and allowing students to construct their own knowledge by connecting from what they know to the new. I act as a facilitator in a majority of cases guiding the learning and allowing students to arrive at their own conclusions. As a social constructivist, I search for the Zone of Proximal Development - find where the students are at and therefore how they can be moved on. I act as a scaffold, providing support for students to achieve. I view learning as a collaborative and a social activity. I attempt to develop knowledge in authentic learning activities, which engage students in the kinds of problems and practices that are present outside of school. These practices must include media of all types as this is what students are using to acquire knowledge and develop socially at home. Therefore it is imperative that I use digital media in the learning context.

My above view of knowledge in the 21^st century is supported in a variety of research and current curriculum documents. The Essential Learnings Position Paper (2007) states that knowledge itself has a undergone a transformation.

Knowledge exists in a range of forms, and a comprehensive curriculum will ensure a balance of the most important ones. A synthesis of knowledge typologies illustrates the range which needs to be represented in the curriculum 

(Essential Learnings and Standards Position Paper 2007, p5

My view of the use of digital media in general and film and television in particular is supported by the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for young Australians where it is stated that although technologies are used in schools there is a need to increase the effectiveness of the use of such technologies over the next decade.  (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, 2008) Therefore with the above beliefs in mind it is necessary to approach the media literacies and in particular film and television in a very similar manner, that being not of a passive participant but rather a creator and critical viewer of media.  Jenkins’ White Paper supports this assertation.

“ We are moving away from a world in which some produce and many consume media,

toward one in which everyone has a more active stake in the culture that is produced”  (Jenkins, 2006 P 10)

The 3C’s – Connect, Create and Critical– discussed in the Lecture 11 (QUT, 2011) are an excellent way of allowing students to construct knowledge when using film and television. No longer is it acceptable to just put on a TV show for children to gain knowledge from. I do recall such TV shows as “For the Juniors” where perhaps, sometimes, I would tune in at 1.40pm after second break just to allow my Yr 2 students some down time after play. In that situation I lacked purpose. After many years of teaching this type of activity is no longer acceptable (if it was ever?) It is now necessary to use the medium to connect students to their past knowledge allowing them to construct new learning from it. We can then ensure new   learning is connected through student’s creating with this knowledge. Most importantly, developing the critical aspect of film and television viewing is essential. This view is also supported in the Literacy for the 21^st Century Document where the process skills of media literacy are discussed as Access, Analyse, Evaluate and Create.  (Thoman, 2003)

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 1-2 hours of screen time per day.  (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2010). This includes film, television, computers, and mobile media. However realistically most children have up to 5 hours of screen time per day not including screen time at school.  So with screen – TV in particular such a major aspect of children’s lives, it is vital that children develop critical media literacy skills. With many children using TV as a background noise in their bedrooms and perhaps just watching to chill out, they may take all that is on ‘the box’ at face value. It is vital for educators to be modelling and practicing the critical viewing of television and movies targeting in particular, the moral panics, gender and ethnicity stereotyping and the sexualisation of children and women. Using TV in education is not just about the what, but rather the how. It is a time when the substantive conversations about important moral issues can take place.  In traditional literacies, teachers constantly discuss comprehension techniques – predicting, questioning, clarifying and synthesising. I consistently apply these known strategies to any film and television viewing. The connections between what is watched and what is read are established.  Television is used not just to support learning – or as a resource, but rather the use of TV and movies is the learning. This targeted use of film and TV resources ensures that, the use of film and television in schools does not become a moral panic in itself. In my community the use of a movie in learning is very rarely seen as an authentic medium – rather parents view this medium as down time and ‘fun’ for the students. This is a view that with publicity is gradually changing.

 I believe digital media is a most powerful medium for providing the optimal opportunity for transformative learning to take place and for students to construct knowledge. It is vital not to simply equip them with knowledge but rather with the skills and processes to access any knowledge they may need in order to achieve success. The appropriate use of film and television in schools assists in transforming learning, developing 21^st century skills that will allow students to be productive citizens. Thus film and Television continue to be viable education resources in my setting.

References

American Academy of Pediatrics. (2010). Policy Statement - Media Education. Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, 1-8.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2011, March). Guide to understanding ICSEA. Retrieved April 5, 2011, from My School: http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Guide_to_understanding_ICSEA.pdf

Brown, J. (2002). Retrieved October 14, 2011, from Growing Up Digital: How the web changes work, education and the ways people learn.: http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/FEB02_Issue/article01.html

Jenkins, H. C. (2006, August). Confronting the Challenges of Particpatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. . Retrieved October 14, 2011, from http://digitallearning.macfound.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=enJLKQNlFiG&b=2108773&ct=3017973&notoc=1

Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. (2008). Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. Retrieved April 4, 2011, from MCEEDYA: http://www.mceetya.edu.au/mceecdya/melbourne_declaration,25979.html

Queensland Studies Authority. (2007). Essential Learnings Position Paper. Retrieved March 30, 2011, from Queensland Studies Authority: http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/early_middle/qcar_el_position_paper.pdf

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