I’m an art teacher. Of course film, television and media studies is important to teach, just as teaching painting is important. You just may not really need to explore actors and actresses. Film can expose you to new ideas, characters, and worlds. I took a few films study courses at the U and was exposed to movies I would have never otherwise have seen. I fell in love with some of them. Film is Art and as such it should be taught in schools.
Most people, adults and children, spend ¼ of their day with some sort of media. With each mew media that is introduced, students are not using less old media but just using more media--the old and the new. Which means that it is more important than ever to incorporate this big part of their lives in school. Course curriculum always needs to be relatable to the students you teach, and with this generation being a “media generation.”
I would want students to learn the various ways to produce a film, the stage vocabulary, and the endless possibilities they have in creating new and exciting works of art through this learning. I would want them to learn some basics about making their own film. With simple software, students can upload videos, photos, and music. Or even create their own music! It is a fun experience that most students would enjoy.
Teaching about film and television can help students analyze what is real and what isn’t. there is a lot of inappropriate content that they are exposed to everyday, and teaching them to decipher through the images would help the become a more well-rounded person.
As for the teaching of basic reading and writing skills, you can incorporate these thing into most any lesson. If I were doing a film class, I would have students read a novel, watch the film of that novel, study the script and its production. Then write their own script. And possibly produce it. Incorporating themes is another great thing. I want to incorporate the theme of change and have students make a film of some sort on making a difference. Students can be inspired and do great things…they just need a starting point, somewhere to jump off from and take off and fly!
There are so many possibilities with this subject. The students would be missing out if they were not exposed to such great art and taught to weed out all the garbage!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
5472 Post #1
Being a soon-to-be Art teacher, Media arts is a topic we have to keep our eye on. It has been discussed greatly in our cohort since an art teacher trained in media arts and art may be hired before one just trained in art. Schools may not have it publicized but media arts are becoming more and more important as our worlds technology advances.
Richard Beach’s book, Teaching Media Literacy, brings up a lot of very good topics that should be discussed with students. But there are also some things that I feel I could disagree with. Don’t get me wrong! I am all for Media literacy but sometimes I feel students are already using/watching enough media-involved things that they don’t need much more. I think that the topic of media alone brings up a lot of controversial discussion. I know that when reading chapter one I thought a lot about what I have learned and what I would want to teach. I also felt very strongly about some of the topics. Media Arts is very close to the Visual Arts arena so, it effects me a lot.
The “Building upon students active use of media” section talks about how these days students are exposed to all sorts of media and spend a lot of time everyday with some sort of media. Students prefer to learn in new and different ways--and we now have many new and different technologies to help teach in those ways i.e. the smart board, PowerPoint presentations, video clips, slideshows, music. Not to mention the many computer games meant to help students learn. Like Beach said in Ch. 1, Computers raised scores on tests, so may be they can be good.
One thing I had a little trouble with was: “One primary justification for including media studies in the curriculum is the need to create a curriculum that will engage students in their learning.” Students have been learning for who knows how many years without the technology we have today. Is it really that hard to engage students without using video-game like learning programs? Or gluing them to a computer or TV screen? I do think that some educational computer games are good but I don’t think they should be used all the time. Growing up though I have to admit I really loved Number Muncher, Oregon Trail, and the typing game-thing, Mavis Beacon (I don’t know how to spell it, sorry).
Then it goes on to say “If students are highly engaged with outside-of-school multimediating, then curriculum needs to build on that experience.” The example was blogging? With myspace, facebook, and the million other sites students use these days should that be related to school curriculum? Do students use a lot of media outside of school that can or should be related to school curriculum?
Helping students learn to communicate in multimodal ways?…do students, especially high school students need help with that? I think that the ones that need help with that are the ones that can afford it. And since they can’t afford these things so heavily incorporated in school they don’t do as well as the other students. Sometimes that just isn’t fair.
I do agree with the movie thing though. Movies shouldn’t be shown just for fun in school. It should be related to the curriculum in some way. Movies are a form of art and many are truly wonderful works of art and should be shown in school. I took a couple film studies courses at the U and I was exposed to some fantastic films that I would have otherwise never considered watching in my entire life. Students ARE highly engaged with multimediating and learning to communicate in multimodal ways…myspace, texting, new movies on the big screen, etc. Movies in the classroom can be a low level skill if used as just a filler but I think they can be a high level skill when used in the right way. Print (reading text) is a high level skill, but that too can be used in the wrong way. It has to be age appropriate and relatable to what is being learned. Too be honest I was often times uninterested in the texts we were required to read in school. Cliffs notes and online summaries of the books defiantly came in handy when I didn’t read past the first two pages in the book we were required to read. I was in a low reading group in elementary school and avoided reading at every opportunity. If their was a movie version of the story…I looked for it and watched it. Now that I am grown and have actually taken the time to read through a whole story I have found 9 times out of 10 the book is better than the movie. I think that early education is so very important. If we can’t help the ones struggling at a young age, they, like me, may never really be interested in reading in school because its difficult. And of course not every students is going to find the required story interesting no matter what you show or tell them about the story, as well. So teachers always have a challenge to get students engaged.
Richard Beach’s book, Teaching Media Literacy, brings up a lot of very good topics that should be discussed with students. But there are also some things that I feel I could disagree with. Don’t get me wrong! I am all for Media literacy but sometimes I feel students are already using/watching enough media-involved things that they don’t need much more. I think that the topic of media alone brings up a lot of controversial discussion. I know that when reading chapter one I thought a lot about what I have learned and what I would want to teach. I also felt very strongly about some of the topics. Media Arts is very close to the Visual Arts arena so, it effects me a lot.
The “Building upon students active use of media” section talks about how these days students are exposed to all sorts of media and spend a lot of time everyday with some sort of media. Students prefer to learn in new and different ways--and we now have many new and different technologies to help teach in those ways i.e. the smart board, PowerPoint presentations, video clips, slideshows, music. Not to mention the many computer games meant to help students learn. Like Beach said in Ch. 1, Computers raised scores on tests, so may be they can be good.
One thing I had a little trouble with was: “One primary justification for including media studies in the curriculum is the need to create a curriculum that will engage students in their learning.” Students have been learning for who knows how many years without the technology we have today. Is it really that hard to engage students without using video-game like learning programs? Or gluing them to a computer or TV screen? I do think that some educational computer games are good but I don’t think they should be used all the time. Growing up though I have to admit I really loved Number Muncher, Oregon Trail, and the typing game-thing, Mavis Beacon (I don’t know how to spell it, sorry).
Then it goes on to say “If students are highly engaged with outside-of-school multimediating, then curriculum needs to build on that experience.” The example was blogging? With myspace, facebook, and the million other sites students use these days should that be related to school curriculum? Do students use a lot of media outside of school that can or should be related to school curriculum?
Helping students learn to communicate in multimodal ways?…do students, especially high school students need help with that? I think that the ones that need help with that are the ones that can afford it. And since they can’t afford these things so heavily incorporated in school they don’t do as well as the other students. Sometimes that just isn’t fair.
I do agree with the movie thing though. Movies shouldn’t be shown just for fun in school. It should be related to the curriculum in some way. Movies are a form of art and many are truly wonderful works of art and should be shown in school. I took a couple film studies courses at the U and I was exposed to some fantastic films that I would have otherwise never considered watching in my entire life. Students ARE highly engaged with multimediating and learning to communicate in multimodal ways…myspace, texting, new movies on the big screen, etc. Movies in the classroom can be a low level skill if used as just a filler but I think they can be a high level skill when used in the right way. Print (reading text) is a high level skill, but that too can be used in the wrong way. It has to be age appropriate and relatable to what is being learned. Too be honest I was often times uninterested in the texts we were required to read in school. Cliffs notes and online summaries of the books defiantly came in handy when I didn’t read past the first two pages in the book we were required to read. I was in a low reading group in elementary school and avoided reading at every opportunity. If their was a movie version of the story…I looked for it and watched it. Now that I am grown and have actually taken the time to read through a whole story I have found 9 times out of 10 the book is better than the movie. I think that early education is so very important. If we can’t help the ones struggling at a young age, they, like me, may never really be interested in reading in school because its difficult. And of course not every students is going to find the required story interesting no matter what you show or tell them about the story, as well. So teachers always have a challenge to get students engaged.
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