Creative Media in Education

Video technology is fast becoming an increasingly popular vehicle for delivering aspects of the entire curriculum and is no longer restricted to media related courses. This technology provides educators with the tools to enhance the teaching and learning process. Many teachers have already enthusiastically adopted creative media technology to help to engage their students with curriculum content whilst simultaneously developing their literacy, team work and soft skills.

Creative video based learning can either be the application of the use of film production techniques to schemes of work within the curriculum or can support education regarding film and film making. Having listened to feed back from a number of our educational customers, there are some real supporting pedagogical outcomes resulting from the implementation of video based learning which I have explored in simplistic terms in this article.

Curriculum based

Focusing on Learning and Creativity:

Video technology delivers an enjoyable and effective way of learning, where students communicate with each other to question, analyse and solve problems supported by teachers' mediation. The technology can be engaging and captures students' imagination. It allows teachers and students to modify the content of courses to better meet individual student's needs in ways that traditional resources do not facilitate.

Hidden Learning
The fun side of video based learning for students is in the process of filming, recording and then showcasing their final work. The learning is disguised within the research and planning carried out in preparation. This can be applied to virtually any subject to engage and involve all students with a practical and creative method of teaching.

Personalised Learning
The use of classroom based video technology should create an engaging and innovative teaching and learning environment enabling all students to participate. Students can be creative and use their individual skills to help to research, plan, present and produce a final production. This work creates tangible results in the form of video files, DVD or web based formats that provide students with collateral to show their peers take home or submit as a form of assessment. This process can aid individual development and progress whilst providing the student with a sense of positive achievement thus supporting the ethos of personalised learning.

Digital literacy
Being confident in the use of modern technology is extremely important and engaging students with video technology often introduces them to equipment that they would not have access to at home. The use of cameras, tripods, live production and green screen equipment develops niche skills and aids ICT skill development in general.

Cross curricular – Academic and practical use
Video technology based learning is great for sparking life and energy into classes across the curriculum. With ‘green screen’ technology students can be placed into virtual backgrounds, providing a sense of reality which engages and excites learners. As the backgrounds can relate to anything, it is applicable for every subject. For creative arts this technology inspires students to tap into their imagination and express their ideas in new and challenging ways. With craft based subjects such as art, students are able to use the medium of video to present their artwork as an alternative to written reports.

Focusing on Soft Skills:

Video technology based learning supports the development of soft skills. Soft skills are character skills as opposed to academic. They are the life and people skills necessary for learners to progress, not just with their education but in all other aspects of life, particularly at home, socially and in the working environment. In a challenging job market employers no longer consider academic and technical competencies to be sufficient in their own right and are emphasising the vital role that soft skills play in the workplace.

Team work, collaboration and interpersonal skills
Film and TV production crews work as a team and likewise, so can students. In groups they can research and plan their production and once recording commences they can be allocated specific responsibilities. Usual roles would typically include cameraman, director, microphone operator and presenter. Adopting video technology in the classroom requires students to work and gel as a team, thereby subtly developing interpersonal skills.

Communication
Communication skills are fundamental to all relationships and in the modern workplace this vital soft skill is a prerequisite for employers. Working in groups requires communication, whether it is discussing the objectives or physically presenting the production. Video technology based learning requires students to communicate with one another and the camera to deliver work they can be proud of.

Confidence
Confidence and self-esteem empowers individuals to have a realistic and positive attitude about themselves. This is a key soft skill that learners require to express their thoughts and feelings clearly and effectively. The use of video technology in the classroom enables students to present their ideas both in front and behind the camera, thus building on and developing their self-confidence.

Motivation and enthusiasm
Working as a production crew requires all aspects of a project to be covered by the whole team. This is where motivation and enthusiasm are key to the success of an assignment. The ability to take initiative and complete tasks without being prompted is another important trait that employers look for in a potential candidate.

Problem solving
Problem solving and critical thinking explores the learner’s ability to use knowledge, facts and data to effectively solve problems. Video based learning can engage students as a group and encourage them to solve issues together, for example deciding who will fulfill certain roles, or what area of study they would like to target.

Film & Film Making Education

The document Film 21st Literacy (redefining film education) tries to offer up a definition of film education. In this Jim Barratt from Bigger picture Research wrote that film education is “Learner - focused activity that is intended as educational”. Making Movies Matter also identified four competencies, which they say will form the bedrock of film education.

•   Analytical Competence

•   Contextual Competence

•   Canonical Competence

•   Production Competence

Learning objectives are summarized also as providing young people

•   Their enjoyment of film

•   Their knowledge about the variety of forms

•   Their understanding of how the moving image language works

•   Their ability to articulate what it is they value and enjoy in films

•   Their skills in making their own moving images

All of the evidence of when film is most effective is clearly defined by the learner being at the centre of the experience. Film education as a context can be found in many other areas of the curriculum and is used widely to stimulate learning. Many techniques are used in the classroom such as.

Clarify purpose of scene, context or character

Watching a range of different interpretations of the same scene or film to allow the students to explore the characters and deepen their understanding of them. Then the idea would be to recreate the scene with their own script and use the video technology to enable students to become part of that period in time. This potentially facilitates the ability to achieve higher levels in examinations because of the quality of their description of characters and social scene. 

Adaption

Taking the film as a start position and adapting the style to a piece of written work for instance a performing arts class looking at pantomime production. Students could study a wide range of different productions on film and then write and adapt their own production and perform it as part of an assessment. The use of video technology enables virtual scenery changes saving on time and expense in building and creating complex sets.

Debate

Taking films and debating them from different view points, historical contexts, social contexts, propaganda and accuracy enhances the student’s ability to question and write accurately about key issues.

By Matthew Hastings