Film Education

In these most modern of times with the technological advances increasingly growing ever so important and unavoidable in our life, in order to flourish with this digital culture, school children need to be able to work with a whole range of critical and creative practices involving technology and media. These practices of ‘digital literacy’ are likely to become even more important throughout school pupils’ lives as the development of technology advances and the media continues to affect how we as humans work, how we   socialise, communicate, spend our leisure time and how we learn and share knowledge.

The importance of digital literacy is now becoming noticeable and has been acknowledged by educators as they recognise that not only does the teaching profession have a vital role to play in preparing children for our digital world, but that a sustained engagement with technology and media is now integral to the development of knowledge across disciplines and subjects.

It is also worth noting that children live in the most mind stimulating time ever. There are so many video games and movies, media and resources available to them that it would be hard for them to concentrate in school without getting bored. The technological world you’d think you’d say is working against these children but it is possible through things like film education to integrate technology in a stimulating/ engaging way for our children.

Film education involves three different elements these are known as the three Cs and are:

·         Critical (understanding and analysing of films).

·         Cultural (widening pupils’ experience of film).

·         Creative (pupils get to make films themselves).

There are plenty of opportunities for each of these throughout the curriculum, it is also a good idea to combine all three approaches together in the lesson. You can use the critical approach in English, for example pupils can be analysing how camera, sound and editing are used in an adaptation, a documentary or a persuasive text such as an advertisement.

 Cultural is when you can use unfamiliar films, and films from different countries and periods, in a range of subjects. This is seen as ‘World Cinema’. It can be used to explore subjects such as Citizenship and political subjects such as globalisation or poverty. Classical films can help pupils to learn about the history of the past, and experimental films can be used for inspiration in Art and Music.

Creative Filmmaking can be used as a way of recording, analysing and depicting processes from  anything from Science experiments to Dance performances; to present information in subjects from Mathematics to History: and for creative expression in English, Drama, Art and Music. The opportunities are endless. All subjects can benefit from using screens.

“A project in the East Midlands offered teachers in schools across eight local authorities the chance to use film for a year. Many had never done so before. By the end of the first year, two thirds were reporting that the project had made them more enthusiastic about teaching, and had changed their pedagogy. 100% of teachers felt that film could reach difficult or challenging pupils (80% strongly)”. (Barrance, 2010)

I remember from my own personal experience in secondary school studying media studies and really getting fully immersed in my work because it let me explore my creativeness.  In my opinion Film education would be good for all schools.