Teaching Film with New Media
February 20, 2010 at 1:23 pm | Posted in Helpful Internet Services, Lesson Plan, Lesson Preparation, Praxis, Technical Skills | Leave a commentTags: school use, technical basics, useful URLs
“Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about.” (Steven Spielberg)
Films are part of our everyday life and culture. We associate events, emotions and memories with them. They show us unknown countries and magical places. Movies make us cry and laugh, sometimes both and they challenge our imagination again and again.
With the help of New Media it is now possible to show and work with films on a new level in the classroom. DVDs and the Internet make new teaching strategies possible.
DVD-Video
The DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) is a visual data memory. It enables the consumer to watch films in different languages. Additionally it makes it possible to add different subtitles to the movie. Single sequences can be shown and analyzed. it is possible to rewind, freeze-frame or show the certain parts in slow-motion. Another advantage of the DVD-Video compared to older mass storage devices (e.g. VHS) is the fact that it almost always contains bonus features. Depending on the kind of film these are documentaries, making- ofs, interviews with actors and creators of the film. Some DVDs feature an audio commentary of the director.
By the help of DVD-Video it is now easier for teachers to structure their lesson and film viewing. If they only want to show sequences of the movie it is easily done. Additionally they can decide whether or not they will include subtitles and if they do what language they will be in.
I used the film “Atonement” on DVD in one of my English lessons. The class had read the novel by Ian McEwan beforehand. I chose only some sequences to give my students an impression and asked them to compare them with the novel they had read. I also included a task where they had to transform a dialogue of the book into a movie scene. After that we watched the film-version and compared both.
The new medium DVD-Video makes it so much easier and faster to navigate through the film and find suitable scenes. Due to the limited time available in a classroom most teacher’s tend to show only a selection of scenes, which is now easily practicable with the DVD.
Internet
Another new medium one can use for teaching movies is the Internet. No other platform enables teachers to get that much information and teaching material on new and upcoming films.
A useful site is the Internet Movie Database. Here you can find all kinds of information from cast, filming locations and movie quotes to pictures and reviews. One can find pictures of the movie and characters also on the film’s own homepage and on google pictures.
If you want to show a trailer of the film you can either check its homepage or go to YouTube.
A movie trailer is always a good way to introduce the topic. A nice alternative to a “normal” viewing: try to show it to your students either without or only with sound and let them discuss their impressions and expectations.
A useful site for teaching material is Film Education. It contains a database of films suitable for school. Each film is classified with an appropriate age level and they provide study guides.
Another possibility to teach movies is to include the original script. I chose one scene from the movie, gave the script to the students and they had to act out the scene. It was extremely fun. Afterwards we watched the corresponding movie scene and compared the different representation styles. If you are looking for scripts on the Internet, the Internet Movie Script Database or Simply Scripts are recommendable. Most of the scripts are available for free.
Working with the Internet also enables students to do their own research and e.g. create reports or Powerpoint presentations.
During my internships at school I had the chance to work with movies and New Media. It is unnecessary to stress the motivation and fun students had while working on these projects. The variety of possibilities you have to choose from makes it possible to try out and create new teaching techniques. I thinks films and New Media make teaching and learning colourful, amusing and creative but also informative.
“Movies can and do have a tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.” (Walt Disney)
Expert Talk
February 13, 2010 at 3:46 pm | Posted in Helpful Internet Services, Internet Learning, Lesson Preparation, Praxis, Technical Skills | 1 CommentTags: e-learning, internet, school use
Salamis in CD-ROM-Drives – A Field Trip
January 20, 2010 at 12:33 pm | Posted in Praxis, Technical Skills | Leave a commentTags: school use, technical basics
On the 19th of January we did a field trip to the Alfred-Wegener-Schule in Kirchhain, to gain some practical experience on the use of new media in school.
The School
The school is a “kooperative Gesamtschule” and therefore includes different school forms e.g. “Hauptschule”, “Realschule” and “Gymnasium”.
1500 students and 130 teachers study and work there. 
The school takes part in the COMENIUS-program and organizes a variety of student exchange-programs (e.g. to Spain, USA, France, Australia, South America)
Further information can be found on the school’s website.
The school was nominated “Medienschule des Monats: Januar 2009”.
The usual Computer Room(s)
The school has 3 computer room for “Sek 1” and additional rooms for “Sek 2” students. Each room contains about 20 PCs and a video projector. Students work in pairs or alone. These rooms are generally used for computer science classes, but other teachers are more than welcome to use them too.
“Lernwerkstatt”
This room contains the students library, three group-work rooms and about 12 computers. The room is supposed to combine new and old media and to provide a productive working environment.
Upper School Media Room
This room is strictly used by “Sek 2” students. It has two PC-isles with 6 PCs each, a video projector, a library, working tables, a mobile presentation unit and a smart board.
Additional Services
Laptops and portable video projectors are lendable for teachers, so that they can use them in every classroom. WLAN is installed in all the buildings. These factors enable the teachers to use new media (Internet, Powerpoint Presentations) in every part of the school. They do not depend on computer rooms.
Computer experts maintain and supervise the technical equipment.
In 5th grade students take part in a six-week crash-course that familiarise them with the basics on word, spreadsheet and Powerpoint processing.
Most teachers use new media in the context of projects. Some create blogs, wiki and websites with their students. They write and design online diaries, newspapers and poetry volumes.
Comments and thoughts
The Alfred-Wegener-Schule in Kirchhain has numerous new media offers.
I personally liked the new forms of new media rooms e.g. “Lernwerkstatt”. The concept of combining old and new media creates a very special and comfortable learning environment.
I thought it was a pity that some of the media was only available to some learners e.g. the upper school media room. I don’t know whether it is supporting school spirit if some students are consciously excluded.
Nevertheless it was very interesting to see new media in praxis and it provides us as future teachers with realism and basic orientations that although new media is present, only 20% of instruction relies on it, at least for now.
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New Media Portfolio 
In unserer letzten Sitzung führten wir ein Skype-Gespräch mit Herrn Donath. Die Studierenden hatten die Möglichkeit ihre Fragen zu stellen und der Experte beantwortete sie sehr freundlich und geduldig.
Er berichtete das er sich schon seit 1989 mit neuen Medien im Unterricht befasse. Seine ersten Erfahrungen sammelte er mit Email-Projekten. Seiner Meinung nach sind diese jedoch in der heutigen Zeit weniger attraktiv, da man viel leichter über Platformen wie facebook und Blogs kommunizieren kann.
In seinem Unterricht arbeitet Donath viel mit Lerntagebüchern in Form von Blogs. Außerdem verfügt die Schule, in der er arbeitet, über ein Multimedia-Zentrum “Bahnarum”. Hier können die Schüler an Gruppentischen mit Computern arbeiten, es gibt einen Beamer und eine Teeküche. Die Schüler verwalten den Raum selbst. Neben dem normalen Unterricht werden dort das Jahrbuch, Abizeitungen und eine englische Zeitung entworfen.
Um die Privatsphäre seiner Schüler zu schützen rät Donath Lehrern, den Schülern eine skeptische Distanz zu den Neuen Medien zu vermitteln und sie immer wieder auf entpersonalisierte Einträge hinzuweisen. Dies sollte ein Teil der so genannten “Medienerziehung” sein.
Der Experte schätzte den derzeitigen Anteil an genutzten Neuen Medien in der Schule auf maximal 20-30% ein. Zukünftig werden seiner Meinung nach immer mehr Laptop/Netbook-Klassen eingeführt werden. Herr Donath setzt sich für einen didaktisch wohl überlegten Einsatz der Neuen Medien ein, wobei der Computer ergänzend zu den “Alten Medien” genutzt werden sollte. Er hält ein Verhältnis von 50% Neue Medien zu 50% Alte Medien für durchaus realistisch.
Abschließend sind hier die Antworten zu meinen davor ausgearbeiteten Fragen:
1) Wie schätzen Sie den wirklichen Anteil an “Neuen Medien” in der Schule ein? Zu wie viel Prozent werden “Neue Medien” tatsächlich eingesetzt?
Der maximale Anteil des neuen Medien Einsatzes liegt bei 20-30%. Herr Donath selbst gestaltet 15-30% seines Unterrichts Web-gestützt. Er wies weiterhin darauf hin, dass diese prozentuellen Angaben für die Unterrichtssituation auch sehr stark von der vorhandenden räumlichen Umgebung abhängen.
2) Was muss getan werden um Lehrer zu motivieren, mehr “Neue Medien” einzusetzen?
Die Lehrer müssen in Fortbildungen stärker auf die schon vorhandenen Unterrichtskonzepte und Unterrichtseinheiten hingewiesen werden, sodass Medieneinsatz nicht unbedingt Mehraufwand bedeutet. Außerdem muss Lehrern (altersunabhängig) der Schritt vom Privatnutzer zum professionellen Nutzer (ebenfalls auch durch Fortbildungen) erleichtert werden.
Mir gefiel sehr, dass der Experte seine eigenen Unterrichtserfahrungen in das Gespräch mit einbrachte. Neben all den Möglichkeiten, die das Internet und die Neuen Medien bieten, sollte man sich jedoch gewahr sein, dass sie ebenso Gefahren (besonders für Schüler) beinhalten. Deshalb halte ich die “Medienerziehung” für einen unverzichtbaren und wichtigen Bestandteil des Unterrichts. Überdies teile ich die Meinung Donaths, dass man Neue Medien sinnvoll einsetzten sollte. Sie sollten ergänzend zu anderen Unterrichtsformen bestehen und in Zukunft das Lernen sowie den Unterricht verbessern.