Moving Image Education (MIE)

During all my previous placements I have not come across any first hand expeirence of moving image education so I found researching about it very interesting.

The term "moving image education" itself refers to learning and teaching practices which develop moving image media literacy.

These practices include, analysing moving image texts, creating them, exploring, appreciating and sharing them, and being discerning about them. These practices are all represented in the "3cs'" of media literacy.

Why do we need MIE?

Moving image plays a large role in today's modern world;

• It has a large influence on global culture and communication.
• It has played a large part in over a century of human culture and history.
• It is constantly expaning economically.

For these reasons, and various others, it is important that we teach children beyond the traditional printed and spoken word and introduce them to a range of moving image and media in the classroom. It seems to me that it would be silly and a wasted opportunity if we as teachers do not use something that is so prominant in today's society and that offers a range of educational purposes to it's full potential within the classroom. 


Why study MIE?

From an early age children are exposed to many forms of moving images such as television and video. These are often the first cultural experiences children come across and they immediately being to make sense of moving images, for example they will being to understand that different sounds and music will signal different things such as danger or happieness.

Creative Scotland stresses the importance of learning about moving images for the same reason we learn about books in that they offer "unique opportunities to share the knowledge and imagination of others" (2009, no page).

From my own expierence I often found that many children are put off work if it consists of reading a book or a large piece of text. If I knew that the children were to be doing this I would always try and find a video clip or some form of media to introduce the lesson as it always seemed to engage the pupils. I can only imagine the particpation and interest if the whole lesson was based around a form of moving image media.


MIE and the Curriculum for Excellence



 Moving Image Education (ADMC) and Scottish Screen (2006, p4) (can be found at http://www.movingimageeducation.org/files/pdfs/mie-and-a-curriculum-for-excellence-2006-booklet.pdf).

As you can see MIE offers a range of opportunities within a classroom. Various films can be used to engage a class in different forms of writing from imaginative to factual. I personally feel that the best opportunity shown in the diagram above is creating a class moving image text. I myself have been creating a small film with other members of my ICT elective class  which will be uploaded onto a website. We are only half way through the process and already it has provied a range of cross curricular links from language to drama. When carrying out something like this it caters for almost every child in the class.

"Film demands lots of different skills which means that a whole class or community group can participate. Not only writers, artists, performers, musicians and technicians, but organisers, planners, computer whizz kids.... everyone will have something to contribute to the group activities." (Creative Scotland, 2009, no page).

Moving Image Education, if used correctly in the classroom can produce brilliant results from varying ages and abilities.

References

Creative Scotland (2009) Moving Image Education Can be found at
http://www.movingimageeducation.org/resources/moving-image-education/whats-it-about
[accessed 27/1/12]

Moving Image Education (ADMC) and Scottish Screen (2006) Moving Image Education and A Curriculum for Excellence Can be found at;
http://www.movingimageeducation.org/files/pdfs/mie-and-a-curriculum-for-excellence-2006-booklet.pdf
[accessed 27/1/12]

Social Media

In today's ICT class we were introduced to using social media to develop knowledge and some of the theory which underpins it. At the beginning of the lesson we discussed the various types of social media which all the members of the class frequently use. This included Facebook, Twitter, Skype, e-mail and some others. We were then told that there are two types of social media, synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous social media consists of, for example, Facetime and Skype, where an action will recieve an instant response. When using both of these social media tools, the user is directly communicating with someone else in real time. Each participants actions and sounds are displayed instantly to each another. Asynchronous social media is when an instant response may not be given, for example, Twitter and e-mail. When using these social media tools a user may post a "tweet" or send an "e-mail" and it may take several minutes, hours, or even days until a comment or a reply is made. Facebook is quite unique in that it has incorporated both synchronous and asynchronous social media through the use of posts and instant chat.

The use of social media within the classroom can provide endless possibilities if used within an appropriate context. They can offer opportunities for the class to communicate with and directly see and or speak to other classes from around the country or even world. This could help enhance a particular topic and improve the classes learning of different cultures. In a similar method individual children could communicate via facebook or other social media. In addition, children in a class, if working in groups, could possibly use social media to constantly communicate ideas and work when not in class. This provides the opportunity for constant interaction between the group and not just when set class time allows it. Thorough supervision will be required when using sites such as these to ensure they are being used properly. Many teachers may consider to be a downfall and may deter them from using social media in the first place.

Moving on from the types of social media we began to talk about communities of practice and collaborative working. "Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." (Wenger, 2006, no page) Quite often successful collaborative working is important within a community of practice. This led us to discuss Meredith Belbin's model of team-building in which puts forward the idea that when working collaboritively in a group there are a number of different roles which individuals will take. It suggests that these roles are linked to the personalities of the individual and that the effectiveness of the group depends on the combination of these roles.

We then discussed amongst our own groups what roles we thought each member best suited. I found it interesting that a members own opinion of what role best suited them more than often differed from what the overall group thought. This may have been down to the person being modest or even not wanting to believe that they are a certain type of role.
I am still struggling to identify what my specific role might be but it will no doubt become clear as our group begins to take on bigger tasks which involve more work and collaboration.

Yeah?

First post after some problems!