The use of Film in Education.

The Use of Film.

In this blog post I will be discussing the use of film in education. The use of film as an educational tool includes a pupil's culture in the learning process and encourages their home identities resulting in pupils being more engaged and motivated to learn as their lived culture is being valued in the class room (Parry,2014). Children of all academic abilities can participate fully in a lesson where film is used as an educational tool as children can understand the narrative of film and apply it to new texts: perhaps more readily than with a text they have read (Parry,2014). Film education can include film analysis or the making of films. Pupils can draw on their existing experiences to develop an understanding of new concepts and skills with in the national curriculum(Parry,2014). One element of the national curriculum that film education can promote is literacy standards and communication skills.
I witnessed these skills being developed in children when creating a film with young people from ages 10-16 in a creative writing group called Bubble Slam. Between September and December 2013 myself, Zoe Jarvis and a group of eleven young individuals wrote and starred in a horror film spoof called Swansea Spookfest. The children wrote the script themselves and came up with all of the ideas. In order to do this successfully they had to use communication skills to decide what ideas to use and which ones not to, and literacy skills to write their own lines and stage directions. It also developed their confidence, and organisational skills as they had to work to a dead line and assist in directing.

Having seen first hand the positive affects the use of film can have I believe that the use of film in education is a positive pedagogical tool as it promotes aspects of the curriculum and fully engages and excites learners as well as builds their confidence.

Below is a link to the film I helped create:

References :

Parry,B (2014) 'Popular culture, participation and progression in the literacy classroom' [online] available from :http://moodle.swanseamet.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=38298 [accessed on 29/4/14]

Techniquest

As part of the module the inquiring mind:creative approaches I was required to attend Techniquest in Cardiff and comment on an exhibit I found to be the most interesting. Despite not being the most visual or exiting of exhibits having bottle rockets and hot air balloons to compete with, I found 'Orbits' to be educational and interesting as well as engaging and enjoyable.

Orbits requires you to roll a ball on to a curved table and watch as it rotates two holes in the centre of the table until it disappears down one of them. The exhibit visualises what occurs to a planet when it is in the orbit of a star or black hole. The surface of the table represents the gravitational pull and the two holes with in the table represent the black hole or star. As the ball gets closer to the hole, it feels a stronger pull and gets sucked in to the whole. This is because the ball loses energy as it spins around the table and it's orbit gets lower and lower until it drops in to a hole. It is a great demonstration of how our planet orbits the sun especially for visual kinaesthetic learners. Fortunately the earth does not lose energy as it orbits in a vacuum and thus continues to orbit the sun.

Upon experiencing the exhibits I felt it was suitable and enjoyable for any age group especially having taken a three year old boy with me who thoroughly enjoyed throwing the ball on the the table and watching it spin. However with hindsight I feel the exhibit 'Orbits' may be more relevant to children in key stage 2 (7-11 year olds) and key stage 3 (11-14) as it directly associated with 'the sustainable Earth' element of the science programme with in the national curriculum. 'The sustainable Earth' range supplies pupils with a knowledge and understanding of the earth,other planets and it's atmosphere (Welsh Assembly Government,2009).

'Orbits' helps to develop communication and thinking skills through requiring children to ask questions about the exhibit and explore the possible reasons for the ball behaving the way it does on the table with a friend,adult or peer. Both communication and thinking skills are a part of the skills frame work of the national curriculum(Welsh Assembly Government,2009).

Orbits can also help motor skill development, inter personal skills and literacy. The exhibit promotes motor skills as it involves being actively engaged in the learning and throwing the ball at an angle. Inter personal skills are evolved through sharing the exhibit with others and literacy through reading the explanation which is provided with each exhibit to understand the science theory behind it.

'Orbits' teaches specific knowledge about gravitational pulls and how the earth orbits the sun continuously. Because The Earth orbits around one star the orbit is stable,meaning that slight disturbances such as meteorites don't have an effect on the long term orbit of the Earth. However if the Earth was orbiting around two stars, the orbit would be much easier to change from an oval to an “8” shape as can be seen in the 'Orbits' exhibit. An orbit with two stars is unpredictable and chaotic while an orbit with one star is stable.

I definitely feel my physics subject knowledge has expanded as despite understanding the gravitational pull of orbits, I did not know the behaviour of an orbit with two stars or that an orbit with two stars could even exist!

I would improve the exhibit by providing more information on what is taking place on the information card, however on the whole I found it to be very interesting and would definitely go again!

"Orbits"

References:

The Welsh Assembly  Government (2009) [online] available from http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/?lang=en [accessed on 11/4/14]