Critical Democracy Through Digital Media Production in a Third-Grade Classroom

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Montgomery
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela M. Wiseman ◽  
Jennifer D. Turner ◽  
Marva Cappello

Purpose This paper aims to present three girls’ visual annotations and digital responses that restory a scene in the picturebook I’m New Here. The authors focus on how children use multimodal tools to reflect their critical knowledge of the world by illuminating how this group of girls responded to and incorporated broader social issues. Design/methodology/approach This study takes place in a third-grade classroom. Using qualitative methods that build on critical multimodal literacy, the authors documented and analyzed children’s visual and digital interpretations. Data were generated from classroom sessions that incorporated interactive readalouds, as well as students’ annotated visual images, sketches, video and digital responses. The collaborative analytic process involved multiple passes to interpret visual, textual and multimodal elements. Findings The analyses revealed how Aliyah, Tiana and Carissa used multimodal tools to engage in the process of restorying. Through their multimodal composition, they designed images that illuminated their solidarity with the young female character wearing the hijab; their desire to disrupt xenophobic bullying; and their hope for a respectful and inclusive climate in their own classroom. Originality/value In this paper, the authors examine how three girls in a third-grade classroom restory using critical multimodal literacy methods. These girls’ multimodal responses reflected how they disrupted dominant storylines of exclusionary practices. Their authentic acts of visual advocacy give us hope for the future.


Author(s):  
Michelle Cannon

Youth film-making practices in educational settings are often positioned in discourses that support older teenagers’ career prospects and their training for industry. However, the work detailed in this list is located in formal and informal educational settings that foreground the social and cultural dimension of youth film and media production. As such, this article engages with the role of the moving image in everyday living, in creative arts education, and in the “reframing” of literacy to include visual and audio modes. In this view, film-making opportunities move beyond the formal domains of secondary and higher education film and media studies students, so that learners of all ages can become “writers” of the moving image as well as “readers.” This bibliography lays out the different sites and means through which primary and secondary children encounter film-making in the anglophone world and more internationally. In addition, it details the academic perspectives through which children’s engagements with film are studied and the increasing number of resources available to researchers and educators in the field. As distinct from the broader realm of production activities with digital media (e.g., game authoring or podcasting), research interest in children’s film-making is in the early stages of development in terms of academic literature and its differentiation. The making dimension might occupy part of a text on, for example, the uses of film in the classroom or on media education more broadly. Notably, discourses on youth film-making have increased in recent years with the development of new media technologies, social media platforms, and digital media authoring software. Functionality that used to be mediated through cumbersome professional apparatuses are now at the disposal of many amateurs via mobile digital devices. These ongoing advances coupled with a wide-ranging academic interest in multimodal expression open up new worlds of audiovisual storytelling for children and young people. Readers will notice the multidimensional nature of the categories that serve to demonstrate the versatility of film across social domains. Despite this and the significant uptake of creative media production by educators and practitioners in informal educational settings in the Western world, there is a discernible disinclination for many educational institutions to include film-making programs in formal education. Thus, there is a sense in which film-making for children remains a marginal activity, dependent on local enthusiasts and pockets of random good practice. Many of the authors are keen to see this change and to promote film as a relevant, dynamic, and cross-disciplinary constituent of modern literacy and the visual arts. Legitimizing film-making experience as a systematic literacy practice with a strong creative and critical dimension is seen as a way of enriching cultural expression in schools.


Author(s):  
Victoria G Wilburn ◽  
Sally Wasmuth ◽  
Callie Fehr ◽  
Kristen Brokamp ◽  
Mallory Shupe ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Hui-Wen Huang

This study examined how smartphone-based collaborative video projects influenced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ speaking performance and learning engagement using blended learning in China. The collaborative video projects helped students engage in two smartphone-based video filming tasks to combine language learning with real-life experiences simultaneously. A total of 65 college students used smartphones to participate in 3-minute collaborative video tasks that were related to the learning context of the classroom textbook. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected during this 8-week intervention. This included pretest and post-test speaking scores, a questionnaire on group collaboration, students’ final reflections and focus group interviews. A paired-sample t test, descriptive analysis and qualitative content analysis were used to analyse the data. The results indicate that students’ speaking abilities were significantly improved at the end of the intervention. They enjoyed group collaboration in the video projects and appreciated acquiring digital media production skills. Interview results highlight the opportunities for and challenges of the educational application of video projects in EFL classrooms.   Implications for practice or policy: Integrating collaborative vlog projects in EFL classrooms can stimulate students’ speaking performance. Student-made collaborative vlogs can help students develop 21st century skills, especially in digital media production. Smartphone-based vlog projects can increase learners’ engagement and enhance their group collaboration skills.  


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