Moving Image Education

Children are exposed to moving images from a very young age, for example cartoons, films and adverts. Most children enjoy watching moving images so I feel it would only be right to use them in the classroom as a learning and teaching tool.

 Moving Image Education (MIE) is a programme aimed to teach and develop literacy skills using moving image texts. It consists of three elements which have been created to provide opportunities for children to develop within the four capacities of A Curriculum for Excellence. These elements include activities such as discussing and analysing moving image texts, using films as stimuli for imaginative and functional writing, and creating a class moving image piece. MIE provides opportunities for children to develop key life skills which can help them later in life, as Creative Scotland (undated) explains,

 ‘Moving Image Education is about helping young people to question, analyse, explore and understand the meaning of what they’re watching and hearing’ (no page)

Through continuing my research into MIE, it has become obvious that MIE is much more than just a literacy programme, allowing children to ‘develop across the curriculum’ (Scottish Government, p.4). Through having a chance to create my own moving image piece this week I have been able to experience the benefits at first hand. Although I could see the literacy skills which could be taught with the activity another advantage I noticed was the enhancement discussion and communication within our group, through relying on each other in the process of creating the movie. This proved the point made by ‘Scottish Screen’ that the programme is a lot more than meets the eye, and so I look forward to seeing how else MIE can benefit the classroom through more research and experience.

References

Creative Scotland (2009) Moving Image Education. Available online at:

http://www.movingimageeducation.org/ [accessed 28/1/12]

Scottish Government (2006) Scottish Screen, Moving Image Education. Available online at http://www.scottishscreen.com/images/documents/MIE_ACfE_for_ScottishScreen_email.pdf [accessed 28/11/12]

Working as a Team

A community is a group of people who usually share the same beliefs and usually live by the same social norms. A community of people can exist as an informal group or as a formal group, but both types require some form of interaction between the members of the community. As described in the previous post, social media tools provide a wide range of new online communities to be a part of, for example Facebook and Twitter. However social media tools are also being used to support and enable more interaction in offline communities as well for example communication through email.

The term Community of Practice is used to describe some formal communities. This was first used by Eitenne Wenger, a cognitive anthropologist. Wenger’s theory explains that a Community of Practice has three main characteristics: the first is that the individuals involved have shared interests, commitment and competence in a particular topic or area; the second is that the members interact and engage in discussions and other activities together; the third is that members have developed a range of resources, such as experiences, skills and knowledge which could help achieve meet the aim of the group (Wenger 2006). Back in first year I had the opportunity to work as a Community of Practice with other Primary School Teachers, Social Workers and Community Learning and Development workers. Everyone in the group was passionate and committed about their profession and it was our regular interaction which allowed members to learn from each other’s professions and to work towards a common goal, our group presentation.

Through learning more about Communities of Practice this year in my ICT Elective, we were introduced to Belbin’s Model of Team Building. Belbin has come up with nine roles which are used to find out people’s behavioural strengths and weaknesses in group work. They each describe a way someone can ‘contribute and interrelate with others’ (Belbin, undated). It is thought that by figuring out our own role within a group setting we can make sure we use our strengths to advantage and we manage our weaknesses in order for group success. Here is a diagram showing the 9 roles.

It was interesting to look at my group and consider which roles each of us would be classed as. Personally I feel I take the ‘Team Worker’ role in our group as I am able to co-operate well with others through listening to all perspectives in the group and I can often be quite indecisive. Through identifying our strengths and weaknesses in our group it has made me more aware of the importance of having each different role in order to team success as each role relies on another.  

References

Belbin, M. (undated). Belbin Team Role Theory.

Available at http://www.belbin.com/rte.asp?id=8 [accessed 23.01.12]

Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of Practice. Available at http://www.ewenger.com/theory/ [accessed 23.01.12]

Social Media :)

Social Media tools are used by communities of people as a way of communication. Over the years Social Media and Social Networking have completely transformed the way people communicate with others (i.e. going online to talk to your friends instead of picking up the telephone). Social Media takes many forms such as Facebook, Skype, Email, Msn, Twitter etc. Although these involve different processes, they are all about a community of people communicating, either all at the same time (synchronistic) or at different occasions over a period of time (asynchronistic).

            So is Social Media right for the Classroom? I think yes! Most children nowadays have access to a computer, a mobile phone with internet, an iPad etc so I feel teachers should use this as a tool for education. Using these tools in the classroom would help to engage the children as it offers opportunities for socialisation with others. The Social Learning theory explains that humans learn through others and interacting with others so Social Media tools provides more opportunities for this to take place. The tools can encourage dialogue and communication in the classroom as some shy pupils are much more comfortable using the internet to talk as it seems less intimidating than face-to-face contact. It can encourage children to express themselves, without feeling silly.

 Another advantage to using social media tools in the classroom is that it can be used to build connections with other students, classes, schools and even countries. It provides more and more opportunities for social learning and also opportunities for learning about other cultures. Overall all I feel social media tools are effective to use in the classroom and I am looking forward to using them with a class at some point in the future.

BEd 1 ICT

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