Summer+Media+Institute

Media Literacy Part I - Visual Communication
We live in an age of visual images. In industrial societies, most people spend much of their time looking at television screens, Web graphics, print illustrations, and other types of visual displays ([|Messaris, 2001]). Because of this, many would argue that we need a more visually oriented educational system, one focused more directly on “visual literacy” -- which may be defined, for our purposes, as competence in the production and consumption of visual messages.

 Remember - a preference for visual entertainment is not necessarily accompanied by superior understanding of visual information. Don't assume that the consumption of visual images leads to any notable improvement in a person’s creative abilities in the visual realm. We want to fully understand how to use the language of film...or visual media to control the message that we want to convey.

 As [|Rudolf Arnheim (1969)] argued in his pioneering study of visual intelligence, to learn to think in pictures is to learn how to use these ingredients effectively as elements of one’s overall message.

We can think of most media as a re-creation of reality. What are some examples of reality that you think is super real or super cool?

What techniques are used in advertising? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po0jY4WvCIc&feature=PlayList&p=D4CE2110408C1A34&playnext_from=PL&index=4

http://www.edutopia.org/media-literacy-skills-video - a little bit about the importance of media literacy - with George Lucas

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/language_of_film.html - some language of film ideas - includes - rules of grammer

Media Literacy Part II - Presentation and Social Media

 * What is a blog?
 * What is a wiki?
 * What is twitter?
 * What is a social network?

Representing Yourself online > []
 * Let's think about how you present yourself in different parts of your day.
 * How about here at SMI? What about at school? At home?
 * What are the things that connect you to those places and the people you share it with?
 * There is an interesting thing that has happened...Most people have had to adapt to a rapidly changing world...a wired world; a digital world. You have not. You have grown up in it.
 * The geography of the internet - let's define the space (place)
 * How do you present yourself differently online? What are the differences of this space (anonymity, credibility, many connections)
 * Let's talk about facebook in particular
 * Graphical representation of privacy changes in facebook from 2005 to present

Ideas taken from:
 * Helfenbein, Robert J. "A Critical Geography of Youth Culture." //Contemporary Youth Culture an International Encyclopedia//. Ed. Shirley R. Steinberg, Priya Parmar, and Birgit Richard. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2006. Print.

Information about Film techniques and genre. In our discussion of 'genre' we are going to talk about our experiences of the film and what techniques are used to give that to us. Genre in film can refer to

We're going to talk about Sci-FI, Fantasy, Horror and what techniques are used.

Horror - Horror films try to make us feel fear, panic, disgust...They tend to make us question reality by involving the supernatural (monsters, ghosts, zombies, masked madmen). If it has the supernatural, is it horror? Give me an example. What is the difference between thriller and horror? Horror tends to be more graphic and thriller builds more suspense. Let's look at some clips:

Nosferatu - 52:00, 1:19:00 Texas Chainsaw Massacre Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=285ImXTYdsg The Shining - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmOoekbK6YI Psycho, shower scene - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4 American Psycho - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgZhCi-f5eg&feature=related

What about Science Fiction / Fantasy Also includes topics outside of mainstream society. Things like aliens, space or time travel, ESP. Science fiction films have often been used to focus on [|political] or [|social issues], and to explore philosophical issues like the [|human condition].

Examples: Metropolis - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j8Ba9rWhUg The day the earth stood still - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfpSXI8_UpY Contact: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZhvBkrq6rU&feature=related Empire Strikes Back - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWjj8EKTkWE

Information about Documentary Film a broad category of moving pictures intended to [|document] some aspect of reality. ==== Cinéma-vérité - The fundamentals of the style include following a person during a crisis with a moving, often handheld, camera to capture more personal reactions. There are no sit-down interviews, and the [|shooting ratio] (the amount of film shot to the finished product) is very high, often reaching 80 to one.====

Documentaries have become more popular recently with large hits like Super Size Me, An Inconvenient Truth, March of the Penguins etc...

Examples: Corporation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pin8fbdGV9Y March of the Penguins - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB_GisVFboU Fog of War - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXKJr4MvkQM Baraka - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOrJxMMn-rw

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Ideas for Article
Using skills/content knowledge in real application as soon as they are taught. We do not wait for mastery of content...We move forward with production as though the students are ready to produce using their own thoughts.

Project based learning. We take the content knowledge and skills and have the students develop projects in their own voice.

Communication/Presentation

Group work

Media Literacy - language of film, visual literacy, information literacy

Forming the complete circle of media literacy...reading and writing visual texts. - handbook pg. 297 (Bruce)

Problems with out of school - this raises challenges - handbook pg. 298 - Could there be a disconnect between in-school and out-of-school literacies? Are students able to take the media literacy concepts and transfer them to a wide variety of subjects?''