Descriptive text of the video

        My goal by choosing this course is to have the knowledge and the ability to achieve teaching tasks through digital tools, so I can cope with my students’ digital world. In other words, I want to deliver knowledge, experiences, and information that I choose for students by using digital tools.

Movie topic:I chose impressionism which is one important principles in art to teach my students.

Intended audience:
My audience is grade 12 students.

Goals for learning:
I will teach students
1) Impressionism as a critical principle in art.
2) Impressionist style characteristics.
3) Different techniques in impressionism.
4) Vincent van Gogh as one of the famous impressionist artists.

Connections between the impressionism video and the theory:
          Through this video I attempted to offer a nonverbal way of teaching, so students can enjoy different type of learning experience. Sometimes, I use a video from the internet to enhance and support the learning environment that I organize for them. Some of the video I use do not cover all the elements that I need. Now, through the learning experience I had in this course, I have the ability to create and design a visual learning environment for my students independently. I can control over every small component in the video I play in my classroom. Knowing, understanding and interpreting the language of sound and image that we discussed in this course helped me in many ways creating this video. "Media literacy empowers people to be both critical thinkers and creative producers of an increasingly wide range of messages using image, language, and sound. It is the skilful application of literacy skills to media and technology messages. As communication technologies transform society, they impact our understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our diverse cultures, making media literacy an essential life skill for the 21st century."(The Alliance for a Media literate America,2000)

       Visual learning experience offer a unique ways of learning "The visual arts offer ways to ask questions and respond to ideas and feelings in terms of colors, lines, movements, rhythms, textures, or perspectives. Music and dance suggest ways to hear and express ideas in tones, sounds, rhythms, distance, and space. Drama, film, and modern technology chart ways to invent and represent meanings in terms of images and point of view" (Piazza, 1999).
         Students today live in a digital world and they find learning with a mixture of text, image, and sound more interesting than learning based on verbal way. "Media study does not replace text. It broadens and deepens our understanding of texts." Philip M. Anderson, "Visual & Verbal Thinking" in Media Literacy, A Reader

        In our class, my friends and I enjoyed watching the video and we often started our discussion talking about the video we watched. It is not just about what we enjoy the most, but we remember the most of what we see and hear not what we read. As educators, we want students get involved and engaged in their learning. Video including images and sounds can generate excitement which motivates students’ engagement, and help teachers creating innovative and effective learning environment.

       Through my video I displayed a number of impressionist paintings which will be difficult for me to show students this number of paintings by using textbooks. Also, students will not enjoy watching a big and clear painting from a textbook. In addition, I provided students with lots of information that combined with images which might be hard to do it without digital tools. Moreover, by using video images with music I can transfer students into different world, history, and emotion. Finally,Oliver Knill claim” The reason to use one or two minutes of the time for a movie scene is: 1) to stimulate memory: students associate the scene with a mathematical concept. It is used as a memnonic trick.2) to breaks the routine. Especially for a 90 minute lectures, a little movie clip can be a fresh start”.

      I used Windows Movie Maker to create my movie. I really enjoyed this learning experience.
I found this experience very beneficial and practical for my teaching future. It is really met my goal for taking this course.



References:
1. The Alliance for a Media Literate America, 2000
http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/clayton/index.html
2. Piazza, 1999,
http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_literacy_cluster_1/17/4549/1164764.cw/index.html
3. Philip M. Anderson, "Visual & Verbal Thinking" in Media Literacy, A Reader
http://www.frankwbaker.com/Media_Lit_Quotes.html.
4. Oliver Knill http://www.math.harvard.edu/~knill/pedagogy/benefits/paper.pdf