Benefits of Screen Education
Screen education is more than just a literacy programme. It is a rich context for learning that allows children and young people to develop across the Curriculum for Excellence.
Screen education involves: watching and listening to a range of screen texts; discussing and analysing them; generating discursive and creative written work, storyboards and scripts; making films by re-purposing 'found' material or through filming new footage; exploring genres and types of texts that might be less familiar; re-examining familiar texts; and developing knowledge and understanding of film language.
There are many advantages to screen education, both as an aid to discussion and as a focus for creative activities. Pupils have the opportunity to reason aloud, to support and develop the opinions of their peers, to verbalise solutions to problems, and to collaborate with their peers to reach consensus. Critical questioning techniques deepen thought processes and allow teaching and learning to develop within a pupil-directed context.
So much of our cultural understanding and our empathy is developed from what we watch, so the close study of films can have a dramatic effect on how young people think and feel, and on their understanding of themselves and their place in the world. Also, it's fun!
Benefits of Studying Film
- Improved literacy
- Enhanced understanding of how to construct a narrative
- Greater sense of relevance to education
- Better understanding of how different media are constructed and their impact
- Enhanced discussion skills
- Improved self-esteem and self-confidence
- Greater appreciation of culture and democratic society
- Increased sense of enfranchisement and citizenship.
Skills Gained From Collaborative Filmmaking
- Research
- Analysis
- Teamwork
- Planning and organisation
- Flexible thinking and multi-tasking
- Problem-solving
- Personal motivation
- Computing and technology
- Communication
- Criticism and self-criticism (including peer-reviewing)
- Social awareness and moral responsibility
- Presentation (both personal and project-related)
