Moving Images, Understanding Media

Preface v

off erings at a high school or university. Th e work in the text is not tied to

any specifi c technology, computer programs, or individual motion pictures.

Support for the technological resources selected by a school can be found on

the textbook website. In fact, the work of this course has been done with a

few VHS cameras and a couple of VCRs (although I would not recommend

this route).

Th is project is a culmination of my years of work as a teacher, fi lmmaker,

and writer, and it is designed to off er a fl exible tool for educators to develop

media studies and motion picture production courses that meet the needs

of learners in varied educational contexts. Having engaged in cinema studies

as an undergraduate at Princeton University, then fi lm production in New

York University’s graduate fi lm and television program and on shoots in the

United States and Europe, I was able to draw upon a diverse academic and

professional background to create and write curriculum and coursework for

motion picture classes at Suffi eld High School in Suffi eld, Connecticut. At

the core of this text are everyday experiences of the high school classroom

and lessons that have been developed amidst the diffi culties and successes

that I have encountered as a teacher.

Twenty-fi rst century educators know that they must engage students in a variety

of ways in order to be eff ective teachers. With this textbook, diff erentiation of

instruction is facilitated by the use of multiple approaches for the mastery of

skills and concepts in visual literacy and communication. Moving Images:

Making Movies, Understanding Media is designed to maximize learning

opportunities for secondary and undergraduate students by developing

creative, analytical, and collaborative skills.

Contemporary educational experts have consistently singled out the

benefi ts of cooperative learning and teaching for creativity. Although

collaborative methods have been shown to be among the most fruitful

modes of learning, the lack of texts designed to facilitate collaboration has

hindered more widespread use of cooperative techniques in classrooms.

In addition, engagement with creative activities is consistently cited as a

boon to student achievement, yet students typically have less opportunity

for creative problem solving at the consecutive steps from elementary to

middle to high school. Th rough the exercises in this textbook, students

are called upon to share tasks as they generate original solutions and

individually demonstrate the skills necessary for understanding and using

motion picture media.

In Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Media, students are

consistently provided with contexts to understand the sources, traditions, and

developments of moving image media. At every juncture, they are asked to

refl ect upon and seek creative and critical solutions to essential questions of

motion picture communication. Artistic, historical, sociological, scientifi c,

economic, and personal perspectives on the story of moving images are woven

throughout the text. As a result, numerous opportunities for cross-curricular

learning are imbedded into the modules of this textbook.

Preface v

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