A picture makes a thousand words in classrooms

                When your students lose interest in class, what do you usually do to inspire them? I usually use poems to generate discussions and most students including adults find it very challenging. The interactions in class and in students’ online community about the interpretation of a poem can effectively rekindle the passion to think critically and to use rhetoric to express opinions. Occasionally, some students complained that poetry was too difficult and they asked for films. At present, using films to enhance students’ analytical skills is not a new idea (Culkin, 1970; Maynard, 1969, 1971, 1977, as cited in Champoux, 2007). Many others have reported successfully using films in teaching a broad range of disciplines or topics, such as political science, American Studies, French, group dynamics, science, and anthropology (Champoux, 2007). However, for some people, especially in traditional classroom education, using films is viewed inappropriate. Teachers showing films in class without clearly identifying the purpose of the lesson to the audience are sometimes criticized as if they were just trying to kill time. Therefore, before using films, teachers need to gain insight, advantages and disadvantageous of films as a teaching resource.

The article “Film as a Teaching Resource” by Joseph E. Champoux (2007) discusses film as a resource for teaching organizational behavior and management theories and concepts. The author points out that the unique qualities of film make it a communication medium that effectively enhances the learning process. The functions of film in teaching followed by the advantages and disadvantages of using film as a teaching tool are discussed at the end of the article.

          Functions of Films in Teaching and its advantages

Using films in traditional or virtual classrooms can personalized both the teaching styles for instructors and the lesson for learners. In this article, the author interestingly describes different functions of film in teaching that can be applied with different teaching styles, teaching goals, and contents. Films can serve as case studies, experiential exercises, metaphors, satires and symbolisms to make the lessons more understandable. Films can lead to rich discussions and reinforcement of concepts and theory. Students can analyze selected scenes in small groups using some background knowledge of problem solving and the theories and concepts they are studying to recommend a decision approach. In other words, discussion on films can activate models. Moreover, unusual shots, sequencing, lighting, and the use of colors in film can convey symbolism that helps students practice abstract thinking.  Film is an excellent medium for giving meaning to theories and concepts better than printed or spoken words (Champoux, 2007).

Disadvantages of Film in Teaching

While using film in class is convenient, motivating, and attention stimulating, there are some critical drawbacks. First, the film content might distract some students from the target theories and concepts. Students are easily moved by its sentimental contents and scenes that they forget why they are watching it. Second, showing a whole film in class takes time away from other classroom activities. For this problem, the author suggests using selected scenes of twenty minutes or less to make students focus on specific theories or concepts. The film and scene selection is also important. Teachers need to carefully determine whether the scene selected makes its point efficiently and worth the use of class time. Third, admittedly, a lot of scenes distort reality. By watching films, students can misunderstand some basic concepts of other cultures resulting in inappropriate interaction with people from that culture.

Summary

This article described how and why to use film as a teaching resource. With various functions, films can be used as cases, as a source of information for experiential exercises, or present unusual experiences to students. Using films as a teaching tool also has strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, teachers need to thoughtfully design a lesson with films for students’ maximum benefits.

Reference

Champoux, J. E. (2007). Film as a Teaching Resource. Journal of Management Inquiry, September 2007. Retrieved April 15, 2012 from http://symptommedia.com/wp-content/uploads/teaching-resource.pdf.

EDPC5003 Group Work Assignment

EDPC5003 Group Work Assignment
by Michael Tang, Suphannika Vidhayassaronyudh, Jamie Jampargar

How to create a successful e-lesson - focusing on Peer-Based Question Posing.

Introduction
The purposes of this e-lesson is to consider what are the different components and aspects that can be included in a successful e-lesson in a general perspective. Also, we will try to implement online question-posing into a classroom setting. By situating ourselves into a practices to see how this particular method would aid the learners.

By end of this e-lesson, we would expect everyone to achieve the following objectives:

• able to name most of the possible components and methods a successful e-lesson would include.
• have understanding of how online question-posing would aid the learners.
• able to assist and guide learners with online question-posing method.

Main Readings

Baraka, M., & Rafaelib, S. (2004). On-line question-posing and peer-assessment as means for web-based knowledge sharing in learning. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 61, 84–103.

Merrill, D. & Gilbert, C. (2008). Effective peer interaction in a problem-centered instructional strategy. Distance Education, 29(2), 199-206.

Information Presentation

E-learning is generally characterized as education or training that is created or delivered using a computer or other online learning technologies such as Learning Management System (LMS). The information and communication system serve as specific media to implement the learning process. This mode of learning enables large numbers of people to receive targeted instruction at their convenience. The popularity of E-learning lessons has been mainly driven by the realization that the ideal of personalized learning cannot be achieved at a massive scale by traditional approaches (Sampson and Karagiannidis, 2002). Also, E-learning overcomes many drawbacks that are inherent to traditional classroom teaching, especially its lack of flexibility in the use of resources. Since this educational approach represents a very different mode of communication which is the heart of  all forms of educational interaction, it will inevitably transform all forms of education and learning in the 21st century (Garrison and Anderson, 2003). A greater number of students of diverse educational and cultural backgrounds can join together within the one virtual classroom.

Another benefit of e-lesson  is its consistency. Effective instruction depends upon a clear, consistent message delivered to learners when they are receptive to learning. E-learning ensures that all learners receive a consistent message. By using audio, visuals, interactivity, and simulation, E-learning can accommodate the various learning styles to communicate the message more effectively.

Here are some components and methods that are commonly seen in e-lessons and they have been shown to improve students’ learning experiences and performances.

• The use of diagrams, pictures and multimedia to support texts - Whenlan (2007) has shown using neuroimaging that being able to reduce the extraneous cognitive load of a person would enable larger space for intrinsic cognitive load to reason and think, and thus, allows better learning conditions (Sweller, 1994). Also, proper use of online multimedia, such as YouTube and other resources would motivate the students and show them connections to the real-life.
• Online discussions - The use of online discussions have shown to improve students’ learning performance and their satisfaction of the course (Ellis et al., 2007). This would be of great help for e-lesson components.
• Utilization of Web2.0 tools - The Web 2.0 websites are great tools that can be utilized for learners to reflect what they think on the courses. These are good chances for peer reviewing purposes and to self-examine one’s learning. Studies have shown that one would learn best knowing what to expect from the course (Ellis et al., 2007), and deep reflection would be a higher-order learning activity (Biggs, 2003).
• The use of social networking websites - Websites such as FaceBook and MySpace can be utilized as the medium to communicate and exchange information fast with the students (Vie, 2008).

It is widely known that E-learning has a well-developed approach to the creation and sequencing of content-based, single learner, self-paced learning objects (Dalziel, 2003). However, there is little understanding of how to create sequences of learning activities or E-lessons which involve groups of learners interacting within a structured set of collaborative environments, or how teachers should design an E-learning environment. The purpose of this E-lesson, therefore, is to introduce  and practice how to develop and present a question-posing strategy.

Question posing

Questions, especially in the traditional classroom,  are mostly generated by teachers. Students, on the other hand, have immensely learned how to answer questions correctly, not how to ask questions. This kind of skill seems to be passive and does not encourage cognitive learning. Recently, with the support of learning technology, the role of asking questions has been shifted from teachers to students in the teaching and learning process (Dori and Herscovitz, 1999; Macbach Ad and Sokolove, 2000, as cited in Barak and Rafaeli, 2003). Sokolove (2000, as cited in Barak and Rafaeli, 2003) indicates that challenging students to take an active role in posing questions can promote independent in learning. According to Barak and Rafaeli (2003), on-line question posing strategy enhances meaningful learning by implement construction of knowledge through construction of questions and answers. This motivating and personalized activity can also help create a community of learning which is one of the primary goals of E-learning.



Conclusion

We discussed about the good components that can be included in e-lessons, binding its ability to utilize the Internet. These would include the use of diagrams and multimedia; online discussions facilities; web 2.0 tools; use of social networking websites; and the method of online question posing activities. Most of these components and methods have shown to greatly improve students’ performance and satisfaction in learning.

Here, we propose a pedagogical approach by using online question posing method adopted from Barak and Rafaeli (2003). This is chosen because we believe that using this method, the class is more student-centred, with more interactions and peer-reviews. The instructors will need to guide the learners to build questions from the materials given such that the class remains student-directed. We would suggest that some hints and key points are given as a teacher’s role of guidance, but leaving enough spaces for the learners to expand.

Also, closed-end multiple choice questions or truth-or-false questions are suggested rather than open-ended questions. By questioning multiple choices, the learners need to go through everything in order to search for right answer and distractors. Simple questions like "which chamber of the heart is connected to the aorta?" the correct answer is "left ventricle", but the students need to be able to identify all other choices given are not correct yet distracting for the question takers. This effect would not be clearly seen in open-ended questions, as the open-ended questions do not necessarily direct the question-takers into the perspective they wish to direct to. Also, we would urge the instructors to suggest the learners to direct the questions into the perspectives that they are trying to express. This would also allow the learners to think more.

Peer-review will follow the question posing from the learners. The learners are encouraged to rate their peer’s works, take the questions, and comment on what they think of them. As an instructor, we need to make sure the questions are in the track of the course and learning objectives, and making adjustments when necessary.

We offer, in the following, a practice of the question posing scenario that everyone can feel if this method would actually work by participating as a learner (Greeno, 1998), as well as, we will act as an instructor to view our peer’s work to see if there are any suggestion you would make.


This E-lesson’s Activities

There are two tasks for this e-lesson:

1. Watch the following film: L'accordeur, an award winning short film in 2010.

http://www.lstudio.com/films-on-l/the-piano-tuner.html

Here are some starting points/roles worth to notice while watching:

• the piano tuner.
• the old lady.
• the old man on the couch.
• piano tuner’s boss.
• blindness.
• the neighbour.
• the diary.

2. Individual Tasks

Part 1:

As a practice scenario for questions posing activities, you should come up with a series of two or three multiple choice questions or true or false questions, NOT open ended. These questions should aim to lead your peers to some perspectives that you have obtained from this short film. It can be either an idea, a reason, or a logic. Also, write down the perspective (about 100+ words) that you are trying to achieve following the multiple choice questions.

Please put these on the discussion boards of this week.

Here is an example of part 1,

1) Why did the piano tuner not escape the room?

a) the piano tuner was too shock to escape.

b) the piano tuner was indirectly forced to stay.

c) the piano tuner was still trying to act like he is blind.

d) two of the above.

2) The piano tuner handed over his clothes for washing, what could have been wrong in this move?

a) the old lady would find the dairy.

b) he has no clothes to escape.

c) he would feel cold.

d) this is inappropriate to be half naked in other people's house.

3) Besides the diary, what would be other factors that have driven the death of the piano tuner?

a) his emotional instability

b) his acting skill

c) the neighbour

d) two of the above

e) all the above

Personal review/ main point trying to get across here is:

The diary and his acting skill were two of the major failures for the piano tuner. The old man was a blind person before he died, and the old lady would certainly know how a blind person would act like. However, the first doubt should be from the neighbour. The neighbour was peeking through the door and realised that this piano tuner is not really blind, because he uses a diary. The old lady lied, too. A blind old man is not possible to be taking a walk by himself. Thus, the neighbour's suspicious look made the old lady nervous, and still let the piano tuner in. The suspicious look for the piano tuner was interpreted as the suspicion on the old lady (only the old lady saw it). It is the combinations of suspicions and emotional instability that lead to the death of the piano tuner.

Part 2:

Please read other’s questions on Part 1. Pick a random peer, analyze and comment on their questions on the short film. Keep in mind that everyone would see this film in different perspectives, so what we are aiming is that if the questions are relevant to what they perceived.

1. Give a rating, out of 5, on how well the questions are relevant to the perspective the author is trying to come across. 5/5 for very related, and 1/5 for not related at all.  
2. From an instructor point of view, any improvements or suggestions you would make to the series of questions.
3. As a(n) learner/instructor, what do you think of Question Posing learning environment? Does this environment allow you to understand the material better or does it become a burden instead? Would there be any improvement that you would make to make this method better used?

Reference:

Barak, M. & Rafaeli, S. (2003). On-line question-posing and peer assessment as means for web-based knowledge sharing in learning. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. Elsevier 61 (2004) pgs. 84-103.

Biggs, J.B. (2003). Teaching for quality learning at university (2nd edn) (Buckingham, Society for Reasearch into Higher Education & Open University Press).

Dori, Y.J. & Herscovitz, O. (1999). Question Posing Capability as an Alternative Evaluation Method: Analysis of an Environmental Case Study. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 36(4), 411-430.

Greeno, J. G. (1998). "The situativity of knowing, learning, and research". American Psychologist 53 (1): 5–26.

Ellis, R.A., Goodyear, P., O’Hara, A. Prosser, M. (2007). The university student experience of face-to-face and on-line discussions: coherence, reflection and meaning.Association for Learning Technology Journal. 15, 1, 83-97.

Garrison, D. R., & Anderson, T. (2003). E–Learning in the 21st century: A framework for research and practice. London: Routledge/Falmer.

Merrill, D. & Gilbert, C. (2008). Effective peer interaction in a problem-centered instructional strategy. Distance Education, 29(2), 199-206.

Sampson D., Karagiannidis C. & Kinshuk, "Personalised Learning: Educational, Technological and Standardisation Perspective", Interactive Educational Multimedia, 4, 2002.

Sweller, J. (1994). "Cognitive Load Theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design". Learning and Instruction 4 (4): 295–312.

Whelan, R. (2007). Neuroimaging of cognitive load in instructional multimedia. Educational Research Review 2, 1–12.

Vie, S. (2008). Digital divide 2.0: “Generation M” and online social networking sites in the composition classroom. Computers and Composition. 25, 9–23.

TV Advertisement: Threat or Treat

Last week’s post is about gender stereotyping but what exactly is gender stereotyping? According to Eagly (cited in Crespi 2006), gender stereotypes are related to cognitive processes in which female and male behaviors are differently expected. Traditional gender roles help to sustain gender stereotypes, such as men are supposed to know how to repair things whereas women should clean and cook well.

The question is that the disadvantages of gender role bias are widely known but why is gender stereotyping still continuously strengthened within a society? At least two contemporary social theories can help unravel the reasons. First, Alice Eagly’ s social role theory (cited in Chiao, Bowman & Gill 2008) suggests that social order is partly a result of gender stereotyping. Once a person knows their roles and acts accordingly, they become accepted by the society and will be rewarded. Parents, not wanting children to be cast out, view gender stereotyping positively.

Another theory to explain gender stereotyping in society is called “Social Role Valorization (SRV)” by Dr.Wolf Wolfensberger (cited in Osburn 2006). The basic principle of SRV is that if a person holds valued social roles, that person tends to be socially successful. In other words, if parents can help their children acquire skills needed to participate positively in the community, it is more likely that the children will be well-blended into the community.

While children’s books are influential, television is undeniably more powerful in the area of persuasion. A survey by the American Association of Advertising Agencies in 1999 (cited in Ganahl, Prinsen, & Netzley 2003) revealed that youth aged 8-18 years spent 22 hours and 52 minutes watching television per week. That means they are exposed to at least 16 minutes per hour of advertisements. Pollay (cited in Ganahl, Prinsen, & Netzley 2003) concluded that these commercials reinforce and nurture cultural norms  through images and sounds repeatedly shown on the screen. Like hypnotism, mainstream gender roles are cultivated into the youths’ unconsciousness. Barner (cited in Ganahl, Prinsen, & Netzley 2003) noted that one important lesson children learn from T.V. is how to fit into society.

            In fact, the underlying reason of advertising is obviously not to teach or to help people behave appropriately. Advertising exploits gender stereotypes to boost their sales. Beauty product advertisements act as caring advisors helping women with wrinkles, pimples, or weight problems. When examined deeply, female characters in those advertisements look so unconfident or embarrassed that they have no choice but to grab skin care products from the shelves. Likewise, other household product advertisements such as frozen food, seasoning sauces, and detergent hint that a decent house-wife should be able to cook deliciously, to clean impeccably, and to make her husband happy after work. Such burden as family detergence is placed on delicate hands of women. Incapable of doing those things, they might be neglected. Those advertisements’ primary goal is driving people to purchase products, some of which are unnecessary, if they want to master their roles.

            At the same time, high expectation is placed on men to provide leadership and sufficient money. They are represented as wealthy, dominant, significant, and decision-making in automobile and technology gadget advertisements. Their occupations in the ads are significantly different from their female counterparts. While women occupy the home, men are outside in an office having an important meeting, in a party and so on. One lesson learned from most of the male-oriented advertisements is that they need to be able to afford luxurious products to be attractive. These stereotypes not only promote materialism but also create misconception about what women really want from men.

            Obviously, business owners use advertising to reinforce gender stereotypes solely because they financially benefit from them. 

References

 Chiao, JY, Bowman, NE, Gill, H 2008, The Political Gender Gap: Gender Bias in Facial

Inferences that Predict Voting Behavior, Yale University, USA, viewed 31 March 2012, <http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.  0003666>

Ganahl, JD, Prinsen, TJ & Netzley, SB 2003, A Content Analysis of Prime

Time Commercials: A Contextual Framework of Gender Representation1. Sex Roles, 49(9/10), pp. 545-551, viewed 3 April 2012, retrieved from Research Library. (Document ID: 532799781).

Osburn, J 2006, An overview of Social Role Valorization theory. The SRV Journal, 1(1),

pp. 4-13, viewed 29 March 2012, < http://www.srvip.org/overview _SRV_Osburn.pdf>.