English and ICT

Moving Image – Introduction

Many of the texts that children encounter in their lives outside school involve moving image texts such as film, television and computer games. Most children develop considerable expertise in interpreting these complex texts and yet these skills often remain unacknowledged in schools. The literacy/English curriculum makes some reference to exploring moving image texts but it tends to treat this as peripheral rather than central to literacy in the curriculum. Recently, developments in technology have made it much easier to film and edit moving image texts in the classroom. There are a number of programmes available which make it relatively simple for children to make and edit films, including Digital Blue Movie Creator, iMovie, Flash and Moviemaker. However, whilst there are pockets of excellent practice, many students will lack opportunities to observe teachers working with this technology in classrooms. As teacher educators, we face a number of challenges:

• helping students to place moving image texts within the curriculum
   
• enabling students themselves to make explicit their own knowledge about moving image texts and find ways of enabling children to do the same
   
• developing the students’ own film-making skills
   
• encouraging students to overcome organisational difficulties and risk experimenting with film-making in the classroom