Today, our environment is created more by television and cinema than by nature. Our view of what human nature is and might be is conditioned by what we see in those media. Films which make use of traditional genres only reinforce traditional views. They do not force us to new ones. But new filmmakers are creating "synaesthetic" cinema, which…

Advocates confronting controversial subjects in classrooms. Describes bringing hatred into the curriculum of a film study class. Articulates purposes and obstacles. Addresses how to handle tough topics and ways to introduce civil rights issues. Describes the final student project. States that students make a transition from consciousness to…

Leadership scholar Margaret Wheatley (2006) observed that "Each of us seeks to discover a meaning to our life that is wholly and uniquely our own. We experience a deepening confidence that purpose has shaped our lives even as it moved invisibly in us. Whether we believe that we create this meaning for ourselves in a senseless world, or that…

College faculty members have recently begun creating homemade videos to supplement their lectures, using free or low-cost software. These are the same technologies that make it easy for students to post spoof videos on YouTube, but the educators are putting the tools to educational use. Students tune in to the short videos more often than they…

When students encounter opposing beliefs in college classrooms, they can opt to remain apathetic, change perspectives, or defend their position. The process of integrating theories with personal beliefs is important to students' application of theories to their lives, and an involved instructor guides students in such applications. Communication…

Armed with digital cameras, voice recorders, and movie cameras, students from Thomas Dale High School in Chester, Virginia, have been exploring neighborhoods, interviewing residents, and collecting memories of their hometown. In this article, the author describes "Digital History of Chester", a project for creating a commemorative DVD.…

The author explains how the film "Get Real" enabled him to explore, with a group of South African student teachers, the complex ways in which queer adolescents negotiate their daily lives, the struggles they have with "coming out" to their friends and families, the problems with representation, and the connections between…

As more school administrators learn ways of promoting their schools to the public, the push for developing television production courses will likely increase. This article introduces the reader to the curricular and pedagogical foundations of television production technology. The authors discuss how to make informed decisions when creating…

The thirty-third annual International Student Media Festival was held last October in Anaheim. The authors went to see some of the activities, feel the electricity generated by the students, teachers, and parents in attendance, and visit with some of the participants. This wonderful showcase of the best student-produced media in the nation has…

This article reports on an action research project undertaken with the primary aim of investigating the extent to which a feature film, whose plot included Tesla's demonstrations on the wireless transmission of electrical energy, can promote scientific enquiry. The class that participated in this project was an 11th grade class in a rural area of…

This paper defines how out-of-school adolescents from Masaka District in rural southwest Uganda currently receive sexual and reproductive health information and how they would prefer to receive that information. Information adolescents feel they lack falls into three broad categories: sexual and reproductive health issues, the negotiation of sex…

In this article, the author discusses how students create their arts projects by responding to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." In creating their arts projects, students incorporate film, painting, performance, and other arts in their imaginative and innovative responses to Coleridge's classic work. The author discusses…

This article discusses a documentary film created by students with learning disabilities to share their wisdom. "Speak Out for Understanding" is a new film on learning disabilities created by a group of students at a Vermont high school. Made on a shoestring, the award-winning 32-minute documentary overturns a number of popular…

This paper discusses young Korean immigrant girls' understanding of American popular culture in a small-scale qualitative study in order to disclose young American immigrant girls' perspectives on such culture. In particular, this paper explores how these Korean girls (age five to eight) perceive female body images in American popular culture -…

This article explores how a curriculum of film becomes organized by the teacher's worries about what film may open up in class. The author focuses on her own worries about showing Gus Van Sant's (2003) film, "Elephant," an elliptical and dreamlike study of the murders in 1999 of twelve students and a teacher at Columbine High School, to a class of…