DIGITAL LITERACIES

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Computing - Purpose of study

A high-quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. Computing has deep links with mathematics, science and design and technology, and provides insights into both natural and artificial systems. The core of computing is computer science, in which pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content.

Computing also ensures that pupils become digitally literate – able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology – at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.

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Computing – Aims

The national curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all pupils:

can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation

can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems

can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems

are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology

What does it mean to be literate?

In groups of four:Decide on the essential capabilities a digitally literate child should possess.

“To be digitally literate is to have access to a broad range of practices and cultural resources that you are able to apply to digital tools. It is the ability to make, represent and share meaning in different modes and formats; to create, collaborate and communicate effectively and to understand how and when digital technologies can best be used to support these processes. “

Futurelab, 2010

We live in an age when to be literate means to be as familiar with images on a screen as with text on a page, and to be as confident with a camera or a keyboard as with a pen.

21st Century Literacy – The UK Film Council”

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Literature and modes of communication are constantly changing and this should be reflected in our primary curriculum. If teachers provide opportunities for children to analyse and be critical of time based texts (film) these skills will continue to develop and will be transferable to the analysis of print based texts.

Jackie Marsh, 2008”

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USING SHORT FILMS IN THE EARLY YEARS TO DEVELOP MEDIA LITERACY

British Film Institute

www.bfi.org.uk/

Key reasons for using short films in the classroom include:

• Short films can easily be viewed at one sitting and offer a complete narrative.

• Short films allow for easy repetition of viewing, which is important if children are to be allowed to critically engage with material on a meaningful level. Their increased familiarity with a text allows them to feel confident and secure in discussing it in detail.

• Short film can be watched several times with a different focus without losing children's interest. Indeed, young children thrive on repetition as a means of embedding information, concepts and ideas in their thinking.

• Short films must put across their narrative in a clear and accessible way. This makes it easier, particularly for very young children to see structure and form clearly. In turn this helps them to develop their own abilities to create a structured stories or narratives.

The BFI also indicate how work around film texts can link with curriculum-based base work and enhance key areas of learning. In particular:

Foundation Key Stage 1

Personal, social and emotional development

PHSE

Communication, language and literacy English

Knowledge and understanding of the world

Science, History and Geography

Creative development Art, Music, Design and technology

Starting Stories, BFI, 2007, pg7.

‘While we could describe the narrative of a print based text as being the ‘camera’ through which the reader ‘sees’ the story, and powerful descriptive passages may allow us to imagine sounds and colours, the power of a film, in the way it combines sounds and image, is worthy of study in its own right.’

….. the development of skills in reading, comprehending and judging moving

images and sounds both intellectually and emotionally.

The three themes in are

• Film Language• Producers and audiences• Messages and values

Cineliteracy

Language of the moving image

When watching moving images consider the following-

• Camera• Colour • Character• Story • Sound• Settings

The grammar of film language

• wide shot• mid shot• close up• extreme close up• over the shoulder

Sound, Story, Setting

• What can you hear?• What do you imagine you might see?• Where is the film set?• Is there music? How would you describe it and how does

it make you feel?• What kind of atmosphere does the sound portray?• Is there silence used in the film?• What time of day is it?

Activity

Colour

• Who or what is the main character?• What can you tell about him from the way he acts?• Do you think the character lives on his own? Why?

Character

• What colours can you see in the film?• What do the colours used tell you about the time of day?

Camera• What kind of a shot is this?• Why does the filmmaker look from the frog’s point of view

here?• What is the frog thinking or feeling?• Why are other shots looking at the frog? Whose point of

view do we see the frog from?

A Slippery Tale Pantoffelhelden

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoUffTWsXRE

Activity:

• Get together as a group (3 is ideal) and agree on the story that you want to tell using Puppet Pals. Focus on developing a strong, simple narrative.

• Again working together, create a quick and simple storyboard for your movie. It isn’t necessary to be a great artist to produce a good storyboard.

• Aim to create a film that is approximately 60 seconds

• Come back ready to show your films.

SHOWTIME

Before the next EV681 session:

Investigate how schools encourage learning partnerships, between and with pupils, staff and families.