film project:
a collaborative project involving ICT, 3D worlds and multiple intelligences
roberto cuccu
Film
Project can well show how it is possible to create a learning environment
rich and motivating using ICT, without neglecting the development of basic
skills. The structure of the project is such as to involve all kinds of
linguistic skills. At the end of the experience students have created
an original encyclopaedia on cinema and its genres, to be used as a reference
guide in an interactive game on a 3d virtual world.
In order to achieve the best of possible results students were organized
in cooperative groups and it was followed Howard Gardner's theory of multiple
intelligences so as to involve all the learning styles of the students.
It can be said that Film Project is indeed an attempt to develop new forms
of learning aimed at bringing out holistically the complexity of each
student. As Gardner has often suggested, IT is a real possibility to develop
each and all the eight intelligences he has identified.
Film Project is an example of how a motivating and well organized project is able to completely change the overall mood of a fragmented and not always motivated class. In order to accomplish such a dramatic adjustment, teachers should start from what students know and love, and then move them toward new experiences and knowledge.
In constructing new knowledge, collaborative groups and multiple approaches to learning can be valuable tools in the hand of a creative educator.
How to organize the project
The activities should be structured in such a way as to avoid the following
common problems:
only some members of each group are active and the rest hang on without
producing any valuable contribution;
computers
are used in an unbalanced way, without integrating them with other complimentary
activities;
student
assignments are produced by a mere copy and paste research from printed
or on line sources, without any personal re-elaboration.
Class is divided into groups of mixed abilities - as far as possible
according to students' preference.
Movie genres are introduced and each group selects one of them.
In every group each student picks two films from a list.
Each group must produce a group work (a description of the chosen genre)
and a number of individual texts.
In order to accomplish their tasks students should be first trained on the following language abilities:
language ability and task required
making
a summary
- classify a film genre and write a report on a film
- write a short plot of a film
skimming
through texts in search of information
- read web pages in search of the required data
watching
and listening to a scene of a film in the original language
- write 3 film reviews for each film: one completely positive, one balanced
between pros and cons, and a harsh criticism.
text
paraphrase and personal re-elaboration
creative
writing
- write an imaginary interview with one of the stars of the film (director
or actors)
role
play
- find another student to play the part of a radio interviewer; play the
part of the star being interviewed
communicative
abilities
- record the interview on a audiocassette
- ask questions and give answers
- guess the mysterious character hidden in each room of the game
first part: creation of a digital film data dase
step by step, here is the whole procedure.
a) each group focuses on the collective research on the genre. They are given some URLs to start with, shown how to research the Net using a Web Directory or a Search Engine, and how to save a page or picture they find useful for their job.
b) at the end of this first stage one or two members of each group are randomly chosen and asked to report to class..
c) students have already being collaborating to the realization of a
collective work. Now they are asked to produce individually a research
on the films they have chosen as good examples of their genre. They must
keep in mind that the final evaluation will take into consideration both
what each of them has produced and the level of cooperation achieved in
the group. In other words, being a group of mixed abilities, the ones
more proficient in a certain skill should help the others for the common
goal. The three major skills required (target language fluency, film analysis
and IT) are generally well distributed among the members of the groups.
So it is not only the student with less fluency in the target language
that should ask the contribution of the other members of the group when
in need. Also those students that are more experts in the films chosen
by the group or in the use of computers should be taken as a reference
for the less proficient.
d) each student now gathers enough data on his /her two films from the Net and must watch the videocassettes at home, possibly with some other member of the group. If they don't have the material at home, they could ask in the first place the class if anyone has got a copy, and as a second chance borrow them from a library or hire them.
e) in order to check the oral skill, students are asked to introduce and analyse a single scene from the film, and to explain the reason of their choice.
f) at the end of the first part of the project each group must hand over a collective dossier, both in printed and in digital form, with the following reports for each film:
- title, date of production, director, actors, country, genre;
- a short plot;
- three reviews for each film, of mixed judgement;
- an analysis of each film that shows how it belongs to the chosen film genre;
- an imaginary radio interview with a star of the film, recorded on
an audiocassette.
the interactive game
Once everybody feels to be an expert on a particular genre and film, an
interactive communicative activity, in the form of an Internet game, is
proposed. Now even the least proficient is aware of knowing more than
all the other fellow students as far as his / her field of research is
concerned.
Although a form of this game can also be organized using web pages, for
the specific purpose of involving all the eight intelligences - including
the spatial and physical ones - a 3D Virtual Environment on the server
Active Worlds can be chosen.
Active Worlds allow users to meet and communicate in real time with other
visitors by means of a textual chat, to move around 3 dimensional spaces,
to activate web pages at the click of a mouse. Users are visible in Active
Worlds through mannequins, the so called "avatars". These virtual
counter-egos can move, walk, jump and wave.
The space for the game can be structured as a labyrinth with rooms, each room set with pictures of a chosen film. A labyrinth requires more spatial attention from the players.
The number of rooms used in a session is more or less half the numbers of the players, because some students will play host and others guest. At start of session, host students move to their own room and play the role of one mysterious character from the film represented. When they are ready, guest students roam around the labyrinth, stopping at their will to try to guess the mysterious characters.
The purpose of the game is to guess the title of the film and then the
name of the character in disguise. Some questions can not be answered
by the host, such as what the name of the character is.
When they think they know the answer, they should "whisper"
it to the host. The function "whisper" in a chat is the possibility
to have a private conversation between two users without the rest of them
knowing about it.
Every room has got a special code, to be communicated to every right answer.
The ones that collect the most codes in a fixed amount of time are the
winners.
The script of each chat session is saved, printed and evaluated in class.
new technologies and new possibilities of development
of personality
Film Project has been designed so as to involve activities related to
all the eight learning modalities or intelligences Gardner has talked
about. Here follows a reference table.
| Kind of intelligence | What it involves | Tasks required in the project |
| Linguistic | Play with words, language | Tell stories, read texts, paraphrase, create imaginary interviews |
| Logical - Mathematical | Play with questions, experiment, classify | Guess, in indirect ways, the mysterious character in disguise |
| Visual - Spatial | Play with pictures, draw, watch pictures | Watch scenes from films, analysing some scenes in detail; build web pages with the gathered data; find one's way in the rooms and corridors of the maze |
| Musical | Play with music, listen to music | Take note and describe the different rhythms in the structure of a selected film scene |
| Bodily - kinaesthetic | Play with movement and the three-dimensional space | Use their body - or that of their "avatar" - to express their own ideas; learn interacting with space, in order to process and remember new ideas with their body |
| Interpersonal | Play with socialising | Guide others in the stages of the game; organize it, mediating and communicating with others; interview or be interviewed on a specific topic, sharing ideas; participate in a collaborative creation |
| Intrapersonal | Play alone, following one's own interests and times, focusing on the individual | Each student has his /her own part of the project to develop, either as a group or individually, according to their inclinations. |
| Ecological | Play with the environment, taking care of others | Creation of a resource on the world of cinema that will also benefit others |
Summary of benefits
As students have reported, "This activity has been very interesting and beautiful because it has been a new experience.
(…) We played with our friends and we learned and appreciated the work done by them.
(…) In my opinion, doing something you enjoy is the best way to learn; I'm sure that all of us will remember many sentences and, in particular, how to ask a question.
roberto cuccu
