Becoming a Polyglot; Adding Media-Speak and Tech-Speak

I recently went to see Martin Scorsese’s first film created for children called “Hugo,” based on the award-winning book, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.”

The movie followed the book’s plot-line fairly closely and was a perfect vehicle for the partially fictional story which centered on one of film’s early pioneers, Georges Méliès. Scorsese claims that he decided to make the film after one of his children complained that they were not allowed to see any of his films, which often carry an “R” rating. When I discovered that Scorsese had started a visual literacy program for middle school students, everything seemed to fit together.

The program was created when Scorsese realized that kids needed to tools to interpret the  visual imagery that they are immersed in every day. “So much of today’s society is done visually, and even subliminally, for young people, that it could be dangerous. One has to know that it is a very, very powerful tool.” The director should know. He was not willing to let his own young children watch his powerful movies; the images and ideas that they presented were not appropriate to their stage of development. The awareness of other images that they were being confronted with on a daily basis, no doubt occurred to him at the same time.

Helping students develop visual critical thinking skills in the area of film is like teaching them a new language. Once they learn the syntax of film-making, they can understand how a commercial or YouTube video or Hollywood movie is using  all of filmmaking’s vocabulary and structure to evoke a response or shape an opinion. Fluency in a language is a powerful tool. Once students understand how a movie is attempting to communicate or even manipulate them, they are no longer easily controlled by those images. “The Story of Movies” is a free curriculum package available to educators in the U.S. It teaches about how movies are made in a cross-curricular format, delving into both the science of lighting, and the psychology of the different uses of light, for example.

This visual fluency also translates to technological fluency. Those most adept at using computer tools will be the most adept at manipulating and taking advantage of others (on the dark side of this skill set) and most successful at educating and teaching important truths and discoveries (on the light side of this skill set).

from Wikipedia

Just as a linguistic language is used to teach throughout the school day in many different subjects, computer literacy must be woven throughout the curriculum as a way to understand and communicate the actual content. There are times when one must stop and intentionally teach a language, but then that language is immediately put to use for many important purposes.

The ISTE standards do not do much good being taught on their own, apart from the many subjects of study at school. They need to be woven throughout the content, used where and when appropriate, and as the students become more fluent in these standards, the results become more and more sophisticated and polished. The more a language is practiced and used in real-world situations, the more fluent the speaker becomes. Many students at our international school are already mastering second and third languages, and this is very valuable to them as they navigate between several countries, cultures and peer groups, often within the space of just a few years. Because these students are already navigating the choppy waters of a media-rich world, we, as educators, need to be facilitating tech-speak and media-speak as an essential second language in the lives of our learners. Learning the language can help them from being blown off course or diverted by a technologically-savvy dastardly villain.

1 thought on “Becoming a Polyglot; Adding Media-Speak and Tech-Speak

  1. I think it’s fascinating that Scorsese recognizes the importance of teaching visual literacy. It’s also interesting that once he understood the conventions of movie-making he was able to revolutionize movie-making. And I think that is one of the reasons we have to teach this to our students. Once they know the rules, they can break them! Thanks for the post.

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