Taming Technology: Useful Ideas for Teaching with Film from Boldt Seminarians
Wednesday, March 11, 11:45-1:15 in Buntrock 142
Diana Postlethwaite, English and Media Studies; Judy Kutulas, History and Women's Studies; Jim Hanson, Religion
(co-sponsors: Boldt Chair in the Humanities, IIT)
During January 2008. eight St. Olaf faculty participated in a Boldt Seminar entitled “Film: Technicalities, Theory and Teaching.” In retrospect, the ordering of this title proved prophetic: we discovered that “technicalities” often do come first. Our understandings of film theory, and the pedagogical structures we evolved to share them, first, with our fellow seminarians, and later with our students, often rest on the foundation (bedrock? earthquake? precipice?) of “pushing the button.”
For this CILA Conversation, three Boldt Seminar veterans of the technology wars will present their reports from the front lines: since January ’08, what technologies have we been using in teaching with film? what works? what is problematic? where is St. Olaf today when it comes to tech support for teaching with film?
The goals of this CILA lunch are both inspirational and practical: hands-on and how-to demos, and — most important — HAND OUTS to take away with you! You are invited whatever your level of achievement or aspiration. “PC” and “Mac” speakers will both be recognized. The session is organized as follows:
* Technology 101: Prof. Judy Kutulus, Dept. of History: tips for the film technology novice
* Technology 202: Prof. Diana Postlethwaite, Dept. of English: how to “bookmark” films; how to create still photos from films
* Technology 303: Prof. Jim Hanson, Dept. of Religion: how to make film clips (which can be imported into PowerPoint and posted on Moodle).
Some useful online resources:
1. "Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use in Teaching for Film and Media Educators” from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Pubic Policy Committee’s Subcommittee on Fair Use:
http://www.cmstudies.org/documents/SCMSBestPracticesforFairUseinTeaching-Final.pdf,
2. The Librarian of Congress has granted TV/film instructors the right to assemble film clip-DVDs:
http://www.screensite.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=1
3. Online tutorial on how to create a compilation of DVD clips for classroom use, using a Mac:
http://tvcrit3.tvcrit.com/content/view/68/116/
This takes the reader through the process step-by-step -- from acquiring clips from copyrighted DVDs to burning them onto a new DVD, and does it all with free software.
