LINGUIST List 21.2589 Mon Jun 14 2010 FYI: Chapter Proposals: Use of Film in Education Editor for this issue: Rachelle Felzien <rachellelinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.    Maher Bahloul, Chapter Proposals: Use of Film in Education Message 1: Chapter Proposals: Use of Film in Education Date: 14-Jun-2010 From: Maher Bahloul <mbahloulaus.edu> Subject: Chapter Proposals: Use of Film in Education E-mail this message to a friend Second Call For Chapter Proposals Editors: Maher Bahloul & Carolyn Graham Title: Lights! Camera! Action and the Brain! The Use of Film in Education Book Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing http://www.c-s-p.org/ Book Website: http://www.maher-language-institute.com/book/index.php Introduction While traditional teaching and learning curricula had dissected areas of knowledge and limited most subjects to their specific areas of focus, a number of scholars have challenged this approach by promoting interdisciplinary fields. Of particular interest to this book are the studies that promoted learning through an arts medium, in particular the filmmaking medium. As such, filmmaking, being an area of expertise taught in Films and Performing Arts’ departments, joins and merges with other areas of knowledge, to serve as a learning catalyst, hence the intertwined nature of the two disciplines. In his 2009 book ‘The Director in the Classroom: How Filmmaking Inspires Learning’, Theodosakos writes that filmmaking “enables students to explore any curriculum subject through the active process of making a film about it” (p. 30). While learning with films and video-based materials are quite studied in the education literature, learning through filmmaking is a relatively recent experience which calls for more reflection and analysis. Theodosakos’s book is a step in the right direction. Other books such as McBrewster, Miller & Vandome 2009, Simkins et al. 2002, among others promote learning through learners’ meaningful involvement in various group-based production projects. The book 'Lights! Camera! Action and the Brain! The Use of Film in Education' focuses on the use of camera inside or outside the classroom to promote and enhance learning in general and language learning in particular. The desire to improve communication in New Language Learners (NLL), for instance, has resulted in armies of thinkers, philosophers, educators, psychologists, neuroscientists, not to forget the teachers themselves debating the most effective and efficient tools and methodologies to boosting learners’ interest (Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun 2000), stimulating their learning desire, and providing them with a new means of communicating their ideas, feelings, and experiences in a relatively fluid tongue. In fact, teaching through arts in general had already reached several areas of knowledge such as learning new languages, mathematics, sciences, history, geography, literacy to mention a few. Research has clearly shown the extent to which the use of such arts media as theatre, music, dance, poetry, visual and performing arts boost learners’ comprehension of the subject matter, better their academic experiences, and help them become much more successful individuals. In other words, learning through the arts has proven fruitful at various personal, interpersonal, and life-long levels (Clark 2009, Winner 2007, McIntire 2007, Catterall 2006, Peterson 2006, McCarthy et al. 2005, Goldberg 2004, Deasy 2004, McDonald and Fisher 2002, Efland 2002, among many others). However, unlike various arts experiences, filmmaking has to yet have its fair share. While playwrights, poets, painters, musicians, dancers, and visual artists had been going to educational institutions and step-by-step making it to the classroom (Remer 2003), film makers have not been actively recognized as such and called for to be part of the teaching team. The book Lights! Camera! Action and the Brain! The Use of Film in Education reports on the various production-based projects which had called for the camera to work with the learners. In doing so, the book would like to include case and research studies that investigated the use of video-based projects, especially films, to facilitate the learning of any academic content be it language, math, history and alike. In other words, analyses of project-based productions that involved learners as key actors for the sake of assisting learning are enlisted in this book. Successful analyses of the production projects from conception to post-production passing by execution stages should be anchored within consult current learning, psychological, and cognitive theories so that a theoretical framework is checked. While a priority will be given to studies related to full fledged shorts and longer movies in which features and the dynamics of filmmaking as a pedagogical tool are highlighted, we will also consider a number of other productions which had focused on video-based activities, sketches, and documentaries. The book will also include highly specialized reports from current performing arts centers relevant to the use of the camera in education hoping to unveil their successes and highlighting the challenges they face. Objective of the book This book aims at unveiling works which had used the camera to mediate the learning of a new language or any other academic subject. The book chapters will be organized into three sections: (i) Conceptual and theoretical frameworks, (ii) Learning through filmmaking, (iii) Learning through video-based production projects. The first section will highlight the rationale behind the filmmaking and video-based production activities; the second will include case studies that focus on learning through professional filmmaking. As such, it exposes this glamorous medium and unveils its dynamics in relation to learning. The third group of chapters will include studies investigating the use of the camera in the classroom whether to film a particular activity, performance, or sketch. Writers will highlight the nature and focus of such production and report on the successes and challenges they had noted during and after the activity was filmed. In sum, the volume will offer a survey of the use of the camera to promote learning from both a professional and amatory perspectives. Target Audience The book is of interest to all professionals in the field of education. Whether at elementary, secondary, or tertiary institutions, teachers, curriculum designers, and school psychologists will find the book informative. Given its multi-disciplinary nature, experts in education, assessment, cognitive science, and theories of learning will find the book highly inviting for reflection and keeping them abreast with current experiments in the field of learning through performing arts. The book is a valuable read in education courses in general and for TESOL students in particular. Recommended topics The topics to be covered should fall within each of the three book sections: Section I: Arts Education, Conceptual basis and cognitive framework - Edutainment and Learning - Approaches to filmmaking in education - Filmmaking and arts education - Filmmaking, process, and multiple intelligences theory - Cognitive theories and filmmaking - Filmmaking vs other arts and performing arts activities Section II: Experiencing Learning Through Filmmaking (i.e., analyses of case studies with a focus on any of the following - Creativity, filmmaking, and learning - Motivation, filmmaking and learning - Schools, logistics, and filmmaking - Filmmaking, post-production, the DVD and learning - Filmmaking, evaluation, and assessment - Collaborative learning through filmmaking - Methodology and filmmaking - Learning styles and filmmaking - Filmmaking, successes, and challenges Section III: Learning through other video-based productions - Using the camera to promote learning - Arts, camera, and group projects - Learning through video and multimedia projects - Activities and classroom videotaping - Courses, documentaries, and learning Submission procedure Participants are invited to submit on or before June 15, 2010, a 2 to 3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the focus and concerns of the proposed chapter along with a short biographical blurb through the book web site links (http://www.maher-language-institute.com/book/index.php ). Authors of accepted chapters will be notified by July 10, 2010. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by November 30, 2010. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind peer review basis and authors of accepted papers will be notified by January 15, 2011. Guidelines for preparing the chapters will be sent upon acceptance of proposals. Successful chapters are then revised and resubmitted by April 1, 2011, and the final acceptance notification will be on April 30, 2011. Summary of Important Dates: Chapter Proposal Submission: June 15, 2010 Chapter Submission: November 30, 2010 Review Process Notification: January 15, 2011 Chapter Revision and resubmission: April 1, 2011 Final Acceptance Notifications: April 30, 2011 Inquiries and chapter proposals along with a short CV should be uploaded through the book’s website. If for some reason, you could not access the links, please sent your materials to the following address: Maher Bahloul (mbahloulaus.edu). Editors: Maher Bahloul is the Director of an Education Through Arts Institute (Maher Language Institute MLI) which he founded in 2007. MLI promotes learning through filmmaking (http://www.maher-language-institute.com/mli/ ). A graduate of Cornell University, he is currently an Associate Professor of English and Linguistics at the American University of Sharjah. At MLI, he focused on promoting language learning through bilingual video-project productions, especially films. Dr. Bahloul has various publications which cover issues in theoretical and applied linguistics the latest of which is a 2008 book published by Routledge. In relation to promoting learning through arts, Dr. Bahloul has presented in a number of international conferences the most recent of which is INTED 2010 held in March, 2010 (Valencia, Spain). See www.bahloul.com for more information. Carolyn Graham is the creator of Jazz Chants, which connect the rhythm of spoken American English to the beat of jazz. She developed the technique of jazz chanting during her twenty-five years of teaching ESL in the American Language Institute of New York University. She has also taught at Harvard University and has conducted workshops in the NYU School of Education, Columbia Teachers College in New York and Tokyo, and elsewhere throughout the world. She has also worked with regular and special needs learners. Ms. Graham is the author of numerous Jazz Chants books, all published by Oxford University Press. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkKLmLNl2hs for more on Carolyn) Education Field(s): Applied Linguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Arts in Education, Edutainment. Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Cognitive Science Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 14-Jun-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.