Videotaped films are now widely available for inexpensive rental or purchase, making them an accessible learning resource. Films now available from a video store include contemporary films, classical films, foreign films, documentaries, and some television series. About 24,000 such films are available on videotape, laserdisc, and DVD.
Film scenes offer a visual portrayal of abstract theories and concepts discussed in typical organizational behavior and management books and taught in related courses. Viewing concepts through different film scenes also shows the application of these concepts in different situations.
I refer to specific film scenes at several points as examples of the observation discussed. The source article in the footnote for this summary discusses those scenes in more detail.
Copyright law prevents me from including the film scenes on this Web site. I have included links to a film's trailer, if it exists within the Internet Movie Database. Click on the film's name to view the trailer. The trailers will not usually have the full scene information that I use as the basis for learning concepts. They are useful for getting a view of a film with which you are not familiar or refreshing your memory about a film you have not seen in a long time.
Film Theory
Some unique aspects of film and film making let this medium show organizational behavior and management concepts in an uncommonly powerful way. Understanding these aspects of film will help you understand how viewing film scenes can improve your learning.
Film Characteristics
Viewer Responses
The shot/reverse-shot editing technique described earlier creates a viewing experience that does not happen in the real world. A viewer can see all aspects of the conversation the director considers important to the film's story. Nonverbal cues from eye movement, facial expression, and body movement can load images with information a viewer interprets.
Directors can embed these scenes with high emotional, satirical, or comical content that a viewer can only experience with the film medium.
Media, Cognition, and Learning
Learning Functions of Film
Ways of Using Film for Learning
Summary
Try the film scenes in the At the Movies: Organizational Behavior or At the Movies: Management book as enhancers for your study of organizational behavior or management concepts and theory. You will surprise yourself about how much film can improve your learning and retention.
Source: Adapted from Joseph E. Champoux, "Film as a Teaching Resource." Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 8, No. 2 (June 1999): 206-217 © 1999 Sage Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc. See this article for a more detailed description and full citations for this summary on learning with film.
Copyright©
2003 South-Western. All rights reserved.
A review of the film theory and the film studies literature suggested some unique features of film that make it an uncommonly powerful learning tool. An early film theorist, Siegfried Kracauer, captured this view of film when he said: "[A unique property of film is its ability to] make one see and grasp things which only the cinema is privileged to communicate."
Film records physical reality but sees it differently from ordinary human experiences. Film is unequaled in its ability to hold and direct the attention of the viewer. Lens techniques, focusing techniques, camera movements, camera angles, framing of shots, and film editing can create gripping views not found in reality. The following summarizes these major film characteristics.
Viewers are not passive observers of images on a screen. They can have many different responses, some of which come from film's unique features. Viewer responses often become an essential part of the film experience.
Traditional learning media include lecture/discussion and printed media such as book materials or projected text. Visual forms include overhead projection of drawings, slide projection of images, or computer projection of slides. I recommend adding film and film scenes to existing learning and instructional media. Several lines of research suggest different learning effects of different media forms. The conclusion from both brain and media and cognition research points compellingly to using multimedia for learning.
Films can serve many learning functions. The functions that will work for you depend on your learning style and learning goals. The following is an overview of ways of using film as case, metaphor, satire, symbolism, meaning, experience, and time.
There are several ways of using film for learning organizational behavior theories and concepts. Experimenting with each method will show you which ones are most effective for your learning style and course content.
Film and film scenes are a widely available, easily accessed, learning resource. Many unique characteristics of film as a communication medium give it especially posi-tive effects on learning. You can use film in different ways to enhance your learning: as case, metaphor, satire, symbolism, or experience. You also can align film scenes in different ways in your studying program.
|