Moving image education in Early years settings

Photograph of small children and an adult gathered round a computer sending an email.

Today, children are surrounded by screens with regular exposure to television, computers and mobile phones. The Digital Beginning Report, 2006 demonstrates that most young children are very much at ease with the multi-modal world they inhabit, assimilating as if by osmosis the numerous skills required to operate within this new medium of communication. In addition the report provides evidence that young children’s interactions with media are not the sedentary, solitary experiences we often assume they are. Within this world children are offered huge choice, gone are the days when we watched TV before teatime with two channels to choose from. A recent Ofcom report report stated that in the UK there are 25 dedicated channels and 113,000 hours of programmes each year targeted at children. This then raises the question how well do we prepare children to become discerning consumers who can read/decode these multimodal texts, make informed decisions about them and use them as effective literacy and communication tools?

Scottish Screen is the national screen agency for Scotland with responsibility for developing all aspects of screen culture and industry across the country. Their educational aim is to ensure that people of all ages and backgrounds are inspired and equipped to analyse, appreciate, explore, create and share screen media. To achieve this they are supporting and evaluating a range of initiatives across Scotland. In 2006 they commissioned the research and development of a model of Moving Image Education (MIE) for 3 -7 year olds.

Initially the focus of the model was on literacy and communication but in accordance with good early years practice and the Curriculum for Excellence it rapidly broadened out to create contextualised, active learning experiences involving the interests and views of the children participating. The children wherever possible are involved in the planning and decision making processes and are interdependent on each other to complete jointly derived goals. This results in interesting and challenging learning journeys for all involved and although initial planning goals are broad the end product may not always exactly match them, however this is a valuable learning experience in itself as often real life requires us to be creative and adaptable to succeed and find a path forward.

The development of the model is ongoing and at present consists of 6 key elements that use moving image texts to:

create contexts that support play and social communication
stimulate group discussions and problem solving situations
discover how all texts are composed to convey meaning
experience the processes involved in planning and creating short films
enrich shared literacy experiences for parents and the children out with school
enable us all to reflect and evaluate our learning experiences

These key elements can be addressed individually but more importantly collectively to provide meaningful cross curricular learning journeys. Moving image education in the early years aims to create a synergy between modern and traditional pedagogy, meeting the needs of modern learners, equipping them with the skills, knowledge and aptitudes to effectively participate in society. It is anticipated that the model will be available to practitioners during 2008.

Early years staff, pupils and some parents at Maisondieu, Lethnot and Stracathro schools are all involved in trialling and developing the key elements of the model. The following case study focuses on the journey of the P1/2 composite class at Maisondieu School during the summer 2007 term.