Assignment 7
Elias Barber
University of West Georgia
MEDT 7490: Visual Media Literacy
Dr. Sungwoong Lee
July 3rd, 2023
Empowered teaching in Video Essays: Travis Mckenzie
Travis Mckenzie experimented in his 10th-grade classroom in which he had students
create video essays instead of a traditional written assignment (2021). McKenzie felt several
students needed help presenting ideas on a topic through a written report and sought a more
modern way to show mastery. To facilitate this, he initially showed students video essays at the
beginning of the semester, then had them create their papers to prove their knowledge. McKenzie
believed that a “show, don’t tell” assignment would allow students to express themselves better
and demonstrate that they could analyze a film of their choice.
Literature Review
McKenzie primarily relied on the writings of Paulo Freire, which describes the idea that
students have a knowledge bank that must be filled (2000). McKenzie mainly relied on the idea
that standard assignments were the death of creativity and that students did better when
assignments matched the “bank” of knowledge about problems they already faced. McKenzie’s
study seemed successful, but his reliance on Friere is not the best demonstration of why.
McKenzie does not mention any dual-coding or multi-modal education theory, which both have
closer explanations for why his method was successful in his eyes.
Analysis of Methodology.
McKenzie’s entire methodology would be qualitative and borderline anecdotal. He
provides no data to describe student scores’ improvement, just merely examples of successful
student work. The success or failure of the experiment relied solely on McKenzie’s opinions and
observations of his students, and no outside parties were brought in to verify his conclusions. His
participants were only mentioned as 10th grade students, one of whom had autism. He provides
no other breakdown of student data beyond this. The assignment in question is not explained in
any detail.
Summary of Results.
According to McKenzie, the results of the experiment were highly successful. Students
who, according to him, otherwise struggled with writing provided highly detailed analyses of
films, and the student mentioned above with autism was able to show their abilities in ways that
they previously never had the opportunity.
Author Opinion
While I fully support McKenzie’s approach, this article is severely lacking as a research
study. There is no detailed explanation of the experiment, no breakdown of any student data, no
initial data to compare the result to, no objective viewers, and no numbers provided to show how
the entire class did during the assignment. His conclusion is anecdotal and does not prove that
using video essays as an assessment can be more effective than writing one. While I believe they
can be a great tool, I feel McKenzie did not do a good enough job of proving it to be used as a
case study.
What I Learned.
While I feel his reporting was severely lacking, I fully support McKenzie’s method as an
anecdote. I wish he had gone into more detail about building the assignment so that I could use it
later in class.
Exploring Empathy Performatively in Students’ Video Artworks: Rachel Sinquefield-
Kangas, Antii Rajala, and Kristiina Kumpulainen
This study was conducted less as a pure pedagogical tool and more as an attempt to study
the development of empathy in high school-aged students and whether the production of a video
by these students could show their ability to experience compassion (2022). The video medium
was chosen as a way for students to break out of the traditional pedagogical methods and, in the
authors’ words, “Break free” of the usually expected constraints.
Literature Review
His study primarily focused on philosophical ideas as opposed to anything from the education
world, and he spent a significant amount of the survey attempting to define the concept of
empathy. They provide several theories but only partially endorse a particular definition other
than to operate under the assumption that empathy is an action instead of an ingrained emotion.
The texts used to support the experiment fit entirely with the idea, as their goal was far more
focused on philosophical ideals than the actual pedagogy test. They could incorporate several
pictures from the world of education since they recognized that they were working with teenage
students.
Analysis of Methodology.
Students in this class were split into groups and told to make a video using the provided
software. The topic of the video was to answer the question: “What is empathy.” No class
discussions were had about the subject. Neither the researchers nor the teachers taught a lesson
about empathy. The students’ answers were entirely reliant on their meetings and research. The
researchers observed students as they worked to listen in on conversations and view the final
product. The data here was qualitative, as the researchers and the teacher judged the videos.
There was no specific goal, so there was no accurate data to collect. The idea behind this
experiment was to see how a teenager expressed empathy.
Summary of Results.
The videos provided an artistic way for students to express their thoughts on empathy. In
particular, students used cats and dogs as examples of empathy and had philosophical
discussions on whether or not these animals could experience it. Furthermore, whether or not
empathy was a positive quality was discussed, as some cat-loving students were offended that
cats were labeled as being non-empathetic.
Author Opinion
This subject is one that I am not emotionally or philosophically intelligent enough to
grasp fully. I found the writing and the research to be high-brow sufficient, and I needed help
discerning they actual purpose and results. However, the study supported using a video essay
amongst all the philosophic waxing. I find that video essays are still an effective way for students
to show mastery, even in a realm I cannot grasp.
What I Learned.
Video essays can be used far outside the confines of purely displaying mastery of
information. The use of this assessment can also be beneficial to anyone seeking to have students
demonstrate an abstract concept.
Seeing and Doing: Exploring the Use of Journalist Videos and Simulations to Increase
News Literacy Awareness Among High School Students: Elizabeth Smith and Theresa de
los Santos.
This experiment was designed to see if having students create their own “news” would
give them a better understanding of news literacy in the real world (2022). The idea was that if
students could be a part of creating the news, they would have a higher incurrence of media
literacy and therefore be able to better engage with and discern the truth behind major news
stories.
Literature Review
The authors of this study took a literature approach from both the pedagogical and news
media world. In particular, they looked at studies that examined the current state of media bias
literacy and also studies that examined student simulation compared to the absorption of new
topics. They found that simulation could be effective by gamifying the concept of learning, as
students sought to create the best possible simulation to fool their classmates. The collaboration
aspect was also pulled from their readings to facilitate learning better.
Analysis of Methodology.
This simulation involved a complex situation in which students roleplayed the
government or journalists during a crisis. The government was responsible for providing
information to the journalists that informed the public without hurting their cause. In contrast, the
journalists were responsible for finding as much information as possible about the truth of the
situation. After the simulation, the students were responsible for watching a news broadcast and
assessing the situation.
Summary of Results.
Even though students spent time using videos to create breaking news segments and
convey information in various covert ways, the results showed that the simulations did not
impact student media literacy. The hypothesis as to why it did not work was participation. Many
students did not engage for the entirety of the simulation and, as a result, did not gain any
additional literacy.
Author Opinion
This sounds like a highly detailed lesson to teach about media literacy. While I enjoy and
appreciate that the students were creating videos, it would be far more beneficial for students to
create videos critiquing news stories rather than simulating them. A straightforward video essay
would be more effective.
What I Learned.
Technology only sometimes means success when it comes to learning. This group
attempted to use a mode of dual-coding but needed to tailor it to match student ability or interest.
As a result, there was little gained from the activity. However, I see the value in the performance
aspect.
References
Freire, Paulo, 1921-1997. Pedagogy Of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000.
McKenzie, T. (2021). Empowered learning: teaching the video essay in the secondary school
environment. Media Practice & Education, 22(1), 5–6.
https://doi.org/10.1080/25741136.2021.1844950
Sinquefield-Kangas, R., Rajala, A., & Kumpulainen, K. (2022). Exploring empathy
performativity in students’ video artworks. International Journal of Education through
Art, 18(2), 145–160. https://doi.org/10.1386/eta_00091_
Smith, E., & de los Santos, T. (2022). Seeing and doing: exploring the use of journalist videos
and simulations to increase news literacy awareness among high school students. Media
Practice & Education, 23(4), 301–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/25741136.2022.2086960
