The Benefits of Moving Image Education

There are many advantages to Moving Image Education (MIE), both as an aid to discussion and as a focus for creative or documentary activities. While many young people have read only a few books through school, they have watched thousands of hours of audio-visual narratives and are therefore walking around with huge audio-visual libraries in their heads. The problem is that most students have not been taught how to analyse these rich narratives and therefore they are not used to their full potential.

Explore this site for a comprehensive overview of moving image education.

The close study of films is fun to do and can have dramatic effects on how young people think and feel.

Some of these benefits include:

• Improved literacy (visual and textual)
• Enhanced understanding of how to construct a narrative which is useful across the curriculum
• Greater sense of relevance to education
• Better understanding of our media
• Enhanced discussion skills
• Improved self-esteem and self-confidence
• Greater appreciation of culture and democratic society
• Increased sense of enfranchisement and citizenship.

Likewise the making of moving image essays and other films in groups has been shown in numerous academic studies to help young people with all the following skills:

• Research
• Analysis
• Team-working
• Planning
• Organisation
• Flexible thinking and multi-tasking
• Problem-solving
• Personal motivation
• Computing, communication and technology skills
  
• Criticism and self-criticism (including peer-reviewing skills)
• Social awareness
• Moral responsibility
• Presentation (both personal and project-related).