Commercials are a useful way of teaching abstract sociological concepts (Irby and Chepp 2010). As alluded to in a previous blog post on this site, instructors can systematically and consciously include commercials into their teaching. Using the commercials archived on The Sociological Cinema, this can be done in the summer when instructors are constructing and restructuring syllabi. Well in advance of the start of the semester, instructors can identify appropriate and powerful commercials useful for sociological critique and analysis. In a recent article in the Journal of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Irby and Chepp (2010:101) note that “using commercials in the classroom can potentially prompt students to become more media literate outside of the classroom setting.” I suggest two ways to facilitate the transformation of students into critical media viewers. First, instructors can begin by regularly showing commercials in the classroom so that students can become familiar with the exercise of critiquing commercials. Instructors can explain a new sociological concept to students and then use a commercial as a way of showing a visual example of a potentially abstract concept. Essentially, in this first step the instructor connects the commercial to the concept for the students. Second, and perhaps the most effective way to produce critical media viewers is to couple regular commercial viewing in the classroom with the opportunity for students themselves to analyze commercials through a sociological lens. Halfway through the semester as students become accustomed to seeing the application of concepts to commercials, students—rather than the instructor—can become the analyst. This can happen in a variety of ways. If in-class quizzes are a part of classroom assessment, the instructor can show a commercial and ask students to apply the commercial to a sociological concept learned over the past class period or week(s). If an instructor usually incorporates minute responses or short in-class assignments into course evaluation, commercials analysis can be used for these assignments. In the second step, the analysis of commercials by students acts as an assignment and an assessment tool. The benefits of using commercials as an assignment or assessment measure are many. For example, it evaluates students’ knowledge of the application of sociological concepts to experiences in their current day-to-day life. This benefits instructors because it allows the instructor to evaluate student learning. Two, if students regularly critique commercials in the classroom, it likely increases the potential for them to become media literate outside of the classroom as they get in the habit of being media conscious. Last, using the analysis of commercials as an assignment might bolster student learning because popular culture appears to quickly and effectively gain student interest and engage students. Thanks to The Sociological Cinema, sociology instructors now have a free archive that houses commercials, which are tagged by their sociological theme. This easily allows instructors to find commercials that they want to use for assignments and assessment. I encourage instructors to not only show commercials in their classroom but to also include the analysis of commercials as an assessment measure. Amy Irby
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As teachers, we’ve all seen how student interest lights up the moment we introduce elements of pop culture into the sociology classroom. It’s a magical moment, really, as though an invisible fairy has fluttered through the classroom sprinkling unexpecting students with sociological fairy dust. Suddenly, student eyes become deglazed, spines stretch toward the ceiling, chins raise, hands spring into the air, and all at once, everyone has a point-of-view that absolutely must be heard. This seemingly magical anecdotal experience is supported by the scholarship on teaching and learning, as much literature has been written on the pedagogical effectiveness of using popular cultural mediums to teach abstract sociological concepts. The benefits of film, in particular, have occupied much scholarly attention. While films and other mediums are useful, commercial advertisements are often an overlooked and underutilized pop cultural medium that can effectively convey sociological concepts and insights. In an article I published last year with Amy Irby, we highlight three clear advantages of using commercials in the sociology classroom; namely, they are time efficient (often lasting only 30 seconds), current and accessible (available almost immediately online), and serve as a unique platform for sociological analysis. You can find a link here to our full article "Overcoming Constraints: Using Commercials in the Classroom." Yet in that article, we also outline some limitations of using commercials, with one being that “there is not a centralized catalogue system that houses commercials and tags them by sociological themes” (Irby and Chepp 2010). Increasingly, The Sociological Cinema is becoming a resource that can fill this void. There are several ways to identify commercials that have been archived on The Sociological Cinema, but here are two suggestions: (1) type the keyword “commercial” into the search box or, (2) click on the marketing/brands tag on the right sidebar of the "Videos" page. Also, remember that if you have your own suggestions for good commercials that work well in the classroom, you can contribute them to The Sociological Cinema by clicking here. In addition to archiving commercials by sociological themes, a previous blog post on The Sociological Cinema points to commercials as a useful empirical site for sociological analysis; numerous other blog posts focus on various elements of pop culture and the sociology classroom. So, as the school year comes to a close and you begin thinking about how to innovate and improve your course for next semester, you might consider using commercial clips in your next classroom experience. Thanks to sites like The Sociological Cinema, they are significantly easier to get your hands on than fairy dust. ***TEASER ALERT: Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post that offers in-class activities and assessment strategies that instructors can use to teach students commercial analysis and media literacy! Valerie Chepp The New York Times reported yesterday about a new search technology that integrates video with real world objects through smart phones. This trend of augmented reality, which blurs physical reality with the Internet, has become increasingly popular and has many possibilities for teaching and mobile learning. The latest development reported by the NYT stated that a user could capture an image with their smartphone, and that a new commercial "software makes it possible for the phone to recognize a database of about a half-million objects. It then uses the iPhone’s computing power to correctly insert a video image into the scene captured on the screen of the handset or tablet by its camera." I was immediately interested in the ability for a student to capture an object on their phone's camera, and the ability of the software to identify that object then draw from videos offering a sociological analysis of the object. For example, a student might capture a city scene that brings up an analysis of urban inequality, or they may capture a Wal-Mart logo which then brings up a sociological analysis of the company, sweatshops, labor struggles in its stores, or its effects on local communities. The opportunities for augmented reality in teaching sociology are growing rapidly. For example, in my Social Problems class, I am now teaching a section on problems of consumption. Having introduced my students to the social and ecological effects of consumption, including their ecological footprints, I have encouraged my students to download an iPhone app from the GoodGuide that allows them to scan a barcode and the app reports scores for that product's social, environmental, and health impacts. In light of class readings, students can then think about how the production processes of what they consume relate to social problems we have discussed throughout the course. We then talk about consumption alternatives (e.g. Fair Trade), watch a video on Fair Trade, and discuss the role consumer activism and politics in addressing social and economic problems. In a personal conversation with Kevin Danaher at Global Exchange, he promoted the idea that scanning a barcode could even bring up a video showing the actual producer and process of creating that product. Why not go a step further and allow students to scan a barcode, which automatically brings up a video that offers a sociological analysis of that commodity or industry by using sociological theories and concepts, or a video describing a related social movement to teach social movement concepts? The technologies to make this happen are advancing very rapidly and it seems reasonable to begin working on a system to better integrate teaching sociology within them. In fact, the software producer, Autonomy, "intends to offer a free software module that will allow developers to build their own application." Is this possible? Would you use a technology like this in your courses? Interested in Augmented Reality? Be sure to drop into the Theorizing the Web Conference tomorrow at UMD! Paul Dean Do you struggle to get your students to read? If so, a 2010 study looking at time-use data suggests you are not alone. Economists Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks found that in 1961, full-time students allocated 40 hrs/week toward class and studying, but by 2003, that time had fallen to about 27 hrs/week. So, what to do about it? In a 2004 article in Teaching Sociology, author Jay Howard described a method that he found to be effective at getting his students to complete their assigned readings. This method, a form of “just-in-time teaching,” had students read what he believed to be engaging readings and taking online quizzes on the reading before each class. Howard created a multiple choice and short answer question for each reading. For the multiple choice, Howard (2004: 386) stated that “accepting Berger’s (1963) claim that the first wisdom of sociology is that things are not always what they seem, I tried to write multiple choice questions that would force students to consider some of the evidence in each selection that challenges conventional wisdom.” Short answer questions required students to summarize or synthesize information that had read. I was intrigued by this technique, so I started experimenting with a version of this method for my Social Problems class this semester (60 students, mostly Freshmen and Sophomore non-majors) by using the University of Maryland’s Blackboard system to integrate multiple choice questions into my gradebook. Before each class, I post a few multiple choice questions based on the reading and students must answer them at least 2 hours prior to the start of class (this gives me ample time to review the results and adjust my class accordingly). Students can use their books and readings, but I ask questions that are non-intuitive so they are not likely to get it correct just by guessing. Their responses are automatically graded by the Blackboard software and entered into my gradebook; when the quiz deadline ends, the reading quiz questions are automatically posted and students can see what they got right and wrong. The students are able to see their own scores, and I can evaluate if there are particular points that students are missing. While Howard used a mix multiple choice and short answer questions, I chose to use only multiple choice questions given the size of my class and various other time constraints (like finishing my dissertation!). In two semesters of JiT quizzes, Howard reported a 30% increase in reading, with 98% of his students “usually” or “always” reading assignments. While I have only tried this for less than a month, I have seen a significant jump in students in my class who have reported reading “most” or “all” of the class readings: during an informal mid-semester evaluation, 83% of my students reported reading “most” or “all” of the class readings. This is a significant increase from previous semesters where 50-67% (it pains me to say that publicly!) of my students reported reading “all” or “most” of the class readings—that number seemed to vary depending on my readings, use of pop quizzes, class size, and composition of the class (such as mostly majors vs. non-majors, lower level vs. upper level students, etc). While I was happy to see many more students complete their reading, I am still left wondering why it was not higher. In this preliminary experiment, this lower number may be because I did not conduct the reading quizzes during the first couple weeks of readings, or perhaps because the questions were all multiple choice questions so students thought they could guess at a sufficient number of correct answers (I believe they are now learning that they cannot do that, however). Nonetheless, this preliminary (and very un-scientific) data has convinced me that it works and will be part of a multi-pronged effort to get my students to read. Furthermore, on their anonymous evaluations, several students actually reported liking that I conducted the reading quizzes. Paul Dean When we think about experiential learning, what types of experiences come to mind? I suspect that, for many of us, we immediately think about sending students out beyond the classroom walls and reflecting upon particular experiences using course readings. Perhaps we ask them to engage in a campus, service learning, or civic engagement project. In our assignments, we might require students, following Kolb’s theory of experiential learning, to make connections between concrete experiences, observation and reflection, abstract concepts, and to apply their acquired knowledge to new situations (Kolb and Fry 1975; Kolb 1984). But can we achieve experiential learning inside the classroom? More abstractly, what constitutes an “experience”? Can video be a form of concrete experience that is part of the cycle of experiential learning (depicted in this graphic)? While we often take what constitutes an experience for granted, Peter Jarvis et al (2004) explore this concept more explicitly. They argued that, at a philosophical level, experience must be viewed existentially as a subjective encounter with the world outside of us, and interpreted through previous knowledge and discourse; this interpretation process is socially constructed. In the context of experiential learning (and teaching), experience “usually implies that individuals have, or are given, in the teaching and learning process a direct or simulated encounter with the external world. One of the major strengths of this approach … is that the whole person does the experiencing rather than just the individual’s mind or body. By the whole person, we mean the cognitive, the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual; that is, the individual’s knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, beliefs, emotions, and senses. We learn from all these dimensions of the person in episodic experience” (Jarvis et al 2004: 55). While such experience might be primary (such as with service learning or civic engagement), it can also be secondary, where it is mediated through technology and not the immediate social context. Jarvis et al note that video functions as a secondary form of experiential learning. If you pause for a moment and consider some of your favorite films, think about what characteristics made those films so powerful? In The Power of Film, UCLA film instructor Howard Suber argues “feelings … lie at the heart of all memorable popular films. When the feelings of the filmmakers, feelings of the characters, and feelings of the audience come together, there is the opportunity for greatness” (Suber 2006: 162). At the heart of this “greatness,” I believe, is an experience: through an audiovisual encounter, our senses of sight and hearing are aroused, interacting with cognitive and affective capacities, to construct a potentially transformative experience. In Jarvis’ words, a powerful film can engage the “whole person.” I found this same sentiment in a similarly titled book (The Power of Movies) by philosopher Colin McGinn, who seeks to show “how screen and mind interact.” McGinn (2005: 14) explores the “perceptual, cognitive, and affective” dimensions of film reception, and argues “movies engage our psychological faculties in profound and unique ways ... they serve to condense much of significance into a relatively brief and isolated experience” (emphasis added). Following this work, I see film as engaging the affective, cognitive, emotional, and even spiritual levels of the viewer, bringing them outside of their normal, routine modes of thought, thus constituting new experiences for the viewer. Let’s briefly take a look at an example from the best television show of all time, The Wire (if you live under a rock and don’t know about the Wire, lift up the rock, and go watch it. Now. Seriously, stop reading, and go watch it. I’m not joking. You’ll thank me later). The show follows the lives of Baltimore street gangs, the police that continuously try to convict them, and the local institutions that shape their struggles. Characters who might normally incite disgust among a general audience—active gang members—are seen as human and shaped by their disadvantaged social circumstances. Through unparalleled storytelling and pitch-perfect dialogue, the viewer develops empathy—and fondness—for the characters (especially Omar!), and begins to understand their situations in light of the inner-city poverty, police ineffectiveness, corrupt local governments, broken families, dysfunctional educational system, and the distortions of local media, that shape their lives, and keeps them in a vicious cycle of poverty and crime. The characters’ stories stimulate viewers at affective, cognitive, and emotional levels, in some ways feeling a secondary experience of poverty, crime, and the myriad of institutions governing the characters’ lives. As such, clips from the show (such as this clip) can serve as the basis of experiential learning, further reflected upon and connected to abstract concepts through course readings, discussions, and assignments. Of course, not all films or videos will engage the “whole person.” For example, compared to many news clips or presentations, The Wire or Michael Moore’s Sicko (see this clip) are much more likely to serve purposes of experiential learning. However each type of video clip has its own uses, and it seems that the trick is to find the clip most effective to meet your teaching goals, in any particular class. But if you aim to draw upon experiential learning in your own teaching, you may not need to look any further than the video clips available on this site and elsewhere! References 1. Jarvis, Peter, John Holford, and Colin Griffin. 2004. The Theory and Practice of Learning, 2e. Taylor & Francis. 2. Kolb, David. 1984. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. 3. Kolb, David and Roger Fry. 1975 ”Toward an Applied Theory of Experiential Learning,” in C. Cooper (ed.) Theories of Group Process. John Wiley. 4. McGinn, Colin. 2005. The Power of Movies: How Screen and Mind Interact. Pantheon Books. 5. Suber, Howard. 2006. The Power of Film. Michael Wiese Productions. Paul Dean Back in early Fall of 2009, we decided to build a sociological cinema. The idea came about as a response to our experiences teaching three different sociology classes. We found that when we screened a video clip in class to demonstrate a key concept, class discussion often became livelier, more students participated, and our students seemed better able to draw upon the key concept in their evaluation of subsequent ideas. "In one sense, then, the impetus for building this site, The Sociological Cinema, stems from our own experiences in the classroom and the recognition that videos are effective tools of instruction." In one sense, then, the impetus for building this site, The Sociological Cinema, stems from our own experiences in the classroom and the recognition that videos are effective tools of instruction. In fact, a growing body of evidence supports this conclusion and even expands on it. According to sociologist Michael Miller (2009), “their most critical function in terms of cognitive learning appears to lie in their capacity to serve as representational applications for key course ideas” (see also Champoux 1999). For example, an excerpt from a CNN broadcast on the propagation of closed circuit television cameras (CCTVs) is very useful for demonstrating Foucault’s theories of surveillance and discipline. Videos can effectively convey concepts using examples from the feature films of popular culture or the so-called “realism” depicted in news reports and documentaries. They can vividly bring concepts and processes to life by weaving them into an emotionally charged narrative. Recent scholarship also demonstrates that videos can improve student engagement in class material (Wynn 2009). This fits with our own experiences as sociology instructors. Using open-ended in-class evaluations of videos, we found that students believed videos were important in helping them draw connections to their own life experiences, that they connected class material to “real life” more generally, and that the videos met a need for a surprising number of students who believed themselves to be “visual learners.” Today’s undergraduates, dubbed the “net generation,” have only known life with online videos and other multimedia; they engage this media in their everyday lives and increasingly expect such media to be integrated within their classes (Oblinger and Oblinger 2005). In addition to illustrating sociological concepts, videos can be used as a means of introducing analyses and commentaries which supplement traditional course content (Austin 2005). Videos can facilitate media literacy, and recent research even suggests that such visual technologies also facilitate civic engagement beyond the classroom (Bennet 2008). More than rousing student engagement and enriching their understanding, videos offer the opportunity to introduce humor and levity into the classroom, which often has the effect of relieving student self-consciousness. Bingham and Hernandez (2009), for instance, find comedy, and comedy clips in particular, to be an effective tool in teaching sociological perspectives. Instructors may, then, seek to integrate clips from the "Colbert Report" or "The Onion," encouraging students to analyze social expectations and why a failure to conform often makes us laugh. "The internet is an un-zoned metropole with a jumbled circuitry of narrow alleyways, and often the best cinemas are tucked away in strange corners… We built The Sociological Cinema, in part, as a practical means of spending less time finding clips." While the benefits of bringing video clips into the classroom may be well-documented, instructors still face the task of finding good clips and then figuring out how to use them effectively. But the internet is an un-zoned metropole with a jumbled circuitry of narrow alleyways, and often the best cinemas are tucked away in strange corners. There are sites, such as YouTube, which serve as warehouses for searchable video clips, but such sites hold so much content coming from so many varied sources that instructors are generally unable to efficiently comb it for useful clips. On YouTube, an instructor who wants to find a clip depicting the bear subculture within the LGBTQ community is likely to find wildlife videos, and an instructor looking for clips on sexism will rarely be directed to the sexism found in recent car commercials. The search for such clips can be daunting and discouraging, and herein lies the second impetus for building The Sociological Cinema. We built The Sociological Cinema, in part, as a practical means of spending less time finding clips. After cataloguing a number of the videos we used, it became apparent that it was possible to break them up into types. While we have taken some of our clips from documentaries and lectures, the majority come from popular culture, including television shows, movies, and video remixes or mashups. In some cases, it is relatively obvious how a particular clip would be helpful in a sociology classroom. For instance, excerpts from Jackson Katz’s documentary, “Tough Guise,” are unmistakably useful in a class on the sociology of gender because the clips explicitly demonstrate how hegemonic masculinity hurts men as well as women. On the other hand, the utility of a good number of other clips is only apparent because of the intellectual content or teaching suggestions we attach to those clips. For instance, The Sociological Cinema links to an eight-minute documentary designed to laud the efforts of fair trade coffee producers, but we have posted this clip and suggested it be used as an effective way to teach students about Marx’s concept of commodity fetishism (here). A third example is a clip from the popular television show The Bachelorette, which features a scene where contestants discuss “Man Code” and the presumed obligations of other men to abide by its rules (here). The teaching suggestion that accompanies this clip recommends using it as a means of spurring discussion on Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity and Kimmel's concept of masculinity as homophobia. As we have continued to add content to The Sociological Cinema, we have come to appreciate an additional function of our site. That is, in addition to helping instructors find resources that will provide students with a firm foundation of sociological concepts and theories while also developing their sociological imaginations and critical thinking skills, The Sociological Cinema works as a resource that refuses to consume culture at face value. We are an important voice because we pose important questions to students, such as, “How does this idea of “Man Code” gain momentum, and what are the consequences of it for people?” Our brief analyses of clips, coupled with the teaching suggestions we offer, are challenges to the usual meanings, which already bombard students on a daily basis, both inside and outside the classroom. Enjoy the site, and help us build the cinema by spreading the word or contributing a video of your own. Lester Andrist, Valerie Chepp, and Paul Dean |
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