Movies as an Educational Tool
Nowadays movies have become the main attraction for many people. People have watched movies as a hobby and sometimes watching movies is also to refresh our daily activity that sometimes can be stressful. Because of this huge attraction, movies can be used as an educational tool. Many creators create movies for learning materials, so it’s an effective way of learning activities.
Movie
First, the movie itself. What is a movie? Movie or also called film is a visual art-form used to simulate stories, ideas, feelings, biography, beauty, or atmosphere through moving images. This bunch of images is generally accompanied by sound and other sensory stimulations. Most people watch movies as a type of entertainment or a way to have fun. There are so many genres in the movie such as action, comedy, horror, drama, romance, family, thriller, fantasy, documentary, animated, adventure, etc. Well, there will be no explanations about the genres, but let’s discuss that movies can be an educational tool.
The Educational Value of Movies
Most of us watch movies for fun or pleasure, but it’s also a great educational resource for helping students to understand school materials. Here are the reasons why movies are great educational resources. First, movies are great visual learners. Every student has a unique style of learning. Some student has visual style learning, they can easily learn if there are media that they can see. Second is foreign movies can help teach language, movies can help students to learn some foreign language. For example, when students are watching a movie in the Japanese language, they can try to follow along or search for the word that they can’t understand on the internet. Lastly, movies allow students to see life from different perspectives. Just like books, movies allow students insight into the lives of different characters, how their perspective differs, and how they handle certain situations.
Movies as an educational tool
Previous studies have suggested that the unique features of movies provide a powerful teaching device (Champoux, 1999). The distinctiveness and flexibility of movies can be used to show educational concepts compellingly. By understanding the potential value of movies, educators can make use of a learning tool, which can help students grasp course-related concepts. Film viewing in the classroom provides abstract thoughts with a visual representation. It helps students gain in-depth knowledge, develops critical interpretation, and actively involved students in their studies (Morze, 2008).
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There was a research that emphasizes movies as an educational tool. The respondents consist of a graduate student, assistant professor, associate professor, lecturer, and others. Respondents were asked to complete a form for each contemporary movie they showed in their classes so that the researchers could understand how each movie was used and for which class. The result of this research is there were so many respondents that can easily understand the material through the movie.
Conclusion
Movies have become the main attraction for many people nowadays. Most of us watch movies for enjoyment, but movies are also a great educational resource for helping students to understand school materials. Movie scenes are an easily accessible teaching resource. The distinctiveness of movies can have particularly positive effects on the teaching process. In teaching, movies serve many functions and can be used as a case study in the form of an experiential exercise. Recreation, parks, and tourism educators may find that using movies, either in their entirety or through selected scenes, it can improve teaching effectiveness through facilitating student learning and knowledge retention.
