Article: Female Empowerment Through Educational Technology (ETEC 511)

Female Youth Social Empowerment through Educational Technology: Digital Film as a Critical Language of Transcendence

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Excerpt

In North America, the acronym for “Information Communication Technology” has often been reduced to “IT”, ignoring the communication aspect of this field of study. Interestingly, the communication part is specifically the one that females generally identify to and prefer. Could this presumably insignificant modification represent the absence of the feminine perspective in ICT?

The Validity of Digital Film Communication Literacy

Digital film making is an alternative form of media literacy well suited to support female youth’s interests in communication and socialization. For instance, one of the important aspects of film making is selecting a theme, researching it and devising an original angle to promote the chosen concept. In order to create a public service announcement on, say, anorexia, students must spend a great deal of time finding data and statistics about this issue. Once a clear mental picture is created around this topic, young cinematographers must use the grammar of film making to invent an innovative and enticing way of communicating their message. Like any professional advertisement campaign, the endeavor is to hook the members of the audience; or in other words, to convey a powerful message and influence the public’s behavior.

The distinctions between educational and mainstream media. A major difference between digital film communication and commercial media, however, is that the educational aspect of film making centers its attention on social contribution, rather than consumption. Furthermore, the intent behind the creation of media shared among adolescents is to promote citizenship and awareness (Greenhow, 2008), not to concoct artificial needs in order to increase financial gains.

Key factors: the manufacturing of information and critical thinking. This is not to say that mainstream media only produce rubbish messages, detrimental to the public. On the contrary, if chosen with discernment, valuable information can be disseminated among citizens by a number of legitimate agents such as journalists, editors, documentary makers and bloggers. The key issues reside in a clear understanding of the iteration involved in the process of media production (Stables, 1997) as well as the critical assessment needed to decide which documents to access or avoid; believe or distrust. These are the intellectual outcomes of a digital film communication program.

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