Movies in class never seemed to be a problem for students. Movies that are shown in class have been considered a “free day” or a gift to students that they think the lesson will be an easy day. Not many students really consider why teachers show movies in classrooms.
“I remember watching movies in high school and it was just a class to blow off,” Devyn Rosner, sophomore biology major, said. “Now as a bio major, I do not really see those days to blow off anymore.”
Specific majors may have this opportunity to watch movies in classes, whereas others may never see this more relaxing kind of day.
All professors have a purpose and lesson plan for their daily classes. The idea of showing a movie in class is not just to give students a free day to play on their cell phones but to actually educate them.
Dr. Andrew Owen teaches a class that discusses the video nasties of the 1980’s and shows several movies throughout his class.
“I do not think if I took Dr. Owen’s class and didn’t see the video nasties, I would not have gotten the full understanding of what they really were,” Anthony Cirillo, sophomore graphic design major, said.
Movies can become a very useful tool for teachers. They give a visual explanation to the point of the lesson. Sometimes movies benefit students and help them understand the lesson better instead of looking at a power point throughout the class.
“I loved watching movies in Dr. Francis’s class because I had understood the idea of reporting but after physically seeing it, I actually enjoyed it and made me want to better my own writing skills,” Kennith Fernandez, psychology major said.
Dr. Dawn Francis includes assignments that followed the movie to ensure the students would be on the right track and are following through with their work. This would not be to punish students but to keep them engaged in the assignments and movie.
“The reason why I chose to show the ‘the Insider’ was because that it would help you see and put a human face to the issues of media consolidation, you could see the decisions that companies make when you know their profits are on the line and how the public loses out on the access to information that these corporations are saying,” Francis said. “I thought it was important to show the movies that would bring alive the consequences to what’s going on in board rooms and living rooms across the United States.
In many language classes, professors will use audio recordings of students speaking the language so students can listen to it instead of constantly listening to teacher. This will give students a better comprehension of the pronunciation and what kind of vocabulary they are trying to absorb.
“In my class, my professor was always extremely fast when she was speaking spanish,” Deqwan Phillips, sophomore criminology major said. “When she would play the audio recordings, I had a chance to listen again to what she just said coming from a student. It just gives me another chance to pick it up instead of moving onto the next thing completely lost.”
As a professor, the job is to educate students and ensure they have a full understanding of what they are trying to teach.
