Filmmaking in Higher Education

POSTPONED TO 2022

Further information follows soon.

Call for Papers and Invitation to Conference

Are you a lecturer involved in filmmaking? Do you guide your students to produce films themselves?
Are you creatively involved in the development of concepts for the self-production of videos by learners in the areas of subject training, media pedagogy or higher education didactics?
Have you gained experience together with students in thematic teaching and learning projects in which film production is a central element?
Or do you have an educational policy vision on the importance of filmmaking in teacher training and at schools?

If so, we would like to invite you to contribute to a publication (anthology) by Peter Lang Verlag on the topic of“Filmmaking and Transnational Collaboration in teacher training for foreign languages“. The initiative stems from our many years of work in the so-called Viducation Project at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, which is currently also financially supported by the BMBF (national ministry) within the framework of the ‚Quality Offensive Teacher Training‘ (QLB). Filmmaking by Learners‘ is an important area of research for prospective teachers, but still occupies too small a place in the educational science-oriented subjects, especially in the humanities.

Our Kiel initiative starts from Romance Studies and has been building a research and experience-based network in the field of Filmmaking by Learners for years. In doing so, we cooperate internationally and focus strongly on the possibilities of collaborative learning across national borders. A major concern of our project is to strengthen subject-related and at the same time interdisciplinary cooperation. We see this on the one hand as a contribution to international knowledge communication, but on the other hand also as support for Internationalisation at Home in subject-specific education and as an essential enrichment of digital teaching at universities.

Think Tank
for Filmmaking in Higher Education

Invitation to the conference “Think Tank for Filmmaking in Higher Education”

POSTPONED TO 2022

It is time for a think tank on filmmaking in higher education. While the use of film productions in schools as well as the use of professionally created explainer videos in higher education is already intensively discussed in didactics, a specific focus on student-created videos in higher education is missing in the discussion. In various smaller initiatives, researchers find that students acquire sustainable knowledge about their subject through filmmaking, based on values and personal development (cf. Hoinkes 2020, Altekruse & Fischer 2020, Greene & Crespi 2012).

The conference focuses on theoretical and practice-relevant questions in a multi-perspective and interdisciplinary way. In the sense of a workshop, the aim is to have lively discussions with important sources of inspiration. Four panels will structure the conference: (1) defining and characterising the film type of student-created videos; (2) questioning the implementation of filmmaking; (3) evaluating student-created videos; (4) networking.
The following questions can be addressed: What is the specificity of the student-created videos? What are the pedagogical assumptions underlying filmmaking? How do we work with student-created videos? How can we institutionalise filmmaking and other creative learning approaches? How do we assess student-produced videos? In what areas can we initiate joint projects and partnerships? How do students view filmmaking in higher education?
We invite experts and lecturers to discuss how filmmaking can be implemented in higher education. Researchers from different disciplines will enrich the discussions with short presentations. We expect a stimulating exchange, which will be carried into the public discourse of the scientific community within the framework of an anthology to be published in 2022.

The conference will be held as an online event via Zoom. Conference language is English.

Please send a confirmation of participation to Kyra Clausen (kclausen@romanistik.uni-kiel.de) by 15 November 2021. You will receive the link to the event in a confirmation email.

Call for Papers:
Filmmaking and Transnational Collaboration in teacher training for foreign languages // Filmemachen und transnationale Zusammenarbeit in der Lehramtsausbildung für Fremdsprachen

Filmmaking by Learners has already been integrated as a learning approach in the subject education of Romance languages for eight years as part of the Viducation project at Kiel University. In this project, students engage with subject content by creating films. This contributes to the development of their professional competences, among which the linguistic and social competences are to be emphasised, as well as to a promotion of social engagement. The particular type of film production defines a category of educational video that is characterised by both the explanation and interpretation of facts and human behaviour. For the learners, it is a dynamic place of encounter between different cultures, languages and forms of communication in which they feel personally involved and to which they refer in a personal message based on the knowledge they have acquired during their academic training. With their self-produced films, the learners participate in subject-specific discourses in the sense of science communication. The sub-project „Ed-In-Mov“, currently funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany, goes one step further: Filmmaking by Learners is carried out in transnational cooperation with Scandinavian partner universities and follows the concept of Internationalisation at Home, in which the team explores filmmaking as a form of collaborative learning across national borders.

The idea for our planned book publication arose as a reaction to the lack of network structures and knowledge exchange in the field of higher education didactics in relation to filmmaking, especially in teacher education. Our concept integrates theoretical contributions on the one hand, but also those inspired by project experiences on the other. The contributions should be written in English or German and explore the possibilities of Filmmaking by Learners for higher education didactics, focusing on relevant aspects of teacher education such as Internationalisation in vocational education and enrichment of digital teaching in higher education. A special emphasis on transnational and intercultural experiences in filmmaking is welcome.

Contributions should be guided by the following thematic areas:
1) Practical experiences: Present your own student filmmaking projects, especially against the background of internationalisation and interdisciplinarity. What conditions are taken into account in the implementation? How is filmmaking taught? How can self-produced films be used in the longer term?
2) Theoretical contribution: Discuss basic pedagogical assumptions of filmmaking (in foreign language teaching). Which pedagogical-psychological learning theories underlie filmmaking? How can student films (in foreign language teaching) be assessed?
3) Transnational and intercultural experiences: Discuss interculturality in own productions. To what extent does filmmaking promote intercultural learning for the producers?
4) Science communication: Discuss the possibilities of student films for science communication. What criteria do in-house productions have to fulfil in order to communicate scientific work and results? What role does storytelling play in filmmaking as a learning approach?

The publication of the anthology on „Filmmaking and Transnational Collaboration in Foreign Language Teacher Education“ by Peter Lang Verlag is planned for autumn 2022. Contributions to the anthology (in German or English) should not exceed 25,000 characters including spaces. Please submit an abstract with a topic outline of no more than 250 words by 19 November 2021 as a PDF via email (see below). Feedback on acceptance of papers will be provided by 30 November 2021, after which you will receive detailed information on the formal format of the paper, which must be submitted by 30 April 2022. An online networking conference on 3 December 2021 from 9.30 am to 4 pm CET will provide an opportunity to present and discuss your own publication project with other contributors and other researchers and actors in film practice. Participation is therefore highly encouraged. Information on the event and registration can be found on the project website.

For further information and questions, please contact us (by email to hoinkes@romanistik.uni-kiel.de or kclausen@romanistik.uni-kiel.de).

November 19th, 2021

Abstract submission

November 30th, 2021

Feedback on acceptance

December 3rd, 2021

Think Tank (information below)

April 30th, 2021

Submission

Autumn 2022

Publication

Information on updated deadlines will follow.