Lights! Camera! Action and the brain: The Use of Film in Education is about an innovative pedagogy whereby performing arts and digital production play a key role in teaching and learning. The book combines theory and practice; as such, it lays solid neurological foundations for film and media literacy, and provides several relevant practical applications from worldwide scholars. The book contains thirteen chapters three of which address a number of theoretical issues related to the camera and the brain while the remaining ten are practical illustrations of the extent to which film and video are used as pedagogical tools. In the book preface, Nikos Theodosakis, author of 'The Director in the Classroom', writes that the book contributors 'have built a wonderful bridge for us to travel over'. In fact, the book chapters transcend age restrictions to include diverse age groups, children and young adults. The topics range from learning language and philosophy to learning about one's self, one's environment, and one's cultural identity. Much more importantly, the book addresses the needs of regular and special needs learners. Arts in general, and films in particular, are shown to display salient and dynamic roles in appealing to a wide variety of regular and special needs learners. In short, the book is highly beneficial to educators and to education managers; it 'will have the power to change teaching and the way the curriculum is perceived' for several generations to come.
About the Author: Maher Bahloul is the Director and General Manager of an Education Through Arts Institute - Maher Language Institute (MLI) - which he founded in 2007 in Paris, France. MLI has been holding language sessions and promoting learning through filmmaking (www.maher-language-institute.com). Dr Bahloul holds a PhD in Linguistics from Cornell University, New York, USA, and a Masters' degree from the Sorbonne University, Paris III, France. He has taught in a number of graduate and undergraduate programs in the United States, North Africa, and the Middle East. He has also presented papers and conducted workshops in international conferences such as TESOL, ALS, INTED, IVACS, IATEFL. At MLI, he focuses on promoting language learning through bilingual video-project productions, especially films. Dr Bahloul is currently an Associate Professor of English and Linguistics at the American University of Sharjah. See www.bahloul.com for more information. Carolyn Graham is the creator of Jazz Chants, which connect the rhythm of spoken American English to the beat of jazz. She developed the technique of jazz chanting during her twenty-five years of teaching ESL in the American Language Institute of New York University. She has also taught at Harvard University and has conducted workshops in the NYU School of Education, Columbia Teachers College in New York and Tokyo, and elsewhere throughout the world. She has also worked with regular and special needs learners. Ms Graham is the author of numerous Jazz Chants books, all published by Oxford University Press. See http: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkKLmLNl2hs for more on Carolyn