Critical Methods of A/V Applications
in Classroom Instruction

Audio-visual materials, such as educational films, documentaries, and "making-of" movies can be valuable resources for classroom instruction in cinema history. First, one can break up the brief mini-lectures of 10-15 minutes with audio-visual stimulation that can provoke discussion. Second, such AV often provides students with expert and eyewitness accounts of those who were involved in the production of films. Third, AV compiles hard-to-find clips and insightful commentary in one single package. However, many of the most accessible A/V materials, especially in the form of DVD extras, generally fly in the face of the historiographical methodologies and critical thinking we seek to encourage as educators. I suggest that to counter such tendencies, one should employ various sources of supplementary AV materials, engage students in identifying the underlying assumptions of each of the material’s master narratives and seek to interrogate of historical change on a multiplicity of levels, including production, exhibition, commerce, cinematic form, subject matter, and technological innovation.

Jason Grant McKahan received a Master of Arts degree in Classics and a Master of Arts degree in Humanities from the The Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. He will receive a Doctorate of Philosophy in Mass Communication from the Florida State University in December 2009. Prior to coming to Shepherd University, he was an instructor for the College of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at The Florida State University.