Abstract:

Both direct experience and recent studies provide evidence that teenagers more and more own and make intensive use of smartphones (OECD, 2015), mainly for watching online videos, texting and using social media apps (EUKidsOnline, 2017; Suter et al., 2015; Weller et al., 2016). Research also suggests that, despite extended use, “digital natives” are not actually digital literate (in the sense of Hobbs, 2010), but have a rather passive and receptive use of digital media, which does not transfer to their learning and working practices (Schulmeister, 2008). Moreover, both teacher reports and the news provide a vast record of “digital issues”, including screen addiction, cyberbullying, sexting, identity theft, piracy, etc. How can parents, teachers and educators work towards the development of digital competences in teenagers? Is prevention what we need for better digital literacy?

The One-frame Movie project started in 2014 in order to tackle the challenge of digital media education leveraging on creativity. It is based on the assumption that actual ownership of digital devices is best promoted by shared, creative and socially relevant uses that take personal screens way beyond the limits of texting and following YouTubers, in a creative dialogue that combines practical artwork with digital media, sharing with peers and presenting to a real audience. One-frame Movie atelier are framed within a digital literacy education approach (Hobbs, 2010; Guitiert, Romeu & Baztan, 2017; Carretero, Vourikari & Punie, 2017).

Supported by the City of Locarno and embedded in the lively and international environment of the Locarno Film Festival, every year One-frame Movie offers two 4-full-day workshops to about 40 teenagers (10-14 years old). Over its four editions so far, One-frame Movie has developed four 30-hour digital media education ateliers that combine creative smartphone use with film and visual literacy. Each atelier developed around an “impossible challenge”, and puts the young people in front of a real audience. The first One-frame Movie atelier (labelled One-frame Movie as well) focuses on creating a full story with only one picture frame, working on visual storytelling and on how images can tell stories sometimes better than words. The second atelier (SoundScore) work on sound, and on how it can give feelings and life to pictures – the challenge is creating the full soundtrack of a 1-minute excerpt of a classic movie starting from scratch, i.e., using just a microphone and a sound recorder. The third atelier (SelfieAwareness) works on portraits and selfies, promoting a critical stance and challenging common media beauty stereotypes. Finally, the fourth atelier (MusicClip) focuses on the specific genre of music video-clips, and challenges participants to create an original clip for a new song from a local band in 3 days, alsu just using their smartphones.

By May 2018, all OFM learning sets, along with all relevant learning materials and sample participants productions, will be published under a Creative Common Licence and made accessible on the web.

Keywords:

Cinema, smartphones, digital literacy, visual literacy.