Wesleyan University -

by Dan Schnaidt
Dan Schnaidt talks with Xinimin Liu about his frequent use of streaming video and digital images in the classroom.

For each film assigned in your Chinese Avant Garde and Modern Chinese Cultures courses, you show multiple clips of web-based video in class. Do students ever skip class because these materials are also on your web site?

No, I have so far not encountered this. Students can not get the full meaning of the film by just looking at the clips on the web. And I choose the clips in a way that does not give the trajectory of the story line — there are not nicely spaced out to help students recall the plot. The clips are picked for two reasons: to indicate those moments where there is a conflict or dramatization worth commenting on, and to generate discussion about how cinematic technique lends itself to the message.

"Media is not just a medium. It lends itself to the teaching of cultural critique and makes a new form of cultural critique possible."

How long are the video clips, and how many do you use? Can you also comment on how you use them in class?

Usually the clips are around a minute long and never exceed two and a half minutes, because I try my best not to violate copyright. Generally I use eight to ten clips per film, depending on the length of the film. Keep in mind that Asian directors like Hou Hsiao-hsien and Zhang Yimou, tend to have three-hour-long films. I make use of the clips in two ways. With a-film-a-week schedule, the students sometimes overlook certain details in the film, either because they didn’t think they were important or because of flawed subtitles. I use the clips to draw their attention to these details, which are focal points of my teaching. In the following class meetings, I also use the clips to explain specific issues. I will show a clip once, twice or even three times. Or I might show multiple clips from different films that illustrate a similar concept. For example, it seems like in nine out of ten Chinese films there is a marriage procession. The ability to talk about certain cultural rituals and social customs is facilitated by having all the video clips listed on a web page where I can easily make selections. A particular clip is not just meaningful within the compass of one film, but potentially across the many films and texts that I use in different courses.

Are lively discussions more likely to develop around a video clip or an assigned text?

There is a very lively atmosphere whenever I use the clips to explain some point or drive the main message home. It is a very effective way of getting a discussion going quickly, of making everyone feel relaxed. When the lights are dimmed, the classroom has a certain atmosphere of the cinema. The students feel like they are drawn into something and it helps their concentration. It’s a very different atmosphere for discussion than the normal class, where students may feel like there is little room for escape.

Has your use of video and images revealed anything about differences in learning styles? Can you compare the performance of current students against that of students in your classes which were primarily text-based?

When I was teaching at Yale we didn’t use any visual media. The discussion was always based on texts. I used to spend more time warming everyone up for discussion. Today, students are more receptive to the visual mode. It’s more a generational issue than about specific learning styles. The use of media also provides an advantage for first-year and second-year students. My use of the image database and video makes them comfortable; they don’t feel like there is so much ladder climbing. I punctuate a normal course, where full-length novels are assigned, with films. Every third or fourth week I assign a film related to the same theme, theory or school of thought, and it immediately refreshes the whole atmosphere. After a few novels the students become very bored and often passive, and this helps them to rekindle interest and quicken the learning sensibility.

You describe your fourth year Chinese course as “communicative in approach, text-based and media aided.” Can you elaborate on how you use media for advanced language instruction?

My fourth-year Chinese course is very text intensive, but I sometimes change the learning environment by changing the medium. I use a few chapters from a video textbook, called China Scene, in which there is footage of TV coverage, interviews of celebrities and entrepreneurs. I space a few of these out over the semester. I help the students with a list of vocabulary and then show the interviews on video (which do not have subtitles) one time in class. It’s real-life linguistic training because there is generally background noise in the interviews. They need to make sense of it. It provides an opportunity to discuss body language, tone, atmosphere and other aspects of this journalistic coverage that contributes to or distracts from the message. I also ask the students to watch clips from Chinese feature films and talk about them in class. In the future I would like to incorporate other kinds of film, like documentaries and personal profiles, and build up an archive of digital clips.

Your Chinese Avant-Garde and Modern Cultures courses list ‘focused inquiry and writing’ among their curricular renewal objectives. Do you allow your students to construct ‘written’ inquiries using audio, images and video?

I have not yet tried it out, but it is my intention to do so, after my collections of art images (in the Media Database) are complete. I will make the whole catalog available to students who will be assigned to create their own collections and incorporate texts. So far, only one of my students has written a paper that incorporates the images I have on the web. It was something that she decided to do on her own, and it was a very successful and original project.

Should scholars use media to construct cultural critiques, or is that something best reserved for artists?

I believe scholars will do this sooner or later. Text alone is very delimiting, especially when teaching the history of non-western cultures. Using different forms of media has helped facilitate my teaching and has also opened my eyes for research. Media is not just a medium. It lends itself to the teaching of cultural critique and makes a new form of cultural critique possible. Even though some of us may ultimately reject it, we have to allow methodological change.