The Appalshop School
Initiative:
A Report on an Experiment in Classroom Research
Author: Kathleen Tyner
"There's too much concern
with systems and too little concern with what kids could do with a computer.
It does not have to be an elaborate, top-down system. You can give people
equipment and they can do imaginative things." Kentucky Senator David
Karem in the Louisville Courier-Journal
AppalShop is a media arts
center nestled in the Appalachian hills of the Eastern Kentucky coal
fields in the Lecher County seat of Whitesburg, population 1,200. Originally
created to counter the kind of Tobacco Road stereotypes seen in countless
media renditions of "hillbillies" from Appalachia, AppalShop creates,
preserves, documents and presents Appalachian art and culture from the
perspective of its residents. It fosters democratic citizenship through
active participation in the community via film, radio and video. AppalShop's
service to its region includes a community access radio station, arts
and crafts exhibitions, community events, recording of Appalachian music,
a world-class theater company, and documentary production about life
in Appalachia by Appalachian filmmakers.
In 1989, AppalShop embarked
on a unique experiment in classroom research with the Eastern Kentucky
Teachers Network (EKTN), one of ten networks in the Foxfire Teacher
Outreach project. The experiment, known as the Appalshop School Initiative,
was an opportunity to explore how video can be integrated across the
curriculum to enhance classroom teaching and learning.
The Appalshop School Initiative
is breaking ground in the field of educational research by tying media
studies to the overall climate of school reform and demonstrating effective
uses of media and technology in the classroom. Furthermore, it is perhaps
the only program in the United States that has attempted to experiment
with video in the classroom as a tool for critical thinking and to study
new methods of using video to enhance and reform the whole curriculum.
Finally, the Appalshop School Initiative, by partnering with the democratic,
student-centered pedagogy of Foxfire, has demonstrated that the study
of media is not an isolated phenomenon to be taught in a media course,
but an ubiquitous part of the teaching day, inextricably linked to teaching
method and style.
Getting Behind the Classroom
Door
The Appalshop School Initiative
addresses a hidden issue in instructional media: Although school media
centers can document the titles and amount of video that teachers check
out for classroom use, very little study has been done to see how teachers
actually use the videos behind the closed door of the classroom. With
that in mind, the Appalshop School Initiative was able to not only distribute
the tapes in a way that placed the Appalshop videos directly into the
hands of the target audience of teachers (and students), the project
was also able to conduct an experiment on effective uses of the videos
in the classroom. The Appalshop School Initiative looks for effective
uses of video in the classroom, explores the way that television changes
classroom roles for teachers and learners, and enhances restructuring
and reform as teachers learn to use new classroom tools.
The stated goals of the
project are: " 1) to help students define their individual relation
to Appalachia by making the region part of their curriculum; 2) to develop
media literacy so that students will be more discerning media consumers,
particularly in identifying sources of media and the different biases
of the different sources; and 3) to develop critical thinking, so that
students will see themselves as more conscious, active participants
in the creation of their own life, media, education, career, family
and political views."
The Appalshop School Initiative,
in its third year, is funded with a two-year grant from the DeWitt Wallace
Foundation and a little bit more from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation. The foundation support made it possible to distribute 1400
Appalshop tapes to teachers in Kentucky and West Virginia. Sixteen teachers
decided that they wanted to be involved in the case study and reporting
aspects of the project. These teachers identified themselves as "Level
One" of the Appalshop School Initiative. All of these teachers are from
the Eastern Kentucky Teachers Network and each received 20 tapes. The
Appalshop School Initiative has provided tapes to hundreds of teachers
in Kentucky and West Virginia and estimates that the tapes have been
seen by at least 10,000 students.
The Appalshop School Initiative
offers an array of educational services Level One teachers: 1) Availability
of the Appalshop collection; 2) Supplementary materials and guides for
the videos; 3) Professional growth through conference presentations
about the Initiative; 4) In-service workshops; 5) Access to an electronic
bulletin board service; 6) Publication opportunities; and 7) Outreach,
support and model teaching from Appalshop staff members.
In March, Appalshop brought
a team of workshop presenters from Southwest Alternate Media Project
and Strategies for Media Literacy to work with teachers on effective
ways to analyze and produce video in the K-12 classroom.
Teachers Talk: Comments
about the Appalshop School Initiative experience:
"I've become more aware
and I just keep trying to find new ways to use the media. I guess maybe
last year I may have thought of it sort of as a something, 'Well I have
to do this because we spent [all this time with the Appalshop School
Initiative]... We had watched all these videos and I mean sitting down
watching 62 videos 62 was a major undertaking and I was worn out after
it was over. And then it was, 'Let's start this project,' and sometimes
I sort of felt like, 'Well, I got myself into this,' and maybe it didn't
fit in real well and I had to figure out a way to get the videos to
fit in with what was going on in the school, because I think you need
to use them, but it's like you don't want to do a project just because
you have that video sitting there. It seems like it's more natural now.
It's like somebody comes up with an idea and you say, 'Oh this would
fit in here real good.' "
Judy Meadows, Media Resource
Specialist, Graze Branch
Elementary School, Greenup
Greenup County, Kentucky
"When I first started showing
[the Appalshop tapes], I would start questioning [the students] about,
'Why did they use that type of music, or why did they ask that question?
What did they want to know about that?' 'What question did they ask
to get that information?' This kind of thing. They just watched. They
had no comments. They didn't even think of it in any kind of critical
manner at all. Now they question me with everything, 'Why did they do
this?' I just love the way their thinking is going."
Pat Draughn, 5th Grade
Teacher, Hindman Elementary School,
Hindman, Letcher
County, Kentucky
"Did I use media [before
the Appalshop School Initiative], yes, but in my opinion now, not very
well. At the time I thought it was great...we looked at media the way
that I looked at using all electronic media back then, videos particularly,
and that was to give them information in an entertaining form so that
they would not have to read it [because] basically my students were
non-readers. There were always questions to make sure they were listening
to what was going on and thinking about what was going on, but -- and
I'm not saying that's a completely wrong way to use media. I mean I'm
sure it has it's place somewhere along the line -- but looking back
I don't feel like the kids ever engaged with the material and I never
really helped them engage with it before the Appalshop School Initiative
project gave me an opportunity to see and understand a little bit more.
My only experience with
electronic media was videos that I popped in the VCR and watched. Yes,
I would ask about it, because I have been a questioning person, I would
probably be more engaged than my students, but in going with the folks
at Appalshop and talking with them and looking at how they produce media
and what kind of questions they have to ask themselves in the editing
process, in the filming process, all of those kinds of things have helped
me. When I watch a film now, [I] ask those kinds of questions that say,
'What is the message coming through here and is it really as obvious
as it seems?' I directly credit the School Initiative Project with helping
me learn how to ask those questions and even to learn that those questions
were necessary in the first place."
Kathy Hanon, Coordinator,
Eastern Kentucky Teachers Network and Secondary
Teacher, Hindman, Letcher County, Kentucky
"I see the Appalshop School
Initiative project helping our students learn to look at how they use
media and how media affects them every day. It started out that in our
minds we were going to use these Appalshop films and we were going to
see what we could do with them, but it's grown into more than that.
It's more like how media becomes a part of what our kids are doing every
day, especially how they watch tv and how they select what they watch
and what part of it absorbs into their brain. I don't think [teachers]
know about [media]. I think that we have grown up watching tv for entertainment
purposes...I have learned so much through this project about really
looking at what we're doing and looking at what information we're taking
in and in what ways it's coming in. I don't think that most people are
geared to thinking about media that way...I think that most of us, as
we started it, just started it because we wanted to be able to use those
films.
As we've used them and
as we've gotten together and talked about what were doing with them
-- because I know that with our first discussion and I remember our
first workshop -- we were thinking, 'What out of these can you use in
class? Where can you use this film?' It was all content things. We could
use a certain film when we study a certain thing in class, which is
okay. I still think that's good to do, but I think that as we worked
we started talking about how we were using these films. It has grown
into a thing of letting the kids look at how information is presented."
Ann Messer, Middle School
French Teacher, North Laurel Middle School, Laurel
County, Kentucky
"I've done some work with
the adults...I tried to get the adults realizing what was on tv, why
they were watching what they were watching, why let your kids watch
what they watch. I try to help them figure out reasons why they are
watching, instead of having it on twenty-four hours a day just for having
it on, but actually having a reason to be watching what's on the screen...Trying
to get the kids to critically think about what they're watching and
why they're watching, and not using it as the babysitter or just something
to pass the time is the main point...If you can learn to think critically
about tv, I think you carry some of that to your every day things. You
have to be able to think critically in order to survive in our world
today, because everything is changing so much that you really have to
be able to think things out and not just go with the flow."
Annette Gevedon, Brodhead
Elementary, 5th Grade, Brodhead, Rockcastle County
"Last year with the first
grade, there was no way to predict how it was going to turn out. There
was just no way to know without just doing it and seeing what happened.
But even those young kids at that age began to think and see things
differently. Like, they were watching Sleeping Beauty and they started
saying 'They should of made the dress a different color,' or 'It should
have done this, should have done that,' and I thought, 'Man, I never
even entertained thoughts like that when I was a child. I didn't know
that I could.' I thought, 'Isn't it beautiful?' and that was enough
and then when all the Gulf War stuff was going on, this little guy came
up to me after he'd been watching the news and he goes, 'Will you tell
me, I just can't figure out. Are we the good guys or are we the bad
guys?' and another kid, we were watching the Frontier Nursing Station
I think, and he said, 'Did the world used to be all black and white?'
You know, it's like these little jewels all along the way and the fact
that they were so young and the fact that these ideas were coming out.
You knew that they were just eons beyond what normal curriculum kids
are at that age. While [the fifth graders] were using Gone With The
Wind, we broke it up into segments to coordinate with the Civil War
sections in the book. I had to be absent unexpectedly one day and when
I came back they were furious with the substitute teacher! They said,
'Do you know she put that tape in there and she would not stop it no
matter how many questions we had! She wouldn't let us ask the question.
She just said, 'Watch the movie,' and now you're going to have to let
us go back and watch it again!' That made me feel pretty good, because
they weren't just watching it and sometimes you're not really sure.
But they were so adamant about the fact that they didn't have a chance
to ask questions."
Judy Bryson, 5th Grade
Teacher, Wallins Creek Elementary, Harlan County, Kentucky
"One of the main purposes
of Appalshop project for me is for my Kentucky Studies Program. I had
used Appalshop films long before I got involved with the project, on
a rental basis -- which I rented out of my pocket. I did this more to
educate my kids as to appreciation and to what we have -- appreciation
of family, of local culture values, things that kids totally take for
granted. This is still my main purpose -- to eliminate some of the stereotyping
ideas that our children have about themselves -- that we are poor and
dumb and ignorant and so on. It just amazes me at the things that I
got out of the workshop this weekend. The information. Things that I
hadn't thought about. You can focus on things that you can point out
-- even to very young children -- like the producer, who's making the
videos. Stop and take a look at especially commercials, at the audience
they're aimed for. Those types of things. Why do they chose this particular
way to advertise this? Those are things that could be brought out in
a teacher workshop and I think that teachers should be open to this
kind of training."
Maggie Cox, 4th Grade Teacher,
Dessity Elementary School, Knox County, Kentucky
"We had our workshop and
Robert Gipe [Appalshop Education Director] was showing us about women's
rights, or women's careers and I thought, 'You know we can get women's
careers from so many of those tapes that you don't need the whole tape
of any one of them.' I think a lot of times when we're going into something
new, we do need to have it modeled for us first or at least give us
a presentation of something where we can stem from that and grow from
that and brainstorm and move on out and 'How can we can do it another
way?' It's, 'What else can we add to this? ' I don't think that you
should ever take one model and use it verbatim word for word."
Diana Dattilo, 4th Grade
Teacher, Campbellsville Elementary School,
Campbellsville, Jefferson County, Kentucky
"When I do in-services
and workshops and when people ask me about Appalshop School Initiative,
I tell them that it's a program that involves teachers in using films
about Appalachia to teach several things. One is to pride in their heritage
of the Appalachian mountains and to do two other things which I feel
like were the purpose of the grant and that was to promote critical
thinking and to promote critical writing, or being able to write about
what they see and analyze and synthesize and organize -- the kind of
things for writing. What I observe when I get out in the classrooms
are that those are the three purposes that I see being used by the teachers
and students. I love the Appalshop films. I see that the teachers are
using them really as teaching tools and educational tools."
Jenny Wilder, Teaching
Associate for the Eastern Kentucky Teachers Network,
Nicholasville, Kentucky
"What was interesting about
that was that before I didn't think it was the right thing to do to
stop the film, or to just show a clip or something. I thought you had
to see the whole thing, because otherwise you were losing something
in that. That was a simple thing and during the workshop last year,
we learned that we would take a clip from this video to show a particular
scene to go along with whatever you were trying to portray to them and
then you'd pull that out and put another one in, so you would have different
films and everything. So of course now when we run a video, the kids
are very used to me turning off and discussing it or they'll even say,
'Hey! Wait a minute! Let's talk about that right there.' They would
never have done that before and I hadn't either until that workshop.
Until we were trained, if you will -- showed how to do that. Maybe before
I just never really thought about using the videos that much with my
classroom and with their structure so I think I have grown in the fact
that now, instead of just watching something, I question what I'm watching
more and when were watching tv at home I ask my husband, 'Wonder why
they did that? It would be more effective if they did it a different
way.' He looks at me and he says, 'Just watch television. Don't be criticizing.'
That's what he and the kids will tellme."
Burma Wheeler, 4th Grade
Teacher, Mansfield Elementary School Campbellsville,
Kentucky, Jefferson County
For more information about
the Appalshop School Initiative: Robert Gipe, Education Director, 306
Madison Street,
Whitesburg, KY 41858. 606.633.0108.
For information about Foxfire's
Eastern Kentucky Teachers Network: Coordinator, EKTN, P.O. Box 452,
Hindman, KY
41822. 606.785.4858.
This article was part of
a report to the DeWitt Wallace Foundation and originally appeared in
this form in the Summer 1992 issue of Strategies Quarterly.
Reprinted permission of
author.
Copyright 1992 Kathleen
Tyner.