Stanford-Örebro-American University of CairoCross-Cultural Rhetoric Marratech May 12, 2008 Focus on Film or Video

Preparation for May 12, 2008

  1. Read Envision, Chapter 6, on Film and on Organizing/Writing the Research Paper
  2. Watch Youtube video instruction on Film as a rhetorical model of arrangement and research
  3. Select a short film or video related to your research project. This might be a video ad, or a film trailer, or a documentary on your topic.

I. Making Contact in Globally-Distributed Teams.

Time: 18.10–18.20 / 9.10–9.20 10 minutes

Once again, you will start immediately in small groups, at http://switchboard.stanford.edu.

Checking in: Discuss the practice of film viewing in your Culture: Do people go to movies, watch films in dorms or apartments, like new movies, international films, or independents? What do you learn from cultures from sharing practices of viewing visual texts (films?)

II. Cross-Cultural Analysis of Films and Research Papers in Progress

This is your screen if you resize the window with your trailer on the left, and view people’s faces in video boxes on the right …Overlay the resized window on top of Marratech

Time:18.20-19.00 / 9.20-10.00 40minutes

Instructions: As a group, discuss each person’s chosen video or film. You will be completing the collaborative challenge from Envision on page 178. However, the films will be relevant to your own research paper or project.

Tech Directions: type the URL of the video/trailer into the chat box. Then, paste the URL in a browser and resize the window so you can see also see the faces in videoboxes.

  1. What the argument and purpose of each video or trailer? What expectations are made about audience, cultural background, and doxa (cultural values)? What diverse cultural perspectives emerge in discussing this visual rhetoric text?
  2. How does the video or trailer function as an outline of key scenes, characters, conflict, and argument? What tone or style is conveyed through the selection of imagery, music, plot or character emphasis?
  3. What is the arrangement strategy of the video? See the table in Envision p. 183. What can you apply to your own outline strategies? What might you choose to emphasize? How will you convey a story from the material you have gathered?
  4. Learn from the film to advance your research paper: Pick one video or trailer and, as a team, make a parallel story board (or box outline of elements; see image on next page) to map out one person’s research paper based on the arrangement model from the film (try applying the organizational pattern; team members can help draw or suggest ideas!)

If you have time, take turns, working with each person’s topic and drawing/writing on whiteboard how the outline strategies of the film can help create an outline for the paper. Save the whiteboards on your desktop.

Please be sure to stop at 19.00/10.00 and move on to Part III – see next page.

Page 2 of Instructions for May 12, 2008

III. Collaborative Writing and PresentationActivity: Post Group Work on Blogs.

Time: 19.00-19.20/ 10.00-10.20 20 minutes

Task: Story Board your learning

Creative Challenge: Address the following questions:Is this kind of video conference worth doing? What specifically do you learn about rhetoric, writing, research, and cultural values from these activities that you would not learn otherwise? Can you make an argument as a storyboard?

Instructions: As a team, discuss the creative challenge. Develop an argument, collaboratively, to share with the class and then storyboard your answer. You can include evidence from the activity in II above (from storyboarding one research project). As shown in the boxes below, a storyboard is an outline in graphic format (see also Envision Figure 6.1 or 6.4); it helps people visualize the content of a film, a dramatic script, an animation, an ad campaign or even an essay.

Using the Marratech whiteboard, draw in sketches/wordsfor the story you want to tell, or the argument you want to make about the concrete value of videoconference learning. Use simple drawings to begin with. Once the story or argument is in place, you can add more to it on the blog.

Select TWO people to present the storyboard argument to other groups back in T217, and one person as “blogger” to create a post on the CCR blog (include team and everyone’s names).

Tech Directions:

  1. Use the white board and collaboratively write out the answer in storyboard format.
  2. Save the whiteboard on your desktop so you can open it again during the presentation
  3. “The Blogger” post the storyboardimage and a written-for-the-blog synthesis at. http://cgi.stanford.edu/%7Egroup-ccr/mt/mt.cgi

Orebro Username: OrebroCCRSpring2008 Password: ccr2008

Stanford Username: StanfordVisualS08 Password:ccr2008

Egypt Username: AUCEgyptPassword: ccr2008

IV. Reporting Back through Presentation of Collaborative Learning

Time: 19.20-19.30/ 10.20-10.30 10 minutes

Instructions: learn effective communication across cultures and develop active listening expertise

Each group report, show the whiteboard with the storyboard, and 2 people report on learning.

Tech Directions: In Marratech, switch from to T217 (

V. Debrief at Individual Universities; post follow-up comment on the CCR blog!