Dennis said: And my feelings when UCLA includes in this release, "foreign-language films for linguistic and foreign-language courses" as permissible is something I object to in several different ways..... 3) They're implying that only foreign language films have a role in education and/or that they're not "real" entertainment for anybody outside the classroom. I know this is an absolute contradiction with my two first two objections, but I did find this objectionable in terms of how foreign films are seen by the public.
That's not the implication, I think, any more than studying any authentic materials or works of art or even works of pop culture are confined to education. Reading Camus (or comic books, which is more likely these days) does not imply that these items are important only for education; examining government or business websites for a business class does not imply that the sites were created with foreign students in mind. A better analogy is the required reading list, by means of which you have the students purchase a uniform edition of the texts to be read. You are not supposed to scan everything and put it into a course management system (and it would not be pleasant for the students if you did). If it's a film course, a Netflix subscription might work well as part of the "required texts." I can see though that even Netflix might not be ready to offer all the films involved in some foreign language courses. I am thinking of a Chinese film course for which I recently accessioned some videos--some of them were not easy to find. NB the one type of material you can't use for distance ed is material developed to teach the particular course, which the students should be buying, e.g. the film textbook itself or short films accompanying a textbook not being used in the classroom. Judy Shoaf
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
