网爆门

If modern teens are rarely seen without a smartphone, Anthony Stirpe 鈥�98 is helping his students appreciate those devices in an utterly new way.

He鈥檚 injected an old screenwriting course taught at his New Rochelle high school with new, high-tech life, while encouraging his students to view literature and poetry through a different lens. The lens found in iPad and iPhone cameras, to be exact.

鈥淚t鈥檚 interesting to explore the different things you can do with technology you carry around every day,鈥� he says.

Teaching a filmmaking course once required a hefty equipment budget: The cameras weren鈥檛 cheap, and film didn鈥檛 exactly grow on trees. But the digital image technology packed into smartphones and tablets is capable of much more than the impromptu videos we post to social media. Hollywood filmmakers are discovering the freedom of shooting with these consumer tools 鈥� and Stirpe figured his students could as well.

When he heard administrators aimed to eliminate a scriptwriting class, 鈥淚 said, 鈥楲et me try to do an iPad film course鈥� 鈥� although I didn鈥檛 even know it was possible,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淭hey said yes, which surprised me even more.鈥�

The class began with donations of used iPhones and iPads, but the Apple corporation itself agreed to contribute a few newer models 鈥� including units capable of shooting in 4D resolution, the highest picture quality available to filmmakers today.

Although Stirpe鈥檚 class is part of the school鈥檚 English curriculum, he鈥檚 quick to dispel any concerns about how videos and movies are replacing the written word in modern culture 鈥� in his class, at least. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all grounded in writing and literature,鈥� he says, noting that many of the film projects are derived from assigned poems.

Earlier this year, for instance, the teens were tasked with developing films from Ella Wheeler Wilcox鈥� 鈥淪olitude,鈥� featuring the classic line 鈥淟augh, and the world laughs with you/Weep, and you weep alone.鈥� One project implanted the poem鈥檚 themes into a melodrama about cliques and peer pressure.

鈥淭he kids end up developing a real connection to the literature without even realizing it,鈥� he says.

The film, tech, and education worlds have all taken notice. In addition to in-kind software and hardware donations, the district鈥檚 proximity to New York City has enabled collaborations with the Manhattan Edit Workshop and the International Film School of New York. In March, the Wall Street Journal sent a reporter to the class to write a story 鈥� and to be interviewed on camera by students. In June, Stirpe received a national curriculum award from the International Society for Technology in Education, the biggest organization in the world for what he does, and聽the Center for Digital Education. Recent honors include a Digital Content and Curriculum Achievement Award for 2016 and a 2016-17 Program of Excellence Award from the聽New York State English Council.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think of myself as a pioneer, but I really think this is the future of English education,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to see more and more of it in classrooms. For sure.鈥�

Erich Van Dussen is a freelance writer and film critic. He lives in Rochester, NY.