I was brought up to be an independent thinker, making my own decisions about every facet of my life, whether they are philosophical or mundane. It took me many years to recognize that listening to others was not only invaluable, but a necessary part of making my decisions. Others’ experiences and processes were tools that helped me improve my decision-making ability, and most importantly, the outcomes from those decisions.

It took me even longer to recognize that this evaluation was a necessary and invaluable part of my work life as an educator. Complicating the knowledge that evaluation in education was critical to success in the classroom was the question of who to ask and what to ask. In the classroom, it is a constant experience of evaluation and re-evaluation as classroom populations shift, methods of information delivery change, and the goals of the organization flex to meet those of funders and stakeholders.

Applying these same thoughts to giant screen film, can it be said that evaluation is a critical event in the development of a film project? Stakes are higher for film than the classroom in terms of redoing the process (you can always revise and teach the course again; a bit harder to revise a finished film), audiences are broader, and costs are higher (no, professors don’t get a salary anywhere near the cost of a GS film).    

The question is, where do you start when evaluating a film project? Like my personal experience, perhaps listening to others is a good place. And that is what we aim for in the Lifelong Learning Committee session, The Big E’s: Examining Evaluation and Education in Giant Screen Films.   The goal of this session is to provide a place to not only hear experts in production and evaluation, but to interact in a group discussion on evaluation and education in giant screen films. 

So, to follow my own advice, the Lifelong Learning Committee would like to listen to you. What do you want out of this session? What are key questions or issues you want answers for? How can we make this session an invaluable use of your time in Austin?  How can we follow up on this session to make sure that the results are widely available to all GSCA members? Would you be interested in Twitter comments during the session? How can we, as the Lifelong Learning Committee, serve you as GSCA member?

Mary L. Nucci, MS, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Human Ecology
The Food Policy Institute
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Mary Nucci is Chair of GSCA's Lifelong Learning Committee. Please feel free to post your comments below, or click on Mary's name above to send her an e-mail.