Project "Media Education in Schools: Opportunities and Challenges"
Presentation
Our project media education in schools: "Opportunities and Challenges" aims to study the possibility of introducing media education in schools as well as content and teaching methods of media education within the curriculum. Participation in this project will help students to gain greater media literacy and to become better citizens who understand that the media transmit ideas, information, news from the perspective of someone, who can identify media techniques and their actual impact , who realize that the media provide benefits of both isolate others; seeking alternative sources of information and entertainment, using the media for their own benefit and pleasure, who know how to act and not be manipulated.
In addition, the project is designed so as to help develop critical thinking and better orientation of young people in traditional media, to prepare them to society through the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attributes to communicate, to create, to undergo criticism and to contribute, to teach students how to protect themselves and to assume their responsibility, surf the World Wide Web, engaging them in research, working on media projects and learn how to interview, observe, examine, etc. . efficiently.
In this project, teachers are expected to share best practices, to compare the methods and techniques, improving their skills. They will endeavor to identify which subject areas of the curriculum are related to media education and to determine what opportunities exist to help teachers integrate media-related components into their lessons, to introduce e-learning in their teaching, to develop diverse managerial and pedagogical methods to meet the challenges arising from the introduction of media education in the curriculum, to promote and tolerate socially responsible and self-directed learning through the inclusion of work on projects in media education in the curriculum and emphasize that the media education rather concentrate on studies and inquiries, rather than imposing a value system.
The project will contribute to bringing together teachers interested in media education, sharing of ideas from this area and to learn how to turn students into researchers, which in its turn will change the dynamics in the classroom. Thus, each partner school will identify shared problems, ideas and priorities through knowledge sharing, best practices and the experience and through discussions and studies at students, teachers, administration, resulting in more active citizenship, personal satisfaction and social commitment . As final products of the project we intend to make a website with teacher and student presentations and performances, mini exhibitions devoted to their partner schools and countries, a set of methodological materials and development of media education in several languages, videos, collages and posters on the topic ; CD-ROM with complete information on the project in 4 languages.
The project could be of great importance and interest to our schools, because today there are only a few countries have introduced media education as a subject in school programs.
The activities were realized within the project so far include:
Entrance to the gallery, regular meetings of participants in each partner school in order to assess the results and discuss future activities;
- First workshop in Razlog (Bulgaria), whose objective was the presentation of school partnerships and identify and discuss the subject areas of the curriculum contained elements of media education, specify the options available to teachers to bring these elements into the process of teaching their subjects, and exchange of ideas and views on project activities;
- The activity "What have we learned about our partners and their countries?" Which was organized by tridesetminutna presentation (short presentations, posters, mobile exhibitions) for teachers and students not participating in the project and submitted along with this during school parent meetings;
- Organizing regular communication between teachers and students involved in the project;
- A series of small expeditions to explore the region for the presence of specialists and organizations working in the field of media, such as journalists, photographers, specialists in advertising and public relations, teachers, media education practitioners and others., Producer's educational excursions houses, radio and TV centers versions of newspapers and magazines - were held in each partner school;
- Establishing a project website where all information is presented in the current project and its participants;
- Procedure "Advertising my school, consisting of the creation of booklets, brochures and electronic videos.
1.
Activities realized within the project during the remainder of 2005/06 are as follows:
- Procedure "Music and music videos" aimed at familiarizing students with the concept of popular culture and role in our lives. Examine the place of music videos in the music industry and the role of music in popular culture. Students interview their classmates, teachers, parents, friends in letters to their music preferences. Then the information obtained will be summarized and will be compared with that of partners. Among other activities planned purposefully watching videos with or without sound, to analyze the visual aesthetic elements of video, study the history of music video, doing small projects for different musical genres. Special attention will be given the role of music in advertising. Students could create their own multimedia products, music and other collages. That will be exchanged between schools;
- The activity of cliches and stereotypes, "dedicated to the unveiling of ethnic, racial, gender and occupational stereotypes in advertising. As a final product is expected collages of such advertising;
- Second workshop in the city of Hunedoara, Romania;
- Developing a set of methodological materials on media education in several languages;
- Periodic meetings of participants in each partner school
- Preparation of materials and reports collected for the National Agency
2. Which project activities do you intend to carry out in the course of the school year 2006/07 and what are the expected results thereof?
In the 2006/07 school year we intend to implement the following activities:
- Study of "chat rooms", to detect the difference between reality and fiction and to make a glossary of most commonly used "chat" words in several languages;
- Procedure "Political cartoons, during which students decrypt and explain appropriate use of newspaper cartoons as deconstruction and decode their messages. Requires the activities include a comparison of how the cartoons from different countries unraveling the same subject, as well as creating their own cartoons. It is recommended that political cartoons can be collected throughout the school year and then be arranged in a special poster, put on the walls. Furthermore, they can be shared among schools and to organize exhibitions in mines;
- The activity "To write a newspaper article, in which students will write news articles for the school newspaper. Available as home, discussing the issue of freedom of expression and role of journalism, then students will advise how to do a news article. Will be given a period of time for the choice of topic, research material, writing and editing of the article as not to exclude the exchange of items for further editing. Finally, papers are exchanged, publish, etc.;
- 2 project meetings during the year: the first - in Manchester, Great Britain and second in-
- Cambre, Spain;
- Regular communication between teachers and students;
- Regular video conferences and discussions of current events in Skype;
- Some of the activities of the project during the school year will be integrated into the curriculum: in music classes will be filled in questionnaires concerning musical tastes and preferences of students and will watch and discuss music videos, technical aspects of this issue will prejudice in physics classes, classes in information technology will focus on studying the possibilities of the Internet as a communication tool and making presentations using Power-Point; classes in public disciplines will discuss issues of racism, xenophobia, nationalism and others.; during the teaching of foreign languages will focus on writing essays and articles, conducting interviews, etc., will develop a specialized course in media education - in the form of EPA, which will allow introduction of elements of the project into the curriculum, the information gathered will be seen during aggregation of certain classes so as to allow for natural and involvement in teaching and in full realization of the objectives of the project.
- Maintenance of web site design by ensuring regular and complete a teaching and school materials;
- Creating a special mini-permanent exhibitions in each partner school, dedicated to the project participants and their countries;
- Developing a set of methodological materials on media education in several languages;
- Collages and posters on the theme of the project;
- Organizing a mini exhibition of political cartoons;
- Online newsletter summarizing the work of the school team for each project year;
- CD-ROM in several languages with information of schools participating in the project, their countries and work on the project;
- Development of the project and its impact on participants will be evaluated using different methods such as: self-assessment questionnaires, questionnaires aimed at a target group (students, teachers, parents, community); open meetings and discussions, teachers will make reports on the development of the project will organize meetings to exchange views in order to feedback, will be an increased focus on feedback between teachers and students, successfully completed the project activities will be summarized and will be available to interested parties; results will be analyzed and evaluated during the project meetings at least twice a year, observations of students during the project (language of communication, teamwork, etc.);
- The results, experience and end products will be distributed through channels for public relations, and by using local radio, local newspapers and local television channels, all outputs will be published on the website of the project, mini exhibitions, newsletters, essays, collages, posters, and other tables will be displayed in schools and gradually will be sent to participating schools as well as in neighboring schools, and the results and experience will be shared at the "Annual Meeting Comenius project, which is conducted annually during the week of Socrates, Comenius, teachers, parents, local community and the press will be invited to attend meetings on the project during visits;
All materials and project documents can be downloaded from here!
All materials of the whole project can be downloaded from here!
Final Report - here!
