The video of A Portal to Media Literacy is refreshing. I like how Michael Wesch describes the walls of the classroom and if they could talk what would they tell us. He breaks down the idea of what school is and how learning in the new media age is changing; how we view the institution of school. I think this is important for educators to see as the information highway is changing how students look and interact with the world. They are more connected to the world than we as adults could have ever imagined. Because of the students being so connected, we as educators need to harness this spirit and help them to learn using this connectedness. At one point in the video he described how the students are taking in information while in the large lecture hall type classroom and never discuss the information. But then when they are in a small classroom setting where interactions can take place the students are still expecting to just received the information. They don't know how to interact with a discussion or how to ask those thought provoking questions that will lead to a better understanding of the topic.
The interactive classroom is where we as educators need training and we need to train our students how to ask questions and how to make deeper connections and understandings of the topics. By using the media literacies, all students can interact and develop deeper understandings by contributing to the ongoing discussion.
i agree that training is needed. I am not sure, at least in my school, how that would be best facilitated. People are all over the place as far as their knowledge, their readiness, etc..We already take a tech survey yearly that puts us into one of four categories as far as what we are 'comfortable' using. I would love to see a plan that was developed by the school to work to get those people who will benefit the most from getting group experience to bring them up a level....and I think those in the upper levels really need to take the DIY approach...once you have a plan to implement, or need some time get some professional time for that. All this is ongoing, and students as teachers, teachers as learners will always be part of the solution.
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