I’m taking advantage of my sabbatical this year to enrol in two online courses with the University of Wisconsin-Stout. One of these courses is about media and visual literacy. I thought it was just a class to learn about using video in the classroom, something that I have not fully explored in my 8 years as teacher. But it is more than that. When taken in the context of 21st century skills, it is not enough that today’s students learn how to be consumers of technology, they also need to learn to analyze, evaluate, and create technology products and ideas. One video refer to them as “digital learners.”
Some of my classmates, who teach or work as media specialists in US schools, say that chatting, blogging, and social networking sites are usually banned in their schools. Some have the latest tools like Smartboards and computer carts, while others complain about having to compete with other teachers for the use of computer labs. We’re lucky at my school in this regard. We have wireless Internet on campus, four computer labs, Smartboards in almost every classroom, laptops for teachers, and subscription to educational resources like Web-based grade books, Turnitin, and two course management systems: Edline and Blackboard.
In one of the discussions I wrote that we teachers really don’t have a choice but become media literate ourselves. I know I want to, or risk becoming irrelevant to my students, who bring their homework in Ipods and chat with me to ask about their assignments. They are digital learners and this is how technology can be used for school, not just personal entertainment. I’m looking forward to learn more from my two classes. I’ve used many of these tools personally, but need direction and ideas on how to effectively make RSS feeds, tag cloud searching, storyboards, and iGoogle a part of the curriculum.
Those who believe that students should still be learning the “traditional way” using books, pencil, and paper can watch this video and reflect.
There are many versions, but I like this one the best. It’s what our school board and superintendent showed to teachers, students, and parents last year. You can look up the other versions in YouTube or the website http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/
