Children learning about media literacy #csnl2011

Another post from the Centre for the Study of New Literacies Conference which took place in Sheffield 8-9 July. Becky Parry (Institute of Education, University of London) talked about an intervention in which young children were involved in media production, as part of the project Developing Media Literacy: towards a model of learning progression. This project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. "The specific aim of the project is to develop a model of learning progression in media education. This model will seek to specify what children of different ages might be expected to understand about media; and how their learning could develop over time, and in the course of a sequence of learning activities". This is done through involvement of teachers and pupils in investigating what media literacy means and finding effective ways of developing media literacy. The project website is at http://www.ioe.ac.uk/study/departments/lkl/21807.html
The researchers had found that media literacy teaching often focused on looking at the different ways texts are constructed, so pupils could understand media language, with sociological aspects were not so much addressed. Traditional classroom news activities tended to be about analysing and rewriting news articles, or quizzes, fact finding exercises etc. These did not seem to be developing all the critical aspects of media literacy.
The intervention that Parry was talking about involved 9-10 year old pupils. The children gathered and presented news stories (asking who/what/when/where questions, like reporters), for a news product that was going to be seen by their peers and by their parents. Therefore it was a "real" exercise: this appeared to increase their commitment to it (Parry compared it to another activity which was just a simulation, which pupils hadn't worked so hard at).
The pupils did not just gather and present news stories, they also set and enforced regulation and bought and sold advertising. Two children were the “accountants” and two were "regulators". The 2 regulators developed rules e.g. for inaccurate reporting, swearing, bad advertising, and there were fines (Parry showed some pictures of the set of regulations and fines they developed). This again brought reality into the exercise, and it also meant the pupils had discussions about these ethical and economic issues. Partway through the exercise, the teacher introduced a picture of a “UFO”, which gave a buzz as they tried to decide whether it was “news”.
One of the issues that Parry emphasised was is that this research methodology provided an insight into the process of the pupils' learning and decision making. From a learning and teaching point of view it was giving them more real understanding and curiosity about how news is constructed.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hydrangea, Rutland Hotel, Sheffield, July 2011

Using mobile phones for teaching in Bangladesh #csnl2011

Today and tomorrow I'm at the Centre for the Study of New Literacies Conference which is taking place in Sheffield. The Centre is based in Sheffield University's School of Education. The focus is "new methods for new literacies" and I'm speaking tomorrow on reasearching in Second Life (the video I posted a couple of days ago is for the talk). The talk I will pick out today was by Christopher Walsh (Open University): Rethinking teacher professional development: going digital on low-cost phones in Bangladesh..
He is part of the English in Action multimillion pound project funded by UKaid from the Department for International Development (DFID) in cooperation with the Government of Bangladesh. Two of the partners are the Open University and the BBC. The project aims to teach 25 million people English (!) and the initiative that Walsh was talking about is targetting 102,000 teachers and the 17 million students they teach.
Walsh talked about the "multiliteracies pedagogy for teacher professional development" that underpinned his approach. This involves situated practice (linking into the Bangladeshi national curriculum); overt instruction (to teach communicative English language teaching practices to teachers, so they then use the same methods with pupils); critical framing; and transformed practice. The problem with English teaching has been that it is textbook-based, with little pupil interaction and little use of spoken English at all, so even teachers might not be confident in speaking English.
The approach they have taken is practical and sustainable, since they are focusing on use of low-priced mobile phones, which are very common. They call them the Trainer in your pocket. Walsh observed that most schools have no electricity, and simply getting other devices charged up (devices that people do not use every day) was an issue.
There are training meetings where teachers get classroom materials and support (e.g. flashcards, figurines) and learn some new classroom practices. In their turn they should be able to teach others. At the moment the teachers are each given a mobile phone that takes an SD card, so they get set of audio files of English teaching material aligned with the Bangladeshi national curriculum. They also get portable rechargeable speakers, so they can plug their phones into these and use the audio English language material direct in the classroom. When the project is no longer giving out mobiles, they will still be able to give out memory cards to fit in teachers' own phones, and also ensure files can be downloaded cheaply.
From impact evaluations, teachers are saying that they are gaining confidence in speaking English and using different teaching practice. There is more of teachers speaking English, and and more of students speaking English in class.
The project website includes some pictures and other material such as conference papers and teacher's journal. Walsh's actual presentation, including some videos of classrooms, is on Prezi and I hope it is embedded below:

Rethinking teacher professional development: Going digital on low-cost mobile phones in Bangladesh on Prezi