Off to visit one of my favourite teachers

Just about on my way to visit a teacher. Her class did a blogging and podcasting project, which must be wrapped up. The students went and interviewed the vendors at the farmers market and what their life was like selling produce for the local community. What is their daily schedule? Who are their favourite customers? How do they manage when the weather is bad?

I also want to see whether I can interest another teacher at the school in a geography project, “Navigation over the last 300 Years”: from compass to GPS, from antique maps to smartphone navigation guide.

This is one of those schools which is supposed to be advanced in its pedagogical policies. Still, practically, the teachers don’t seem concerned about using digital media in classroom learning situations. They have a computer room in the school (Linux), and that is supposed to be enough.

The teachers I have dealt with do not see that their students have a significant deficit in media literacy. The students are good consumers of media, but they have not been given any adult guidance on how to use media properly. 

Some of the teachers need to be made aware that there is a difference between media and computer literacy. It’s an ongoing battle to make them aware that they are responsible for teaching their students in such a manner that the acquisition of media literacy is intrinsic in their teaching methods (sorry, very convoluted sentence).

I’m off to the school.