Bringing our own devices
We’ve been working our way along the development curve of moving the school to #byod. If it’s a new idea to you, what we are trying to achieve is an environment where any user can bring any device they like to school and access all the services they require using it.
Trends in new techs use
This time last term I made some pretty graphs showing how our bookable new techs kit was getting used by staff. A little delayed, but with two terms complete we can start to look at some trends in how it is being used. Too early to draw any significant conclusions, but some points for discussion here.
Starting simply, it’s good to see the kit is getting used more and more. Our total bookings for the term has significantly increased. Realistically, 50 per week is about our maximum capacity at the moment so I’m pleased with this.
Looking in more detail at those bookings we can see a significant increase in the number of staff involved. To have reached the point where over half of our staff are making bookings of this kind of optional kit is great. (remember we are talking additional stuff beyond the usual IT suite/laptop trolley/department cameras).
I wasn’t expecting the increase in tech support though- while not large it does have implications on staffing. A suggestion that we need to look at training requirements and our delivery method again.
The final graph to add here breaks down the kit into equipment type. Only two terms worth of information here remember, going to need the Summer term too before I make any conclusions about this…
There is a second post to follow on this topic. This term we asked staff to give us information about what they were doing with the equipment. Not complete lesson plans, but enough information to allow us to understand the purpose. It’s a pretty massive data set that I still need to wade through, but we should be able to start mapping the tools onto the learning outcomes using this. Not a small job, but potentially a very interesting way to measure the value we are getting here.
Measuring media literacy
“Media literacy may be defined broadly as an individual’s capacity to interpret autonomously and critically the flow, substance, value and consequence of media in all its many forms.” (Celot, P & Tornero, J. 2009).
Since I have started to research this area I have become very aware of the debates surrounding the various forms of literacy, and indeed if we should identify them as different at all. I don’t want to add to this discussion at this stage, but am interested in how our students are working with media sources. I think we can safely assume this to be termed media literacy.
Developing media literacy in our students is not a new concept in schools, but I am increasingly aware that we could be doing much more in this area. How do your students interpret what they encounter in the media? What could you to help them with this?
At #lwf11 Jimmy Wales mentioned teaching students to understand and interpret media sources as being the most important thing we could be doing. This got me thinking. How well do our students do this already, and what simple changes could we introduce to the curriculum to enhance it?
I’ve started by trying to establish exactly what media literacy is. The quote above seems to be the most concise description but there is massive room for debate on a precise definition. In “The seven great debates in the media literacy movement” Hobbs lays out just some of the problems facing educators in trying to work in this area. I’m not going into detail on that here, but if you teach in a related area it is really worth getting hold of a copy of this.
The UK film council state that media literate people should be able to:
- Use media technologies effectively to access, store, retrieve and share content to meet their individual and community needs and interests;
- Gain access to, and make informed choices about, a wide range of media forms and content from different cultural and institutional sources;
- Understand how and why media content is produced;
- Analyse critically the techniques, languages and conventions used by the media, and the messages they convey;
- Use media creatively to express and communicate ideas, information and opinions;
- Identify, and avoid or challenge, media content and services that may be unsolicited, offensive or harmful;
- Make effective use of media in the exercise of their democratic rights and civic responsibilities.
Before we can start to introduce activities to improve media literacy I wanted to try and measure what level we are currently working at. A 2009 EU paper set out to measure media literacy levels in Europe, so this seems like a good starting point. In the graphic below (taken from this report), the area I want to focus on is the individual competences.
This division suggests we divide our work into two key areas, use of the media and critical understanding. Elsewhere in the report communication abilities are also highlighted as key but I think this will be part and parcel of working with students on the other two areas. Ofcom neatly split this fairly intimidating concept up into “access, understand, create”. Simple and accessible terms that I would like to try and follow.
To establish a level of media literacy we need to look at students use of media, technical skills, and their understanding/analysis of it. Working with a small trial group of year 9 students, the following survey has been put together to measure a baseline. It borrows ideas from the EU document mentioned, and recent Ofcom studies on media literacy in the UK. It is something of a balance between time & detail, but covers the areas discussed above. For now, consider it a work in progress but this is very much where I am headed.
The next stage of the process will be to look at introducing new activities into media lessons to develop media literacy, more on this to follow later in the term. As always, interested in your thoughts/comments/corrections on the subject.
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