Moving Images and other media as a way of achieving knowledge and understanding

The purpose of our project is to study how images, film and other media can contribute to knowledge and understanding in schools. Our thematic group works closely with schools that use different digital media in their everyday teaching. Some of the key issues that the project focuses on are learning, quality, assessment and analysis.

The young people of today are familiar with various new media. It is a natural part of their lives. To meet the needs of our multimedia society, schools, as well as teacher training, need to be well acquainted with the use of media in education.

A common term today is media literacy. An interesting question is what media literacy means in practice. Since the aim of the project ”young communication” is to change the curriculum in teacher training  in a way which makes sure that new teachers have the digital competence they need, we have to ask ourselves what the future needs are in terms of skills in the various media.

Naturally, teachers need to know how to use new media in their teaching.  We believe that what they also need to be familiar with is each type of media in terms of expression and application.

Using new media in education means that we have to know how to be able to define quality in each specific medium. We also have to develop criteria for assessment in the media. We should use it not only as an instrument to achieve knowledge in traditional school subjects, but also as a form of constructing knowledge in a way that differs from traditional teaching practice. We have to ask ourselves how learning takes place in the various new media. We have to develop tools to make students and pupils analyze and discuss questions concerning quality in different media productions.

So far, our project group has tried to developed models that could be used by students and teachers as instruments for analysis and assessment in various media. We have studied pupils work, trying to see what strategies they have used in their production.

We will proceed by interviewing pupils, trying to see how the process influences their work. What do the pupils themselves think about questions concerning knowledge and understanding in new media?

Lars Palm, Ringsbergskolan, discussing  digital storytelling with his pupils.

Contact

Maria Stam, Högskolan i Kalmar
Magnus Engvall, Reaktor Sydost