"We need a lot more critical thinking and media criticism taught in schools at a very early age."
John Stauber author of "The Best War Ever"
ETEC 531 was one of the first courses where I felt that I had hit my stride in my MET journey. It felt like I was past that difficult first climb and was starting to enjoy the scenery around me. I enjoyed learning about media and since I have a background in sociology I am well versed in the ins and outs of sociological thought. This course was important to me because I am a firm believer in the concept of the 21st Century Learner and 21st Century Skills. This course focuses on teaching MET students to understand what Media is and how to it influences culture and in fact is an important part of what our culture today is. It also shows that media education and literacy are very important skills that we as teachers need to understand because we need to teach our students how to navigate a world that bombards them with media messages and choices constantly.
This course was a very in depth analysis of the topic of media awareness. This topic is one that modern teachers should be more and more concerned with. The speed at which the social media world is changing offers teachers a challenge to create content that is meaningful and helpful to their students. Gone are the days where generations experienced the same upbringing and where teachers understood the reality that their students face. These days teachers are trying to help students understand a world that did not exist only a few short short years ago. In many cases the students are the ones with the knowledge and the teachers have to catch up to them. This course aims and ending this game of catch-up and prepare teachers to not just react to new media trends but to understand media at its core so that they can better give students the tools they need to navigate the modern media saturated world.
ETEC 531 was a great exercise in working with a group to create something that we could all be proud of and using theoretical information to create a media production that I felt could be used by others to improve the lives of their students. The media production project was something that I took extra pride and care in creating. Living and working in Korea for almost a decade now I have seen first hand how students can be easily bullied and hurt by others through social media. Cyber-bullying is a huge problem in Korea and this project really helped me not only understand the problem on a higher level but also to produced something that I feel could be used to help other teachers combat this problem. The media study guide was a group project where I could take something I enjoy, Doctor Who, combine that with what I have learned about media to create a lesson plan that I feel represents that best quality of what I, as a teacher, can produce. Our media guide was a group effort where various individuals came together to create something that we could not create on our own. It also served as a motivational tool to push each of us to improve in areas where we were weak and share with others our own skills and knowledge.
This course was a very in depth analysis of the topic of media awareness. This topic is one that modern teachers should be more and more concerned with. The speed at which the social media world is changing offers teachers a challenge to create content that is meaningful and helpful to their students. Gone are the days where generations experienced the same upbringing and where teachers understood the reality that their students face. These days teachers are trying to help students understand a world that did not exist only a few short short years ago. In many cases the students are the ones with the knowledge and the teachers have to catch up to them. This course aims and ending this game of catch-up and prepare teachers to not just react to new media trends but to understand media at its core so that they can better give students the tools they need to navigate the modern media saturated world.
ETEC 531 was a great exercise in working with a group to create something that we could all be proud of and using theoretical information to create a media production that I felt could be used by others to improve the lives of their students. The media production project was something that I took extra pride and care in creating. Living and working in Korea for almost a decade now I have seen first hand how students can be easily bullied and hurt by others through social media. Cyber-bullying is a huge problem in Korea and this project really helped me not only understand the problem on a higher level but also to produced something that I feel could be used to help other teachers combat this problem. The media study guide was a group project where I could take something I enjoy, Doctor Who, combine that with what I have learned about media to create a lesson plan that I feel represents that best quality of what I, as a teacher, can produce. Our media guide was a group effort where various individuals came together to create something that we could not create on our own. It also served as a motivational tool to push each of us to improve in areas where we were weak and share with others our own skills and knowledge.