Media

UNDERSTANDING MEDIA LITERACY: INSIDE PLATO'S CAVE

Teachers review Inside Plato's Cave

During the summer of 2007, 40 teachers across Canada, participated in a field study of INSIDE PLATO’S CAVE.  These are their comments:

Professional Development

Like many teachers practicing now, I never had an opportunity to take a Media course in university. This is why I see your course as being so valuable. ..I would feel confident after taking this course to teach it in the high-school. -Vancouver

I don’t have any formal media studies training, so it has been really informational and full of engaging activities.  I really liked the set up of the lessons with the overview, lesson summary, and lesson breakdowns.  I felt like I could use a similar outline for teaching a semestered Media Course, and use various concepts for teaching media components in English courses.  - London

Teacher support - whether it be in the form of an online course, college credit, or department in-service is greatly needed.  -  St. John’s

… very much needed in terms of professional development for teachers. - London

The Course Design

The tone of it is ‘spot on’.  – St. John’s

I liked the clarity and the design/ layout. I found the overview gave me a sense of direction and clearly defined the expectations.  Well thought out and carefully constructed so as to be useful to the most inept users of technology …even though I’ve finished all the degrees I need to complete (and then some) I would consider taking this course if it were offered. – Vancouver

The thing I liked most was how effectively everything has been set up for the learner. It is organized in a manner that allows easy movement from one module/lesson/activity to the next, and with the necessary links provided for work outside the module. . . Also, there are lots of fabulous resources for educators that can be adapted to various grade levels. The discussion board is another super feature. - St. John’s

I value and appreciate the integrated connection of resources, balance of informational text with direction to integral links, process-based and project oriented activities, including teacher as learner, and the focus on self-evaluation as a vital assessment tool… I also like the Resource Library and Readings sections. - Vancouver

Teaching media literacy in the classroom

… the modules contain many ideas that the teacher can take right back to the classroom and implement.  And the handouts, such as the glossary of terms and charts, were invaluable. - St. John’s

The content and activities were rich and adaptable and even though intriguing to an adult learner, easily shaped for my upper intermediate students.  - Vancouver

The introductory unit – Media Education – alone was worth the investment.  I have 8 keys to work with as a starting point for any media I am using in my classroom and deconstruction. . .  For me, these were very useful ideas and learnings that I can use in my own classroom, and I feel more competent doing so. The course is very much needed.  - London

The potential for this project has me awake at night and dreaming of the possibilities.  It couldn’t happen soon enough here in Newfoundland – and I can see it making waves across the entire country. Having used many of these clips and activities in my media classroom (and having snuck several of them into my English classroom as well) I can say with complete confidence that they were probably the most meaningful and memorable classes I have been privileged to teach.  Every teacher begins his/her career vowing to make a difference – but at the end of these classes, I know that I actually did. - St. John’s