Over the last several weeks, our digital leaders and I have been working together to plan for and create a makerspace in school.  We have already selected a room that will be the makerspace – the current Reading Room.

We just need to move the books out of this room and into our Staff Development Office, then finally, move the necessary materials and resources in!  Before getting started with this endeavour, I’m sharing my notes here about what a makerspace is, why they exist and how to create them:

What is a Makerspace?

A makerspace is a unique, multipurpose learning environment that encourages tinkering, play and open-ended exploration.  Such activities demand an enquiry-based approach, and they epitomise what progressive education is all about.  The central idea to a makerspace is that children learn by doing.

The only thing that is required of a makerspace is a room with appropriate materials and resources, to encourage learners to make.  From the outset, it is important not to limit students to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths) projects alone.  The idea that a Makerspace is just for STEAM classes is a common misconception.  Making can be anything to anyone.  I particularly like, for example, the slogan from littleBits: “Make something that does something.”

Why use a Makerspace?

Pedagogically speaking, the whole maker movement is underpinned by the idea of “constructionism”, which has been coined by Seymour Papert, and it’s a similar-sounding term to constructivism.  Where constructivism is a well-established theory of learning indicating that people actively construct new knowledge by combining their experiences with what they already know, constructionism takes things a step further.  Although the learning happens inside the learner’s head, Papert’s constructionism states that this happens most reliably when the learner is engaged in a personally meaningful activity outside of their head that makes the learning real and shareable.

According to Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager (2013), authors of Invent to Learn:

‘This shareable activity may take the form of a robot, musical composition, poem, conversation, or new hypothesis… This is much more than “hands-on” learning.  The meaningful part of constructionism is not just touchy-feely new age language.  It acknowledges that the power of making something comes from a question or an impulse that the learner has, and is not imposed from the outside… We seek to liberate learners from their dependency on being taught.’    

By creating a makerspace, students are given the opportunity to take ownership of their own learning as they explore their own passions.  Nevertheless, it is still possible to teach basic skills, then flip your makerspace, so that students can innovate and build on what they have learnt.  In this way, makerspaces are a fantastic way to bring creativity into learning and support deeper learning.  Makerspaces are also the perfect environments in which to challenge students, to try to solve problems in new ways.  These challenges can be created by either teachers or students.  What is particularly exciting about makerspaces, is how they can impact lessons, as teachers can become more innovative owing to the new tools available.

How do we Plan for a Makerspace?

Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why, talks about the importance of knowing your why: the purpose, cause or belief that inspires you to do what you do.  This is as important to keep in mind when designing a makerspace as just about any other venture.  According to Laura Fleming, author of The Kickstart Guide to Making Great Makerspaces, great makerspaces begin with a vision for driving their space.  Providing our digital leaders with post-its, I asked them to first begin writing down what core values our makerspace should have:

After much discussion, we settled on:

– Learning, Resilience & Teamwork

To keep things simple and child-friendly, these makerspace core values also form our overarching vision statement.  Watch this space – more to come in Part 2!

In the meantime, Laura Fleming notes the following free apps, which are great to use for BYOD as a portable digital toolbox for students:

– iHandy Level

– Ruler App + Photo Ruler

– Protractor

– PadCAD Lite

STEAM is both an acronym and an educational approach.  As an acronym, STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths.  As an educational approach, STEAM is about facilitating learning experiences across these five subject areas, which promote collaboration, enquiry-based learning and fun!

Since the late 1990s there has been an increasing global focus on the need to better prepare students for the 21st century workforce by equipping them with the skills and knowledge in STEAM subjects.  After all, the most in-demand jobs globally fall into one or more of these five subject areas.

According to the Rhode Island School of Design, which adds the arts to the original STEM framework, “The goal (of STEAM) is to foster the true innovation that comes with combining the mind of a scientist or technologist with that of an artist or designer.”  All technology begins and ends with some form of art.  In fact, the arts and sciences are a natural match when students have sufficient time for project development, reflection and revision.  For example, arts are used in website and user interface design, advertising and the design of literally any product imaginable.

Many schools around the world, my own included, have made inroads in teaching STEAM through various initiatives, including (but not limited to):

• using Computing & ICT to permeate across the whole school curriculum, thereby linking these five disciplines
• after-school makerspace clubs or programs
• holistic, thematic curricula such as the IPC or PYP, where projects using STEAM practices are embedded
• BYOD initiatives (bring your own device)
• staff training to encourage hands-on exploration within each of these disciplines
• robotics programs

The STEAM approach is intended to be holistic, bringing these five disciplines together.  The key to STEAM’s success though, is to ensure that an enquiry-based learning model is followed:

“Studies comparing learning outcomes for students taught via project-based learning versus traditional instruction show that when implemented well, problem-based learning (PBL) increases long-term retention of content, helps students perform as well or as better than traditional learners in high-stakes tests, improves problem-solving and collaboration skills, and improves students’ attitudes towards learning.” (Vega, 2012)

Introducing littleBits…

For this reason, I’ve been happy to get my hands on the littleBits STEAM set below:

littleBits are small, simple, intuitive blocks that make working with electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together with no experience required. The littleBits STEAM Student set is the easiest and fastest way to create imaginative electronic devices and solutions to everyday challenges.  Thanks to this colour coding system, no prior knowledge of electronics or circuitry is required, making the kit open to learners of all ages.

I had a go at creating an art machine using the STEAM Student Set, and I was pleased with the results:

Activities like this are a great example of what STEAM learning is all about.  It’s clear that children need to be engaged in learning, and learn in ways that can hold their attention, much the same way that social media, and internet sites like Youtube do.  Making learning fun and meaningful is the necessary challenge all educators must take on.

In order to further facilitate teaching and learning of STEAM, we are currently building a website, Classroom Flipped, to bring together an online suite of web apps, videos and sites, which have been mapped to our school curriculum. The name, Classroom Flipped, comes from the educational approach known as flipped learning, whereby students interact with educational content outside the classroom to better support their learning inside the classroom.  The website includes a section specifically for STEAM, with links to the best resources on the Web, including relevant high quality, age-appropriate educational videos, games, articles and interactive quizzes.

STEAM is not just about using digital technologies though; STEAM activities can be as simple as just using a piece of paper.  For example, below is one of the activities we gave our staff was to do when introducing what STEAM is all about:

STEAM Challenge

• Build the highest possible tower you can that holds a book at least 16 cm above the ground for a minimum of  3 seconds (the book must rest on top of the tower)
• The tower must  be free-standing, which means no taping or holding to the floor.

Time: 20 minutes (including testing)

Materials: 10 sheets of newspaper and
50 cm of tape,

Group Size: Maximum of 4 people

Success Criteria – The tallest tower wins as long as….

• Tower is free-standing
• Tower is able to hold the weight of a book for a minimum of 3 seconds
• Book must be resting a minimum of 16cm above the ground
• Tower is constructed solely of newspaper and masking tape

Concluding thoughts…

By engaging students around the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) through practical projects, we can spark an interest and lifelong love of the arts and sciences in children from an early age.  The littleBits STEAM set is a great place to start, but activities can just be as simple as using paper!  The important point is that it is only by teaching relevant, in-demand skills, that we will better prepare our students to become innovators in an changing world.

During our TBS Conference the other week, I attended a 4-day leadership course delivered by Karen Ardley Associates.  As the course was specifically tailored for middle leaders, I came away with many practical insights that I could readily apply to my own role as a curriculum coordinator and line manager.  The purpose of this post is just to summarise my reflections and key actionable takeaways from the four days.

DAY 1 – All about you as a leader

The course began with an emotional intelligence (EI) self-analysis, which I found to be a valuable tool in order to highlight my EI strengths and consider areas for further development.  According to Karen Ardley, emotional intelligence “is the ability to understand, use and manage our own emotions and respond to the emotions of others, in constructive and purposeful ways.”  The importance of emotional intelligence as a factor for creating better leaders became even more clear to me after listening to Ben Walden‘s keynote speech, when one point stood out – we cannot show leadership for others when we are not living it in our own lives.

Apparently, emotional intelligence makes up two-thirds of effective job performance – only one third is cognitive and technical ability.  In terms of self awareness and management, we need to ensure that we manage our emotions in order to control our behaviours.  A key point made on the course was that the first step to developing positive leadership behaviours is to control our self talk.  Optimism, it would seem, is a key characteristic of the best leaders.  Numerous studies support this assertion, along with other benefits such as better health and increased longevity.  The Nun Study was used as one particularly interesting example, showing that nuns who expressed more positive emotions lived, on average, a decade longer than their less optimistic peers and they were far less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

The discussion about emotional intelligence and leadership then neatly led onto looking at Benjamin Zander’s work:

Using the orchestra as an analogy for leadership, one of my main takeaways from Benjamin Zander’s TED talk is the idea that the conductor never makes a sound.  In other words, the best leaders inspire leadership in others – and we can see it’s working for our audience because of their “shining eyes”.  As Benjamin Zander explains, ‘The eyes never lie.  If the eyes are shining, then I know that my leadership is working.’

As a conductor of an orchestra, I realised the music was beautiful and I wasn’t making a sound.  

The conductor who does not make a sound can focus on making others more powerful.  This makes sense: if people you’re managing feel lively, energetic and connected, they’re more likely to perform at their best.

DAY 2 – Leading and developing others

The second day began with a quote by the British researcher and management theorist, Meredith Belbin:

Nobody’s perfect but a team can be.

This, along with mention of Bill Gates’ emphasis on developing the best teams, set the foundation for introducing the idea of a high-performing team.  According to Karen, a high performing team:

– achieves high levels of leadership confidence

– build its capacity to implement change effectively

– nurtures energy and enthusiasm for learning and teaching

– develops and shares its knowledge, skills and expertise

– builds esteem of all members

In order to better understand how to develop a team and get to the high-performing stage faster, we studied Tuckman’s 4 stage model for team development:

At the forming stage, the leader needs to be directive – providing structure for the team and clarifying expectations about how the team process will be initiated.

During the storming stage, the leader coaches the group by helping them focus on the goals and expectations, managing process and conflict, generating ideas, and explaining decisions.

As the team enters the norming stage, the leader acts primarily as a facilitator by providing encouragement, helping to build consensus, and giving feedback.

Finally, at the performing stage, the leader still facilitates the team process, but tasks and objectives are delegated.  The leader oversees and identifies when the group is moving to a different stage.

The Prioritisation Matrix

DAY 3 – Leading teaching and learning

As we looked at what made effective teams and successful initiatives, we naturally moved into a discussion about giving feedback.  Research shows that oral feedback is potentially the most effective way of providing professional development and learning opportunities.  Effective oral feedback has the following features:

– begins with something positive (a headline) – not “How do you think it went?”

– specific

– asks questions to develop understanding – aims for dialogue

– describes behaviours not the person

As an example of how oral feedback should be given, we watched this video, The Story of Austin’s Butterfly by Ron Berger:

In order to receive feedback effectively, the following points were identified:

– listen to the feedback carefully before responding

– be careful you fully understand what is being said

– ask questions for clarification and exploration

– seek other opinions rather than relying on one source

– decide what you will do as a result of the feedback

As leaders of teaching colleagues, we need to be particularly aware of using coaching strategies for developing teachers’ classroom practice.  After watching two filmed lesson observations, the following coaching questions were used to assess the success of lessons and provide effective feedback for the teacher:

1.  Did all students achieve the learning objective?

2.  How do you know?

3.  What will you do about those who didn’t?

4.  How will you assess and use students’ prior knowledge?

5.  How did you liaise with your teaching assistant before/during/after the lesson?

6.  What can students do now that they couldn’t at the start of the lesson?

7.  How did you make sure students know their next steps in learning?

8.  How did you make sure all students know your high expectations?

9.  How did you provide challenge for all your students?

10.  Did the students enjoy the lesson and how do you know?

I like these ten questions because they have the power to refocus from problem to solution.  Certainly, the need for effective feedback, especially for developing teachers, cannot be understated.  In fact, our discussion about coaching and giving feedback to teachers reminded me of this excellent TED talk that Bill Gates gave on the subject:

After studying the theory of coaching and feedback, we were given a practical exercise to do.  Working in pairs, we were asked to think about an important issue we were facing and practise a role-playing exercise in which we took turns to play both the roles of coach and the person being coached.  I found this to be a useful experience both in terms of getting feedback on my way of dealing with a particular issue and helping to clarify my own understanding of what makes a great coach.

The suggested coaching process to support professional development can be distilled into three stages (based on Gerard Egan’s Skilled Helper):

Stage 1 Analysis

Where am I now?  What’s happening here?

Stage 2 Direction setting

Where do I want to be?

Stage 3 Action planning

How will I get there?

Clearly, asking the right questions is a fundamental technique for guiding the person that you are coaching, so that they can find their own solution.  This in itself can be a powerful way of unlocking leadership potential in others.  As Karen explained, it is not the role of the coach to provide answers or to give advice, but to support the development and learning of the professional learner – to inspire self-directed change.  In order to develop coaching skills further, it is important to become increasingly committed to:

– understanding one’s own learning needs

– reflecting on one’s practice

– taking an ever-more active role in one’s own learning and the learning of others

– acting on what is learned to improve student learning

DAY 4 – Practising leadership

On the last day, we looked at what made effective meetings, strategies for dealing with challenging people and, for the last activity, we were asked to deliver a 10-minute presentation about an initiative that we wanted to introduce.

Meetings

As obvious (or not) as it may sound, the best meetings are fun and enjoyable.  Essentially, they are conversations that lead to action – they are not about information giving.  We had the opportunity to experience this by getting into groups and engaging in a role-play of a ‘high energy’ meeting.  This required a clear and purposeful agenda (timed, prioritised), ground rules (listen with an open mind, encourage everyone to participate) and the use of relevant materials (post-its, pens, paper, etc.)

Following a meeting, for larger teams, Karen showed us this method of using dot stickers to quickly gauge and visually represent the popularity of the team’s preference when there are two or more possible options over an issue. In this hypothetical example, we were asked about our preference regarding when to hold a team meeting. We needed to use three stickers for our strongest preference, two stickers for our second best choice and one (or no stickers) for our least desired choice.For larger teams, Karen showed us this method of using dot stickers to quickly gauge and visually represent the popularity of the team’s preference when there are two or more possible options over an issue. In this hypothetical example, we were asked about our preference regarding when to hold a team meeting. We needed to use three stickers for our strongest preference, two stickers for our second best choice and one (or no stickers) for our least desired choice.

Challenging people

I found the advice about how to deal with challenging behaviours useful.  For difficult conversations for example,  the following suggestions were provided:

– Choose the location

– Plan and script

– Predict likely responses

– Use assertive statements

– Think win:win

Lauren Mackler from Harvard Business School also has some great tips about how to manage difficult conversations:

Presentation

For the last activity, we each had to prepare a presentation to be presented to other members of our group and someone from senior leadership.  This activity was a surprise and, having only an hour to prepare, I enjoyed the challenge of presenting an initiative that I wanted to lead.  Using just a Flipchart and pen, it was also a good exercise to present without the use of any digital technology!

 Personally, I like to follow a simple three-step process to presentations: what, why and how.  The ‘what’ sets both the purpose and context for the presentation.  The ‘why’ helps to engage the audience by giving them a reason why they should care.  Finally, the ‘how’ provides the explanation about how the initiative will be developed.  I find that following this structure helps to give a presentation clarity and organisation.

As always, with any activity like this, the most useful part is to get feedback.  In our group, we each took turns presenting and then watching and evaluating the presentations of our peers.  We evaluated aspects such as control of space, use of voice and body language.  Based on my own feedback, I had communicated my message well – I  just need to remember to smile more! 🙂

It is also worth mentioning that when it comes to presentations, less is more.  The simpler and more succinct you can make your message, the better.  After all, as both teachers and students, we know that we all have limited cognitive loads at any one time.  By making your message easier to absorb, it becomes more memorable, and ultimately, more likely to be acted upon.

Concluding thoughts…

By the end of this 4-day leadership course, I felt that I had gained a much better insight into my own strengths and areas of development as a leader.  I was especially happy to come away with so many practical leadership ideas and strategies.  One of the key messages, I believe, is that the best leaders are positive and inspire leadership in others through effective coaching and feedback strategies.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) refers to the trend in which students/employees bring their own mobile technologies (usually smartphones) into their place of work or study.  BYOD has become increasingly common in recent years owing to the fact that mobile technologies with access to the Internet are now both more affordable and more ubiquitous than ever.  Given the immense potential for learning opportunities made possible by smartphones and other Internet-connected devices, it is only logical to harness and leverage this technology in order to enrich students’ learning.  Improvements in WiFi access has therefore led many educational institutions to implement a clear roadmap for a BYOD initiative.  In my own workplace, this is exactly what we have done. Along with suggestions put forward by Eric Sheninger (2016) in his book, Uncommon Learning, I want to share some of my own thoughts and experiences about what makes a BYOD initiative successful:

1.  Clear Vision & Plan – As Sheninger points out, a consistent focus on student learning and sound pedagogy should be central to any BYOD initiative.  This means that all stakeholders must be on the same page when it comes to having a shared rationale, goals and expectations surrounding BYOD.  Assemblies, PTA meetings and discussions with the Board of Governors, all provide excellent opportunities to communicate what a BYOD initiative means for the school.  In particular, teachers also need support and guidance through professional development workshops, which help them to make the most of BYOD to develop pedagogically sound lessons.  In my own experience, this sort of professional development should be ongoing even after the BYOD initiative has begun.

2.  Sound Policy – According to Sheninger, a sound policy addresses Wi-Fi login procedures, a focus on learning, acceptable use, and absolving the school of any liability for lost, stolen, or broken devices.  It’s also worthwhile getting students involved with this.  On one of our sites for example, the Digital Senate (made up of senior students) put together  this PowerPoint below to guide their peers on how to install CA certificates onto their devices, which keeps their smartphones safe when browsing the web:

[embeddoc url=”https://technologyforlearners.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CA_cert_senate_Urca.pptx”]

On my site, I enlisted the help of our Digital Leaders to put together this quick video to show all their peers about how to install the school’s CA security certificate:

3.  Infrastructure – The IT service team needs to be up to speed on the BYOD initiative and the school’s network should be ready to withstand all of the mobile technologies connecting to it.  This is pivotal to ensuring the smooth running of the BYOD initiative.

4.  Relevant Applications – I have already referenced several quality applications for Flipped Learning, which can also effectively be utilised as part of a BYOD initiative:

– Poll Everywhere

– Plickers

– Kahoot

– TodaysMeet

– Adobe Spark 

– VideoScribe

– Explain Everything

– Quizlet 

– Google Slides 

(As I’m continually coming across new apps that can enhance student learning, this list above is actually an addition to the previous list I wrote for the top 10 web 2.0 apps for the school curriculum).

Where they can be usefully integrated into lessons, getting students to install augmented reality apps like Aurasma onto their own devices, can also help to create engaging and memorable lessons.

With the emergence of Google Cardboard and accompanying apps like Discovery VR, we’ve been able to go further still, by making perfect use of students’ devices for the creation of virtual reality experiences for students.  If used well, these can really enhance lessons by bringing to life the subject of study.

This video below, made by one of our students on her smartphone, shows a typical example of how the app, Adobe Spark can be used to create an educational video:

This second video is an example of how students are using the app, Explain Everything, which is also a great app for students to have on their smartphones:

5.  Technology Events – Lastly, raising awareness of what we actually have available to us in terms of Internet-connected mobile device technology, how it should be used and how it can be used to facilitate learning, is very important.  In addition to running assemblies and events related to Digital Citizenship and E-Safety, an annual Technology Week is a great way to get both teachers and students involved in maximising the use of their mobile devices to enhance teaching & learning.

Flipped learning is a pedagogical model in which the teacher delivery during in-class time is flipped with the homework elements of a course.  As a type of blended learning technique, students can watch relevant videos at home, which have been prepared by the teacher, while using their in-class time to focus on exercises, projects or discussions.

My own transition to a flipped learning classroom has been a gradual, organic process.  Although I still believe there is a place for the traditional (“sage-on-the- stage”) teaching approach, I’ve come to recognise the many advantages of a flipped learning model.   Sharing relevant tutorial videos with students and colleagues, both from my own YouTube channel and links elsewhere on the Web, enables me to spend more time as a facilitator of learning.  This simply means that learners spend less time passively listening at the beginning of the lesson and more time engaged in activities to develop their skills.  By doing away with the traditional classroom, which is very teacher centred, it also means that I have extra time to provide valuable one-on-one assistance to students who need it the most.

According to Eric Sheninger (2016), author of Uncommon Learning, there are two main components associated with the flipped learning approach:

1.  Students watch lectures and consume other forms of content outside of school at their own pace whilst communicating with peers and teachers using online learning tools.  In my opinion, this point about students working at their own pace cannot be understated.  The ability for students to pause, rewind and fast-forward a tutorial video means that they are in a much better situation to assimilate new learning.

2.  Students apply what they have learnt during in class time with assistance from the teacher.  As there is more time freed up during the lesson itself, there are more opportunities for small-group work and one-to-one contact with lower-performing students.

In order to make the lesson time itself more engaging while integrating formative assessment, there are many web-based tools that can complement the students’ main in class activities:

– Poll Everywhere

– Plickers

– Kahoot

– TodaysMeet

In addition, there are also some fantastic tools out there for students themselves to become authors, teachers and collaborators, working together to teach content to each other.  Some of the best of these tools include:

– Adobe Voice 

– VideoScribe

– Explain Everything

– Quizlet 

– Google Slides 

As well as giving my students opportunities to use these tools, I have used each one of these applications myself as a medium in which to share information with students for them to learn at their own pace.  As Sheninher himself states though, ‘pedagogy always trumps technology’.  For digital learning to be implemented effectively, we should focus on pedagogy first and technology second.  When integrating technology, we need to remember that it is less about the tool and more about what students can do with the tools handed to them.

That being said, with all these web-based tools and other digital applications available, it makes sense that a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or 1:1 technology initiative can radically enhance the flipped learning model.  By providing students with access to their own device, it can bring out the best of what flipped learning has to offer.  According to Sheninger (2016, pp. 117),

The flipped classroom is an excellent first step in making students’ in-class experiences more active, more student centred, and more meaningful. Combining the best aspects of the flipped classroom with the power of 1:1 technology would allow for an even more radical reshaping of the classroom. School should become a place where students can learn at their own individual paces, become active creators instead of solely passive content recipients, and learn in an environment that they “own”, which adjusts rapidly to meet their learning needs and interests.      

Technology has made the world increasingly interconnected, but not necessarily better informed.  One of the key roles of technology today should be to help learners better understand the world we live in, and this means teaching news litearcy in schools.  Yet despite some efforts by those championing media and news literacy, Gretchen Schwarz (2006, pp. 255) writes that its proponents are still dealing with ‘all the problems of a young field – becoming visible in the academic world, acquiring credibility among educators and others, developing a strong research basis, and finding funding’.

The challenges facing media literacy education become even more pronounced when one looks specifically at its subset, news literacy education.

As media scholar, Fifi Schwarz (2012, pp. 1) points out,

‘The most relevant sources for informing citizens about social, economic & political affairs – news media – are often overlooked in media literacy education.  This seems rather odd, considering that interest in news media among (young) citizens clearly relates to their civic engagement’.

Similarly, media educator David Buckingham (2003, pp. 3) writes,

‘It is quite extraordinary that the majority of young people should go through their school careers with so little opportunity to study and engage with the most significant contemporary forms of culture and communication. Clearly, there is an argument here that still needs to be made’.

There are several possible reasons why news literacy has received little scholarly attention and has been underrepresented in education curricula.  First and foremost, news literacy has been overshadowed by the more popular subject, media literacy.  Schwarz (2012, pp. 2) suggests this is to do with the fact that news media is generally associated with, or falls into the category of what he refers to as “old media”, which is not as popular with young people, especially in the digital age.  Buckingham (2000, pp. 9) supports this claim with data, reporting that young people frequently express indifference, or even considerable dislike, towards the news.  This is a significant point given the underlying philosophy of media education in general as a form of inoculation.  Buckingham (2003, pp. 19) explains that this idea comes from the belief that students should be partly exposed to the debilitating forms of media influence in the classroom so as to ultimately enhance their immunity from manipulation.  In terms of news media however, this notion of inoculation can be seen to not apply – after all, it does not make sense to spend time teaching students news literacy in order to “inoculate” them if they are not interested in news itself.  For this reason, other areas of media literacy education have held greater importance in the eyes of educators.

As an ephemeral and potentially contentious subject, news by its very nature can also be seen as a difficult, if not an unnecessary media, to bring into the classroom.  Laufenberg (2010) states that:

‘There is tons of news out there, and you need to interact with it at an analytic level as it happens.  You cannot plan ahead for current events, and it makes some teachers uncomfortable to plan lessons around things that have not yet happened.  They want to control the content’.

Hobbs (2010, pp. 7) adds to this point by suggesting that, ‘where competition and fragmentation of news audiences reign, no easy assumptions can be made about the nature of what counts as trustworthy and authoritative when it comes to news and current events’.

The result is that however relevant or useful it might be, most teachers are reluctant to use the news as part of their daily pedagogy.  This situation is not helped of course, by the fact that there is no training given to teachers on how to teach news literacy.  Hobbs (2004, pp. 53) writes that:

‘Based on my experience as a teacher-educator, I have observed that it takes about three years of practice, supported by staff development and peer critique, to enable teachers to develop the new skills and knowledge they need to effectively use media texts in the classroom to promote critical-thinking and analysis skills’.

According to Powers (2010, pp. 37) though, education schools that prepare today’s teachers do not offer instruction on how to incorporate news literacy instruction into the classroom or test teachers on this content area.  One possible explanation for such barriers to bringing news literacy into the classroom are arguably systemic, rooted in society’s fundamental perceptions and attitudes towards the news media.

For example, Altschull (1990, pp. 53) suggests that news literacy has consistently been viewed as a discipline of practice, ‘not one of deep and reflective thought’.  Similarly, Hobbs (2004, pp. 51) writes,

‘Although the use of popular-culture materials is becoming more and more common, there is little widespread public enthusiasm for the use of popular mass media texts among education and business leaders, and even less among parents and community leaders’.

An obvious reason for this is that news literacy might be seen as a tool by some for propagandising by the teacher.  In other words, there may be concern that news literacy lessons come with political judgments.  As Powers (2010, pp. 43) writes though,

‘While maintaining absolute political objectivity is impossible for teachers introducing any classroom lesson, proponents of news literacy emphasise that the instruction is about teaching skills rather than ideological values’.

Indeed, news literacy education is not about teaching students what to think when it comes to news – quite the contrary, it is about teaching students how to think critically about the news they read.  Nonetheless, misconceptions about the pedagogy underlying news literacy needs to be taken into account as a widespread barrier for its inclusion into curricula.

A final factor to consider is that many classrooms may be ill-equipped with the technological resources necessary to facilitate lessons on news literacy.  According to the report “The Internet and the Threat It Poses to Local Media: Lessons from News in the Schools”, one-third of teachers said they are not making as much use of Internet-based news as they would like, because their classrooms are not equipped for it (Patterson, 2010, pp. 5).  The necessity of computers and Internet access is particularly apparent when one refers to global news literacy, in which the reading of news from international outlets online would be a prerequisite.  As some schools lack computers, wireless access, or the projection technology necessary for teachers to effectively draw on digital news as an educational resource, this problem is an immediate barrier to the inclusion of news literacy lessons.  That being said, there are approaches that teachers can take to respond to such technological obstacles, which might include rationing students’ access to equipment or applying a “bring your own device” (BYOD) policy in the classroom.  Such approaches to overcoming technological resource constraints are not necessarily ideal and may present their own problems.  As a result, the inclusion of news literacy curricula needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis, specifically taking account of the school’s access to relevant technologies.

Given all of the barriers to news literacy education in schools, its advocates face an important task ahead.  Hobbs (2010, pp. 8) suggests greater efforts needs to be made to help educators see the value of employing news and current events into K-12 and higher education.  Powers (2010, pp. 45) writes recognition is needed ‘that news literacy involves critical thinking skills, a commonly listed learning objective, and that acquiring the ability to critically analyse news and public affairs information promotes good citizenship’.  In this way, it is much more likely that news literacy education will be represented in educational standards, which reflect the policy consensus of what teachers are expected to cover and what students are expected to learn.

References:

Altschull, H.  1990.  From Milton to McLuhan: The Ideas behind American Journalism.  White Plains, NY: Longman.

Buckingham, D.  2000.  The Making of Citizens.  Young People, News and Politics.  Routledge.

Buckingham, D.  2003.  Media Education.  Literacy, Learning and Contemporary Culture.  Polity Press, USA.

Hobbs, Renee.  2004.  A Review of School-Based Initiatives in Media Literacy Education.  American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 48, No. 1 (2004): 42-59. Print.

Hobbs, R.  2010.  News Literacy: What Works and What Doesn’t.  University of Rhode Island.

Laufenberg, Diana. Telephone interview. 28 May 2010.  Quoted by Powers, 2010.

Patterson, Thomas E. “The Internet and the Threat It Poses to Local Media: Lessons from News in the Schools.” Carnegie-Night Task Force on the Future of Journalism, 2007. Web. 17 July 2010.

Powers, E.  2010.  Teaching News Literacy in the Age Of New Media: Why Secondary School Students Should Be Taught to Judge the Credibility of the News They Consume.  Washington University in St. Louis.

Schwarz, G & Brown, P.  2006.  Media Literacy: Transforming Curriculum and teaching.  Oklahoma State University: Wiley-Blackwell.

Schwarz, F.  2012.  Media Literacy and the News.  Windesheim School of Media in Zwolle, the Netherlands.