To what extent can MOOCs impact on the understanding of media literacy for New Zealand Intermediate aged teachers and students.

Shem Banbury – Mindlab Inquiry 2019

Step 1: What is the observed impact after the ‘Take Action’ phase?
My inquiry was to use a MOOC to develop Media Literacy with my students and students from around New Zealand. The observed impact is students in my class are now familiar with the term Media Literacy. Students have started to use this term and I have also started to use it more.
I have found that that students now have the ability to use the 5 questions of Media Literacy into their everyday learning. The sad event in Christchurch have also opened up more discussion in my class about the use of social media.
Lindgren and McDaniel (2012, p.346) state that “giving students the sense that they have control and the power to affect their own learning is one of the great challenges of contemporary education”.   

As outlined in my previous post both the qualitative and quantitative data that I collected were positive in developing student’s understanding of Media Literacy. It was pleasing to have this solid evidence to back up what I have found in my class.

Step 2: How is the observed impact different from or similar to the anticipated one?

The observed impact for those students that took the course was in line that what I had anticipated. Students were responsive, engaged, showed development in their learning and enjoyed the process.

One of the areas I did not expect in the inquiry was the lack of involvement from students and teachers from around the country. MOOCs are designed to be large scale and unable large groups of people to access them. This did not happen. I found the take up from students and teachers around the country was low. This was disappointing.
For me there are a couple of reasons which could be factors
1. Students and teachers do not see the value of media literacy.
2. Teachers do not see the value of online learning.
3. The MOOC was poorly advertised and people didn’t know about it.
I believe it is a mixture of all three reasons.

Step 3: What is the impact on future inquiry/practice?

The impact on future practice is for me to look for ways to integrate the elements of MOOCS into student learning. I firmly believe that MOOCs have a role to play in New Zealand’s education as we move forward.

However, I believe that instead of MOOCs it could be SPOC (Small Private Online Courses) that are more usable to a New Zealand educational setting.
A large one size fits all is probably only useful for generic topics, while the smaller nature of these would fit more with the responsive and localised curriculum that schools are developing. This will be an area that I will explore in the future.

Moving forward I would like to offer courses on the Te Tiriti O Waitangi, ANZAC Day, Matariki and even some Religious Education courses.