Lesson 4: We plan a media product
Living Democracy » Textbooks » Growing up in democracy » UNIT 9: Media – Media in use: I would if I could » Lesson 4: We plan a media productWhat do we do with our skills now? The students agree on a topic and on a plan
| Learning objectives | The technical media competence that the students have acquired will be applied. The students choose a topic and also the media devices they need. |
| Student tasks | Using a democratic and participative process, (in small groups and in a plenary discussion) the class decides on the topic they will work on and the media devices they will use. |
| Resources |
“Mind mapping” tool (in Toolbox) Handout: Presentation cards giving a short description of the media devices |
| Methods | Group work, decision making in a plenary session. |
Lesson description
Together with the teacher, the students should choose a topic to work on (using the information they have gathered about the handling of media devices). The topic can be related to an area of EDC/HRE – for example, the students might decide to document all the playgrounds in their community and to list all the things that are missing from them. They could send this information to the responsible authorities or get it published by the local press. It might also be possible to document a construction site over a longer period of time (using both pictures and sound) and to design an interesting report. Once the topic has been chosen, the students should also decide what type of media devices will be used to document the information.
The teacher presents a plan to choose a topic that everyone likes and that will be documented using media devices. If the teacher wants to leave the topic open, he or she should collect all the students’ ideas on a list. The ideas could be collected in small groups, and the groups could then present their ideas in a plenary discussion. A joint list could then be written on a flipchart.
The search for a topic that everybody likes is complex, but it can be a good way of learning to compromise (the teacher should also evaluate this aspect).
Next, the groups of students should develop some preliminary ideas using the mind mapping tool from the toolbox. These ideas will be exchanged in class. If the students are using a mind map for the first time, the teacher should discuss the separate steps that are necessary and might even be able to provide an example, such as the following, on the blackboard:
- Write the name of your topic in the middle of your piece of paper and draw a circle around it. Be sure to use paper that is large enough.
- Draw a few thick lines radiating out from the circle. On each line, write the name of one sub-topic related to the main topic in the middle.
- From the thick lines, you can draw additional, thinner lines that represent subcategories or questions related to the sub-topic written on the thick line.
- Try to find as many different terms as you can and place them in the correct categories. You can use different font sizes, symbols and colours.
The same groups (or perhaps the whole class in a plenary session) then think about which media device they would like to use (see handout: presentation cards giving a short description of the media devices).
If these suggestions were developed in groups, the results should be collected.
In a plenary discussion, the question of responsibility should be addressed again:
- What kind of responsibility does a person who records pictures and sounds have?
- What does the protection of a person’s personal rights mean?
- Who do we have to ask or inform?
Unit 9 should end with this step. Implementation of the chosen topic will take place as part of the curriculum subject under which the topic would normally be taught.
