Media Literacy
Classroom Experience
Onlife.com@BEMM
AE Marquês de Marialva, Cantanhede, Portugal. Show map
The experience involved implementing didactic itineraries of Media and Information Literacy at school and with the families, which focused on collaborative creation and production of multi-modal content, strengthened by the Always ALERT! campaign.
Context
"Onlife.com@BEMM_Media and Information" is a biannual project (2021-2022 / 2022-2023), conceived by the school libraries from Marquês de Marialva (BEMM) after applying for the “Ideas with merit” competition, promoted by the Portuguese School Library Network (RBE).
Its goal is to answer to the diagnosed problematic situations taken from the teachers’ empirical knowledge and the guidance documents from the local School Cluster that recommends a higher investment in Media and Information Literacy, more innovative pedagogical practices, and a permanent interaction among all educational stakeholders.
Highlights...
Students are more alert and aware of the topics covered in the Always Alert campaigns.
Thanks to this project, students and their families became producers of information, not just mere consumers.
Moreover, the project enriches educational teamwork and consolidates interdisciplinary teams for future projects.
Objectives
Critical thinking
Develop a critical view of media messages and information; access the media watchfully (television, radio, magazines, newspapers, Internet).
Media and information literacy
Use, reflect and understand printed, digital and multimedia texts; research, select, organize, validate and communicate information, respecting copyright and related rights; create and disseminate multi-modal products; read, write and transmit in different formats; interact and collaborate in face-to-face and digital environments, using tools that enable learning and inclusion.
Creation of products resulting from the scripts and topics discussed.
Express ideas, feelings and opinions, using implicit and explicit criteria of argumentation and presenting improvement tips; communicate correctly and efficiently, respecting the rules of coexistence inherent to the different communication contexts.
Didactic sequence
1
![]()
Diagnosis
Make a diagnosis of how students consume information and plan accordingly.
2
![]()
Topics
After the diagnosis, define a topic for the campaign Always Alert! It could be how we get informed, disinformed, or issues related to digital citizenship, such as cyberbullying.
3
![]()
Campaign
Prepare the campaign scripts and the materials for this project. It is crucial to let students produce their pieces and give them the flexibility to be creative
4
![]()
Dissemination
Disseminate the campaign pieces in every broadcast medium the school has, and especially, share them with the families.
Assessment and conclusions
Successes
It encouraged students' participation in a diversified teaching and learning process with different levels of cognitive and behavioural complexity.
Students are now more concerned about the competent, critical, responsible, creative and ethical use of information in the context of Media and Information Literacy. They can restructure their thinking, analyze, assess and transfer relevant information to other contexts.
Students recognized themselves as creators and producers of multi-modal content, both in quantity and quality, in class and collaborating with their families.
Things to improve
Curricular articulation between the school library and the Classroom Council needs to be strengthened, increasing the number of subjects/areas involved and providing an annual action plan in the first intersessional meetings, so as to give the project a collaborative closure, following the basic learnings from DAC (Curricular Autonomy Domains), implemented in 2022-23.
Research, adapt and create resources in advance, avoiding the simultaneity of tasks that often happens when producing and operating complex processes.
Take advantage of commemorations: Safer Internet Day, Book and Copyright Day, etc.
The assessment was based on the quality of the text and multimedia products made by the coordinating team, by the students in class and at home with their families. Evaluations are available on a virtual mural.
Take this experience to your classroom!
Tips to adapt the experience to your classroom
1
Interdisciplinarity
It is important to carry out cross-disciplinary campaigns that involve the practice of media literacy from different subjects; therefore, interdisciplinary work among different areas from the school is crucial.
2
Timing
This is an online project that takes time. If there are scheduled events, you might get behind due to the interdisciplinary and personalized group work. Anticipate and be flexible with time.
Resources and materials
Autores
You may be interested in...
Media Literacy
Classroom Experience
The critical construction of news and the risks of naïve percepctions