A total of 6 Learning Scenarios are going to be tested in Italy, Slovenia, and Germany. The first one started in Ludwigshafen, Germany on October 24th, 2017 and will be carried out throughout November.
The students listen carefully while Mario Di Carlo and Katja Mayer (MEET researchers and media educators) introduce themselves and the MEET project. Today marks the official start of the testing phase and the 10th grader of Ernst-Reuter-Realschule plus is curious and interested in what is going to happen during the upcoming weeks. As a first task, the students had to fill out a pre-test that provides the researchers with qualitative data necessary for the evaluation of the project. This pre-test for students is one of several other tools for evaluating the impact of the Learning Scenarios on students’ and teachers’ learning and engagement.
Another aspect of this first session is getting to know each other. It is very helpful for the researchers to get an insight into the students’ media behavior and habits as well as knowing who has access to which media and devices. For this reason, the researchers used icebreakers, where the students, for example, had to assign themselves to certain statements, depending on whether they agree fully or not at all. Everybody had lots of fun during this activity and some interesting results occur. For example, all students watch youtube more or less regularly and some also comment on videos. But they are more likely to leave a negative comment rather than a positive one.
Another exercise focused on where students get their information from regarding political events (newspaper, radio, television, internet, or personal environment), and what they mainly use the internet for. During the Learning Scenario, the students are going to work with tablets and produce their own media products in the end. Therefore a short, practical media activity using the tablet and an app to produce photo-comics took place in this first meeting as well. With the help of a preset template in the app, each student created a profile. In addition to the name and a photo, the profiles also contained information about hobbies as well as a personal wish for the project. The most common wish among the students was having fun and a good time together. And also the students’ feedback at the end of this first meeting was clear: All thumbs up! The whole class, as well as teachers and researchers, look forward to working together during the Learning Scenario.
