Are you familiar with the term media and information literacy (MIL)? It is considered as the essential ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information in a variety of formats and platforms, including traditional and digital media. It involves understanding how information is produced, disseminated, and consumed, as well as the potential biases and inaccuracies that may exist in various sources. It also includes the ability to critically evaluate and use the information to solve problems, make decisions, and communicate effectively.
MIL is expected to empower individuals to be active and responsible in using global information effectively and ethically. This is important, especially for teachers across the world who will be the ones spreading knowledge to students.
Within this idea, the alumni of the U.S. Department of State—supported by the U.S Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur—initiated a three-day virtual boot camp on February 8-10, 2023. The boot camp aimed to train hundreds of teachers and teacher educators from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand about media and information literacy (MIL). There was total 109 participants selected from all those 5 Southeast Asia countries to participate in this exciting bootcamp.
SEAMEO Regional Open Learning Centre (SEAMOLEC) was involved in the programme as a collaborative partner in recruiting teachers to apply to the boot camp. Through the dissemination of social media postings, SEAMOLEC invited teachers and education personnel to participate.
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Happy participants of the BootCamp |
Indonesian participant joined the bootcamp from school’s computer lab |
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Thai teachers participated in the BootCamp together |
Big groups of Cambodian teachers after participating the BootCamp |
Before the day, participants from whole countries were mixed and then divided into 6 groups. For the first time, all participants met in the virtual networking session. This was the opportunity to set expectations for facilitators and participants to build rapport among participants before the event.
The boot camp was opened by the Director of the UNESCO Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific Mr. Mohamed Djelid and U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Brian D. McFeeters. After the opening session, every day there were three speakers who shared their knowledge related to media and information literacy. The details can be accessed at https://aseanmil.org/asean-teachers-virtual-bootcamp-2023/.
At the end of each day boot camp, participants were encouraged to do some tasks; posting their opinions on the collaborative board called Insight Gallery using the Google Jamboard platform and developing their individual action plans based on the UNESCO competency in media and information literacy. The action plans were expected to be implemented within three months after the boot camp. However, participants are allowed to create action plans beyond that time as well.
Not only individual action plans but participants were also grouped based on the country on the last day. They were assigned to create action plans which are feasible and contextualized for implementation in their respective countries.
Participants who join the whole sessions of the boot camp, submit their assigned action plan as the final project, as well as fill out the post-test and evaluation form are eligible for an e-certificate and allowance for internet subsidy fund from the organizers. (ZB/AA)
