In the increasingly digital and interconnected world, the importance of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) cannot be overstated. At the beginning of June 2024 we had the pleasure of conducting a training program for a group of six teachers from Poland and Latvia, aimed to empower educators with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate and impart the complexities of MIL to their students, including hands-on workshops focused on creating Booktrailers, blending theory with practical application to enhance learning experiences in schools.
The training commenced with an in-depth exploration of MIL. We discussed the vital role that it plays in contemporary education, equipping students with the ability to critically analyze media content, discern credible sources, detect and distinguish between disinformation and misinformation, and effectively communicate as conscious content creator. The importance of MIL extends beyond the classroom, fostering informed and engaged citizens who can navigate the media-saturated environment with discernment and responsibility.
We also explored definitions and attractive official educational resources provided by UNESCO and available online for all teachers who want to introduce them in their classrooms, such as the engaging “Social Media 4 Peace Quiz” to test your level of Media and Information Literacy skills.
The home page of the quiz introduces this reflection question: “Have you got the know-how to be social media wise?”
Building on the foundational knowledge of MIL, we focused on the creation of booktrailers at school as a practical application of MIL principles. Booktrailers are short videos designed to promote books, much like movie trailers. They are an innovative way to engage students in reading, storytelling and cooperative learning, while developing their media production skills.
Thanks to practical workshops, teachers applied their theoretical knowledge to create their own booktrailers, based on the books they love and that they brought from home and presented to the collegues. This hands-on experience was designed to reinforce learning and provide practical skills, including Scriptwriting and Storyboarding, outdoor Filming sessions and the Editing of the final products, always guided by the JUMP dedicated professional trainer who lead the group and facilitated the creative collaboration and joyful exchange of experiences and ideas.
The training was a resounding success, leaving the teachers from Poland and Latvia equipped with valuable skills and knowledge to bring back to their students. During the last phase each booktrailer created was presented to the group, along with constructive feedback, as participants shared their experiences and provided insights on how to improve their projects. By understanding the importance of Media and Information Literacy and learning how to create engaging booktrailers, these educators are now better prepared to foster a love of reading and critical media skills in their classrooms. The cross-cultural exchange of ideas and practices also enriched the experience, highlighting the universal need for MIL in education.
It is essential to continue supporting and empowering teachers in their efforts to integrate MIL into their teaching practices. By doing so, we can cultivate a generation of media-savvy, critical thinkers who are prepared to navigate the complexities of the modern information landscape, and able to be conscious content creaters, who appreciate and diffuse culture, instead of being passive users who fall into the traps caused by lack of awareness and digital addiction.
Two weeks ago, together with three wonderful participants from Poland, we embarked on a book-trailers making laboratory. The goal was to train the participants in the basics of videomaking and to introduce them to the concept of book-trailers: a short promotial video that presents the main characterics of a book that we want to promote to a wider audience.
Creating a book-trailer is for sure a challenging but useful exercise, it not only require the full set of literary skills, but also of some more technical skills that belong to the videomaking world and it was a pleasure to share with the three participants my knowledge and expertise as a professional video editor and upcoming director.
We started the laboratory with an introduction to media literacy: how movies and other media operate on our subconscious to transmit a message, for example through the use of sad or happy music, or with quick cuts during action scenes to make them look more frenetic.
Then every participant presented the book they brought from hom with them, explaining the plot, the key aspects and informations about the authors, something akin to a little book club meeting where everybody showed how passionate they were about reading. So we started soon after to strategise on how we could make a short video that collected all of the book’s information, being careful to not say too much bceause we wanted to promote the book, not spoil the ending.
All of these more theoretical meetings were then followed by the more practical aspect of realising a book trailers: choosing the style we wanted to follow, looking for images and videos on the internet that could fit that style.
Most importantly, the participants were invited to spend an afternoon outdoor to film the scenes they needed and that they couldn’t find online, and also meeting with a group of locals from Soverato that they too were learning the art of making book trailers and so they all met and started sharing their love for books and the books they chose to promote; the italian participants even offered themselves to help our international guests in realising some clips they could need, by starring in them as actors.
Then, on the last day of the course, the participants started the editing process, some of them had no experience in video editing but they happily took up the challenge and realised some wonderful book trailers that we later showed to all our guests and staff with great success.
Author: Alessia Simonetti – JUMP Trainer
