A group of trainers and experts in the field of media education from Romania paid a visit to Norway in the frame of an exchange of best practices and ideas.
«MEDIA CIVIC ENGAGERS» was the name of the meeting that spanned several days, during which Media Civic engagers project partners Norsensus Mediaforum. and University of South Eastern Norway shared with the participants from Romania how democracy and civic involvement are taught in compulsory education in Norway.
The participants first met Norsensus experts for an introduction of the each team and learning about the media literacy, active citizenship and social practices in Norway. Afterward, the participants played an educational Augmented reality scavenger gamed, developed on civicengagers.org paltform by Norsensus specifically for this visit. The players completed challenges assigned to them while learning about Norwegian civil society, education system and media literacy.
The last day of the exchange, the group visited neighboring town, Drammen. One of the meetings in the city was with Professor Heidi Biseth, from the Faculty of Humanities, Sports and Educational Science, from the University of South-Eastern Norway.
With extensive research focusing on democracy, multiculturalism, human rights and social justice in the education sector, from primary school to teacher training, Heidi Bieth is an expert in teaching media education in schools.
She showed the participants from Romania how the subjects in the school curriculum are thought out in Norway, adapted for a labor market and a life that comes with other challenges than those of the present.
The meeting was one with many ideas to remember and take home. Some of the pariticpating teachers have shared their experience in Norway with us:
The working visit to Norway was definitely and experience I will never forget. From the contact with the way of being of the people there, which impressed me with the set of values so well rooted in everyday life, to the official meetings and discussions within the project, everything was revelatory for me as a person. The meeting with Heidi Biseth was probably the densest in this regard. I knew Heidi from another CJI project that I participated in years ago and I couldn’t wait to see her again, because the pedagogy she teaches and practices seems to me to be exactly what any educational system needs. This time, the idea I was left with was mostly related to the necessary awareness that we, as teachers, are training generations of students who will reach a pinnacle of their profession more than 50 years from now. In other words, we are responsible for teaching these students skills that will be useful to them 50 years from now. And media skills are certainly among them.
Anamaria Ghiban, Romanian Language and Literature teacher
I think that the meeting with Heidi Biseth had the biggest impact on me during the visit, also the vision on education and the open manner of communication with the students. It opened my eyes to the fact that we are preparing students who will enter the labour market with jobs that, perhaps, have not even invented and that it is natural to use social media in education, not to exclude it.
Daniela Anghelescu, Romanian Language and Literature teacher
The Norwegian experience was challenging and intense for me. We have met communities where the practice of media education is professional and based on strong democratic beliefs. At the same time, I found that this practice is expressed in a relaxed manner, with a smile on the face, in a casual atmosphere. Together with my colleagues, I experienced the most interesting contamination with the spirit of media education.
Horia Corcheș, Romanian Language and Literature teacher
We had the most interesting exchange of ideas regarding the Norwegian philosophy on education at the University of Drammen, with out host, professor Heidi Biseth. «Do we prepare the children for our past?» was the question that make me think better about the teacher can do offer to his students, in particular, and to the school, in general. A flexible education means to follow the same route or to reach the same goal, but on the different ways. Important is to stay focus. There is no wrong way as long as it leads to right solution. Achieving learning abilities is not aimed at evaluation, because all that skills are necessary to setting up for the next responsible and educated citizens. Early education develops attitudes towards society and one of the European key competences: social-civic. For sure that education is not a destination, but is a reversible path, in which teachers invests, based on the principle of solidarity between generations.
Ciprian Nistor, Romanian Language and Literature teacher
The intensive visit ended with a lot of inspiration and motivation learning from each other.
___________________________
The «MEDIA CIVIC ENGAGERS» meeting was organized within the project «I teach media education! – The media education and culture laboratory”, run by the Center for Independent Journalism (CJI), in partnership with Norsensus Mediaforum and the Rădăuțiul Civic Association, with the financial support of Active Citizens Fund Romania, a program financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through EEA Grants 2014- 2021. The content of this material does not necessarily represent the official position of the EEA and Norwegian Grants 2014-2021; for more information go to www.eeagrants.org . Information about Active Citizens Fund Romania is available at www.activecitizensfund.ro .
