200 Students formed media literacy groups in 10 secondary level schools of Dhaka city

200 students formed Media Literacy Groups in 10 Secondary level schools of Dhaka City;

Teachers oriented and Media Literacy group guideline has been shared in the workshops

The baseline survey recently conducted by SACMID at Secondary Level schools in Dhaka City explored that 80% of the students use mobile phone with internet connectivity. And a large part of them are active in social media like Facebook. This is why SACMID has taken steps to do awareness raising activities with the students. Not only the students, gradually the teachers and the parents will be involved in this collaborative effort. As a primary initiative, SACMID has taken steps to form a group by taking 20 students at Secondary level from each school.

A total of 10 Media Literacy Groups has been formed in 10 secondary level schools in Dhaka City during the time period from August 5 to August 16. The group formation was also a program of orientation for the teachers and students to share the future plan of SACMID activities with the selected teachers and students, to identify their roles and responsibilities, and to get their feedbacks and suggestions. The series of orientation and group formation program began at Govt.Laboratory High School on 5 August. The series of programs ended at Motijheel Govt.Boys High School on 16 August. The ICT teachers and the senior level teachers along with the interested students of respective schools joined in the program. [Find below the date, place and a general overview of the program schedule].The Programs have been implemented by SACMID in collaboration with Access to Information (A2I) Program of ICT Division of Bangladesh Government. The programs were supported by Free Press Unlimited under the project: “Promoting Media Literacy in Bangladesh”.

About Media Literacy Group and the guideline (for formation and functioning of the groups)

Each Media Literacy Group has contained 20 students from class ix & x in each school, which now stands 200(+) media literacy group members altogether. A Team Leader has been selected in each group on consensus of other group members, for a one-year-term. 02 co-leaders have also been selected to facilitate or preserve the group work in absence of the group leader. A teacher has been responsible to coordinate, guide and hold touch with SACMID for the betterment and growth of the group members.

Each Media Literacy Group will be a central resource point for the talent and innovative learners. The group members will act to promote positive growth, unfold and use of digital technology typically at their own group stage, however later at the wider tiers of the society and the country. The members of Media Literacy Group will organize a dialogue meeting in every two months, in close cooperation with SACMID and the School Authority. In the meeting, the students will prepare the future plan and fix up the time-bound targets. SACMID is now working to prepare a final version of Guideline and a bi-monthly work plan, in consultation with the experienced teachers, advisors and parents. This Plan will help the group members to make their plan more concrete and useful.

In the orientation and group formation workshops SACMID has shared its draft of the guideline where SACMID has proposed few activities that may be included in the work plan.

• Organize orientation of the group members/students concerning media literacy contents on the issues like: role of media, how to use the social media safely, the advantages of suitable internet (virtual technology) use, the impacts of media on the students’ lifestyle and attitude, the way it shapes their opinion and mindset, Fact vs. Fake news, how to verify the authenticity, identify and perceive the sources and so on.
• These contents will be developed in consultation with the content professionals and to be endorsed by the curriculum specialists at NCTB. In fact, the media literacy content material will be applied within the students in addition to the everyday ICT Curriculum of the Text Books as some co-curricular contents.
• Organizing some co-curricular year-round activities at the school level like: workshop, seminar, debate, essay competition on news-making, game, film show, lecture series, mobile photo exhibition, content development,apps making, quiz contest, awarding and annual gathering.
• The group members may additionally be part of in a web platform and take part in constructive discussion and dialogue on issues of positive relevance to the society and the country.

Program Schedule 

Download to see the Schedule of Formating ML group

Newspapers links:

1. daily Ittefaq 14 August 2018

2. daily Manobkantha 15 August 2018

3. Sarabangla.net 16 August 2018