載着資訊的「媒體」(包括電視、報章、政府文件、課本、網絡等等)往往會因應其特質而提供他們詮釋的資訊,這個資訊再表述的過程涉及很多值得我們深思的問題。媒體素養(Media Literacy泛指個人在各類通訊處境中取用資訊理解信息表達意念的能力。這門知識能為通識教育提供一些實用指引,涵蓋學生在處理各類當代議題時需要展示的能力。本網誌旨在匯聚這方面的資料,以供教育工作者參考。

2006年10月1日星期日

Youth voice? Whose voice?














這期 McGill Journal of Education 探討了世界各地的青少年媒體製作活動,其中一篇論及香港幾個不同建制環境的青少年媒體作品,包括了教育界(佛教黃允畋中學)、文化藝術界(IFVA)及青年組織(Easy-film)的個案。作者認爲現實中沒有不受制約的自我表達,指出青少年媒體創作活動遠比我們想像中複雜和具政治意味。

資料來源:Chan, C. (2006), 'Youth voice? Whose voice? Young people and youth media practice in Hong Kong'. McGill Journal of Education, 41 (3), 215-225.

全文下載: http://mje.mcgill.ca/article/viewFile/737/577

2006年9月15日星期五

How does the culture of the internet differ from the culture of mass media?

Traditional media like television is hierarchical, top-down, and randomness of content was minimized. Internet is then just the opposite and Internet has been one of the most rapidly adopted communication technologies. The Internet now brings together over 30 million people on-line worldwide, inviting an average of 150,685 new users per day, or 1.74 per second. By 2000, 250 million people will have access to the Internet (Killen & Associates, 1996) .

It is the fact that internet is the new era. From my perspectives, there are two major differences between the culture of the internet and the culture of mass media. The one is: the internet is more interactive that viewers have the right to select what to receive, but the old media like TV and radio is top-down that you have comparatively limited choices. The other is: the internet almost circles the globe, and virtual location in cyberspace depends more on information than physical geography, with its users connecting through thoughts and interests across any and all boundaries.

It is the fact that the Internet has become a revolutionary tool for communication among the computer savvy individuals of the modern world. In contrast to the traditional form of communicating face-to-face, a majority of Internet users utilize the feature of computer-mediated Communication (CMC) ways to talk to their various relations.

Today, computers users can listen and watch both live and recorded news and sports reports from sources as ABC, CBS, ESPN, and NBC. Also, there are over 2,400 radio stations around the world that are already sending there programming out by way of the Internet, allowing people to tune in with the click of a mouse. This new technology boosts their ranks of listeners and also allows them to sell more advertising. Next, unlike printed version, one positive effect that the Internet has had on journalism is the ability to get information out to audiences quicker.

However, sometimes the positive things could also be the negative things. Much of the information that is on the Internet is not as accurate as the information that can be obtained from a newspaper or a news broadcast. In the United States, it is virtually impossible for the government to regulate the Internet because of its enormous size. Besides, I think many people are still more comfortable with the traditional forms of mass media. People are more comfortable with sitting down and reading the newspaper or a magazine or turning on the television to see the news. Most people do not turn to the Internet when they want to learn about a recent news story.

As a secondary school teacher, I have found that students are eager to CMC. Not infrequently, my students enjoy chatting through ICQ or MSN, playing online games and joining online groups. It seems that participants disclose more than they do in face-to-face situations.

Actually, CMC has become a revolutionary, novel, and widely popular form of communication. As opposed to talking directly to someone, CMC allows individuals to communicate in enhanced, desired, and controlled environments. Individuals are capable of targeting not only whom they converse and socialize with, but also how they want to be perceived. On the other hand, face-to-face interaction can be perceived to be more “daunting” because there is no such wall of security in contrast to the computer mediated tool.

Not allowing students to use CMC tools is something impossible. The more practical way is to make use of it and that may help arouse students’ interests in learning. Furthermore, guiding students to conceive, analyze and judge information from the internet is a must. Most importantly, students must learn how to create their own works and communicate with others by expressing their own ideas.

Text: Lee Wing Fai, HKMediaEd.net

2006年9月1日星期五

Online Fans Club: Understanding the Psychology of the Online Community

A community is a group of like-minded people. You are probably part of several different communities – the town/village where you live, the place where you work or study, a group of friends with whom you play sport or other hobby activity, and your church fellowship.

A community of people usually has most of these characteristics:
  • shared interests
  • shared values
  • shared problems/enemies
  • mutually supportive
  • intimacy
  • physical face-to-face interaction at specific times
A successful online fans club, more or less, is the same as a real community, and sometimes the groupness and conformity of it is even more noticeable than you expect. Maybe one of the reason help create the group’s conformity is that time and location are no longer relevant and you can share as much or little of yourself as you wish, without being judged.

Actually, online fans club which permits visitors to contribute content is potentially building community and a high level of trust. The more or meaningful content you contribute, the more scores you obtain for getting permits to view or download bonus pictures or videos from the authorized administrators. That helps encourage you to get sticky to the community.

To have a sense of community, a website needs to be welcoming and non-condemning. It must meet people where they are, and demonstrate an understanding of their feelings and problems. They must feel that they somehow 'belong' to the site, and can also offer their own feedback and opinions as well as receive advice.

By the way, it is discovered that some psychology and sociology theories can be applied in online fans club’s community, but some cannot.

Hyperpersonality theory
Chen and Gaines (1998) argued that developing a positive self-image is one motivation for participating in reciprocal Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) relationships because it allows you to publicize your expertise, position yourself in the virtual community. It is quite true that online fans club participants always contribute content towards their idols when they come across their idols’ news. It seems that they are the experts in this particular field. They are willing to share that may help them to enhance their self-identity and image.

Cues-filtered-out theory
Cues-filtered-out theory assumes that CMC relationships lack social or context cues. It may easily lead to antisocial or impersonal behaviors and increase in uninhibited behavior patterns such as flaming in online interactions. However, the above-mentioned situations are not noticeable in online fans club. Maybe they have already built up the sense of belonging to the community that few of them want to ruin the orders. Or the system management team is efficient enough to delete any unwanted messages posted when found.

Social Exchange theory
Social Exchange theory in CMC means that people contribute content because they want to receive a benefit (get something to exchange). Actually, the benefit is not necessary a real object. The reciprocal rewards can be some feedback messages that show people’s appreciation, praise or respect the content contributors. These interactions then make message posted cycle continue.

Para-social Interaction/relationship (PSI) theory
Horton & Wohl (1956) implicated agreement between the performer and viewer that they will pretend the relationship is not mediated – as though it were a face-to-face encounter, just like a media friend. However, the situation is not noticeable in online fans club because, unlike TV, there is not a role player or actor in online fans club. But the active participant will show their sorrows after the recovery of the online fan club’s server down. The situation is just like a person who meets his buddy whom he doesn’t meet each other for a long time.

Social Identification/Deindividuation (SIDE) theory
Postmes, Spears, and Lea (1998, 2000) stated that online participants will assume that other people are similar to themselves and that they share comparable norms and characteristics. SIDE theory seems more applicable to online fans club. Basically, online fans club participants have similar norms (they have the same idols). When communicators share a common social identity, they appear to be more susceptible to group influence, social attraction, stereotyping, gender typing, and discrimination in anonymous CMC.

All in all, Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) has already developed maturely. A large population of people is familiar with CMC. The phenomena of groupness, conformity and polarization are not infrequent in online fans club. In fact, the successful one has formed the sense of belonging to the virtual community, just like a community in the real society.

Text: Lee Wing Fai, HKMediaEd.net

2006年8月31日星期四

Art and New Media

From my perspective, art was easier to define before Impressionism. It was the fact that so-called 'good’ art pieces, more or less, followed some traditionally accepted rules like proportion, perspective, golden section, textures and tones. Generally, if one’s painting looked real, one would probably have created a ‘good’ art piece. But soon afterwards, the invention of photography changed this perception.

Art and Photography
The first photographic images (new media in this era) were taken around the year 1840, and sparked a revolution in how people dealt with images as communication. Impressionism represents a very significant break from the previous style of painting. (Before Impressionism, only realistic paintings were traditionally accepted.) Not long afterwards, abstract art also began to be painted. Images, lines, shapes, and accuracy in general were forfeited in favour of the new forms. Painters of the time might have felt that the new technology called 'photography' could do it much better, quicker and less expensively than they could. That was why they didn't bother competing.

Obviously, the new techniques and new ideas continued. Marcel Duchamp sent a ready-made enamel urinal to a 1917 juried exhibition in New York. The piece, called Fountain, was rejected by the jury but eventually went on to become the most famous of all works of conceptual art.

Within a few decades of this era, not only the type of creativity and vision found in Impressionism was evident, but also the rise of Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, Dadaism, Abstract Art, Pop art, Conceptual art and to name a few.

Art and New Media
Undoubtedly, photography brought a huge impact to artists in the era. Some artists chose not to compete with it, and some chose to adopt and make use of it. Then, what about the new era? If there is anything that distinguishes the twentieth century from all previous eras, it is our communications. The electronic storage mediums, TV, movie, Internet and so forth have changed the role of traditional accepted art.

In the past, the critics, the academics, the art historians, the museum curators, the gallery owners, the editors et al., had the authority to define art or credit an art piece a masterpiece. However, some artists started to doubt whether institutionalised museums were the only place to get recognition for their works. As technologies have improved, online museum is becoming popular. As a matter of fact, it is not necessary to get recognition from institutionalized museums or galleries. Almost anyone who has some knowledge of the Internet could upload his works to his virtual with only a small budget. Sometimes, the impact of an online gallery could be even deeper and more far-reaching. New media including mobile phones, the Internet, streaming technologies, wireless networks, and the high quality publishing and information sharing capacities of the World Wide Web make both geographical and media boundaries inconsequential.

Maybe art could be much easier to define before Impressionism. However, I would rather not define art clearly and leave room for imagination. Art should be a lot of fun and more avant-garde as challenging ideas certainly help inspire people's creativity.

Text: Lee Wing Fai, HKMediaEd.net


EPIC 2015

2006年8月22日星期二

A Pedagogical Design of IT-Supported Inquiry Learning in General Studies

A Pedagogical Design of IT-Supported Inquiry Learning in General Studies

Abstract: This article mainly addresses the Hong Kong new Information Technology in Education policy to have
further integration of information technology into the learning and teaching process, particularly on the design of
IT-supported inquiry learning in the primary General Studies. The article focuses on the collaborative effort of the
teacher educators from the Institute of Education and the curriculum developers of the Hong Kong Education City
in the design of a web-based learning unit on “Earth Movement” to support pupils’ inquiry learning of science.
The article discusses the different modes of inquiry learning with the web-based learning unit in primary General Studies

So Wing-mui, Winnie
The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Kong Siu-cheung
The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Leung Wai-chi, Toby
Hong Kong Education City

Posted by Chitat Chan
Media Education i-World, Hkedcity

2006年6月17日星期六

透過數碼媒體進行電腦科及視覺藝術科之跨科協作教學 - 校本課程經驗分享

第五屆「網上教學協會週年大會」(2006年6月17日)專題報告A2

講者將會分享佛教黃允畋中學如何在正規課程內,透過數碼媒體創作進行電腦科及視覺藝術科之跨科協作教學經驗。講者將就其校內發展數碼媒體創作的理念,分享該校有關數碼媒體創作的校本課程設計及策略,並透過協助學生建立原創性的個人多媒體創作檔案(Creative Media Portfolio),鼓勵學生善用資訊科技表達自己的意念。席間,將會展示該校學生部份數碼媒體創作成果。

講者:
李榮輝老師 (佛教黃允畋中學)
李榮輝,香港媒體教育資源網項目統籌,佛教黃允畋中學視覺藝術科及電腦科教師。香港理工大學設計學院美術與設計教育榮譽文學士。香港中文大學新聞及傳播學院新媒體理學碩士。李氏對媒體教育深感興趣,在校內致力推動媒體教育及校園電視台的發展。該校校園廣播文化已日漸發展成熟、學生積極參與媒體活動及比賽,並屢獲殊榮。

跨科協作教學 - 校本課程經驗分享
跨科協作教學進度表

2006年6月16日星期五

新媒體製作與專題研習:案例、成效、趨勢 (講稿)

第五屆「網上教學協會週年大會」(2006年6月17日)專題報告B3
新媒體製作與專題研習:案例、成效、趨勢

資訊科技並非中立、媒體並非客觀。雖然媒體環境並非直接地?定我們的固有經驗,但卻是無遠弗屆。認知、經驗、資訊、媒體彼此息息相關。知識依賴著她呈現的模式,學問的內容也緊扣著做學問的方法。媒體環境日新月異,教與學均面對著史無前例的機遇與挑戰。新媒體製作非常切合專題研習的需要、是研習方法也是研習內容、更扣連著各類升學就業機會。本報告將分析新媒體專題研習的案例、成效與趨勢。

講者:

陳智達老師 (聖保祿學校)
香港媒體教育資源網召集人,聖保祿學校創意媒體中心主任,倫敦大學教育研究院(IoE, London)文化、語言及傳訊學系(School of Culture, Language and Communication) 哲學博士候選人。

新媒體製作與專題研習:案例、成效、趨勢 (講稿)

Outline of Creative Media Curriculum at St. Paul's Convent School 2005-2006

Creative Media has been a school-based curriculum at SPCS since 2000. The aim of this programme is to enable students to develop critical thinking and creative expression in the new media environment. A key feature of this programme is it helps students integrate their socio-cultural concerns with their media production skills, presenting a spiralling learning cycle.

Outline of Creative Media Curriculum 2005-2006
1st Draft 2005 09 01; Last update 2006 06 22

Curriculum at St. Paul's Convent School 2005-2006

Text: Chitat Chan

2006年3月23日星期四

RDN Virtual Training Suite

RDN Virtual Training Suite

RDN Virtual Training Suite - a set of free online tutorials designed to help students, lecturers and researchers improve their Information literacy. You can work in your own time at your own pace. It may be a useful model for designing learning resources for the Liberal Studies Curriculum (esp the Independent Enquiry Study module) in Hong Kong.

Posted by Chitat Chan
Media Education i-World, Hkedcity

2006年3月2日星期四

聖保祿學校創意媒體科 鼓勵表達 勇於批判

『「煮食油、酒、牙刷,那幅圖令你聯想到與男性有關?」聖保祿學校的陳智達老師一邊向學生展示相片,一邊向他們發問。

「酒,因為男性大多喜歡喝酒。」一名學生答道。

「但我想告訴大家,我不喜歡喝酒的,我有很多女性朋友比男性更喜歡喝酒。那煮食油呢?」陳老師再問。

「煮食油多與主婦有關。」另一名學生答道。

「但大家忘了很多頂級大廚都是男性嗎?」陳老師說。

「那咖啡店、銀行、書店、街市,那一處地方令你聯想到與女性有關?」陳老師再問。

「銀行和街市」學生答道。

「那是因為媽媽負責為大家準備食物及給你們零用錢吧 ! 」陳老師笑笑說。』

大家不要以為這是一個認識男性與女性的課堂,其實是聖保祿學校中三班的創意媒體課,內容主要是教授「傳媒與準認知」 (media & pre-understanding)。陳老師表示,希望透過是次課堂令學生明白一個圖像可以啟發人的想像... ...

閱讀全文


* 資料來源:香港教育城

2006年2月23日星期四

新聞攝影在數碼年代的道德問題

一向以來圖片影像的震撼性許多時比文字更大。一張有份量的新聞圖片有時更能吸引讀者的注意。「九一一」事件中那兩架民航機撞擊紐約世貿中心的畫面,相信許多人到現在仍覺得瀝瀝在目。香港報章的頭版許多時候都會利用超過大半的版面刊登新聞圖片以報導重大的新聞事件。由此可見,新聞攝影的地位是非常重要。

在科技高速發展的數碼年代,新聞攝影的質和量日漸提高,由以數碼攝影最為突出。數碼攝影現在的質素已經和傳統攝影不徨多攘,但它比傳統攝影更優勝的地方在於它的傳遞速度和容易大量保存。數碼攝影在近年日漸普及,它的出現使新聞圖片能夠以瞬間的速度傳遞給外界的讀者。因為數碼攝影能直接輸入電腦,方便排版和印刷,這能使讀者以最快的速度接收到世界各地不同的訊息。

但另一方面,數碼攝影的技術的進步使到人們十分容易便能把照片改頭換面,甚至扭曲照片本身所蘊藏的意義。讀者們已經不再相信自己的眼睛,因為現今的電腦技術已經可以把虛假的影像變得十分真實。究竟我們眼睛所見的新聞圖片是不是正在反映現實呢?這點令人十分存疑。記得許多年前,一位媒體評論家------鄭經翰曾遇襲受傷,某報刊為了增強事件的震撼性,就利用數碼技術誇張了鄭先生的面部瘀傷。我們知道新聞攝影的其中一項道德信條是表現景像的真實和客觀性,但這件事便明顯地和這信條背道而馳。

對新聞工作者而言,新聞的可信性是最大的資產,用任何方法改變新聞圖片的影像都會使新聞工作者的誠信破產。因為新聞工作者是有責任維持高尚的道德操守,表現其專業性。

新聞圖片的價值在於它的真實性,對新聞圖片作出任何的轉變或修改都是不合乎道德的。因為新聞圖片是新聞事件的事實真相,這些圖片可以作為新聞事件的證據。如果報刊刊登經過修改的新聞圖片,其實已經是一種說謊的行為,是不道德的。新聞媒體的影響力是十分巨大的,這些謊言更會廣泛傳播於千里之外,影響更是嚴重。我們現在生活的世界已經是充斥著各種各樣的虛假的影像------電視、電影、廣告和互聯網上都充滿這些假影像。

從道德角度來看,數碼攝影本身是沒有錯的,而錯的只是一些新聞工作者為了刺激銷售量而利用數碼攝影技術的方便,來製作誇張失實的新聞圖片。當讀者看見一張震憾性的新聞圖片,他的思想或潛意識是會被改變的。因為讀者相信這是一張真實的圖片。政客可以利用一張煽情的圖片爭取到政治的本錢或攻擊對手,但這張圖片可能是經過設計和修改的。

曾幾何時,新聞圖片彷彿已是真實影像的代表,誠信的最後堡壘。但是現在這個數碼資訊爆炸的年代竟然陸續發現許多虛假的新聞的圖片。這些圖片不單是個別新聞工作者誠信和道德的問題,更影響著整個新聞事業的專業性和可信性。若果連新聞圖片也不可信,世上還有甚麼影像是可信的呢?

作為一個專業的新聞工作者,就應該張事實的真相客觀地報導,不應破壞公眾對新聞媒體的信任。因此,我們要保持高尚的道德操守和專業性,所以利用任何方式改變新聞圖片的真像都是偏離了新聞工作者的誠信。

文:李榮輝  香港媒體教育資源網

2006年2月3日星期五

Moving image in the classroom

Moving Images in the Classroom is a secondary teachers' guide developed by the British Film Institute. It uses various types of media, outlining basic techniques and practical activities for the study of media in the classroom which are mapped on to various curriculum subjects.

Read more

Reference :
British Film Institute

Posted by Chitat Chan
Media Education i-World, Hkedcity