The growing consumption of mass media, especially among young people today, presents a challenge for many educators in that each medium is distinct and unique, and most school curricula do not have a dedicated period to teaching media literacy. To address this, Serangoon Garden Secondary School designed their Applied Learning Programme, titled “Researching Society through Media Literacy”, to raise students’ awareness of environmental issues while also tapping on and building up their media literacy skills through the use of digital tools.

Tan Shu Fen (far left) is the Head of Department (Humanities) and Mohamed Imran (far right) is the Subject Head for Design & Technology at Serangoon Garden Secondary School.

The Value of Applied Learning Programme

According to the Singapore’s Ministry of Education, the Applied Learning Programme (ALP) helps students connect academic knowledge and skills with the real world (MOE, 2022a). ALP aims to enhance students’ educational experience by providing opportunities for them to apply and transfer knowledge they have learnt in the classrooms to hands-on learning in real world scenarios.

Through this initiative, students can appreciate the relevance and value of what they have learnt to develop a strong sense of motivation and purpose to acquire knowledge and skills, as well as to prepare them for the future.

At Serangoon Garden Secondary School (SGS), their ALP “Researching Society through Media Literacy” (RSML) is integrated into the different subjects and has an overarching theme that changes annually. This year, SGS focuses on the theme “Environment and Us”, which aims to encourage students to conduct research on an environmental issue that they can relate to through their subjects. In tandem with the Singapore Green Plan 2030, it seeks to nurture eco-stewards of the environment.

Researching Society through Media Literacy

“As students conduct their primary and secondary research on an environmental issue of choice, they tap on their knowledge and skills on media literacy to gather, make sense and organize information relevant to their issue,” Head of Humanities Department Ms Tan Shu Fen, who is overseeing the school’s ALP, shares. “After which, they then propose innovative solutions to address the issue and tap on digital tools to advocate their cause.”

The school’s ALP also draws on students’ creativity by utilizing the Design-Thinking process to come up with solutions that are beneficial to society.

Subject Head for Design & Technology Mr Mohamed Imran, who is also overseeing the ALP alongside Shu Fen, adds, “By utilizing the Design-Thinking methodology as a key approach in their research process, students learn to identify community challenges, understand the needs of the user, then proceed to work individually or in a team to prototype innovative solutions that meet those needs.”

Imran further explains that during the problem-solving process, students are able to cultivate 21CC skills such as civic literacy, global awareness and cross cultural skills, critical and inventive thinking, as well as communication, collaboration and information skills.

Importance and Development of Media Literacy

We often think of young people as naturally savvy with technology – after all, today’s school-age children have grown up with mobile Internet. However, that does not mean educators have nothing to offer when it comes to digital literacy. SGS’s focus on media literacy in the ALP gives their teachers more opportunities to spark a greater sense of curiosity, as well as bring about increased levels of interest, commitment and ownership in the students’ learning journeys by incorporating media tools.

Furthermore, a critical element of helping students to be more discerning in assessing information they encounter can be addressed through this focus. The ALP is also used to augment the Cyber Wellness in Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum, where it provides a platform for students to apply their cyber wellness knowledge and skills to harness the power of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for positive influence (MOE, 2022b).

“We define media literacy through two aspects,” Shu Fen explains. “The first aspect is to develop students to be discerning users of media. Given the voluminous amounts of information available online, students need to pick up skills such as demonstrating effective and safe search techniques, organizing digital information and assessing the reliability of information.”

This is illustrated during the research phase when students gather data and try to understand the problems that users are facing on societal issues. “In this age of social media, it is critical that our students are able to make sense and utilize information and media tools responsibly,” she says.

The second aspect is to train students to be innovative and responsible creators of multimedia products in their own right. As creators of content, it is beneficial for them to know how to tap on appropriate media tools to create multimedia products to communicate their ideas effectively to their viewers.

This is exemplified when lower secondary students apply photography and videography skills that they have acquired in the student-led workshops to capture the users in action, conduct interviews, or to advocate their ideas. “Furthermore, at the advocacy stage, students are given opportunities to use digital tools to share their innovative solutions on media platforms such as Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook,” Imran adds.

Keeping it “Lit” despite Challenges

In order to regulate the digital content that the students are accessing, and to make sure that they are utilizing the digital tools responsibly, the teachers conduct necessary training for students, scope and frame the project task with clear boundaries, and ensure effective facilitation.

However, ensuring that the programme remains relevant and engaging for SGS students is not without its challenges; the teachers themselves have to move beyond their digital comfort zone.

“As teachers, we keep abreast with the latest social media trends among the students and utilize them to engage with them,” Imran shares. For the ALP presentations, students were allowed to create Tik Tok videos and use infographics created by Canva, a free to-use online graphic design tool. “We would see the students’ enthusiasm as they prepare the videos and infographics, even though they face the challenge of presenting their project in a short 1-minute video or A3 boards,” Imran adds.

Through the ALP, the school also provides Education and Career Guidance (ECG) to students who are interested in media-related courses available in tertiary education. One of their partners is Nanyang Polytechnic, who often hosts some of SGS’s students in their Media Studio on their campus.

At the end of the day, it is only SGS’s hope to nurture students who are both media literate and environmentally conscious; one who is able to curate digital information and create multimedia products that could connect with their viewers to solve societal issues around them. 

References
Ministry of Education, MOE (2022a). Subjects for Express course Retrieved from https://www.moe.gov.sg/secondary/courses/expresselectivesterm=Applied%20Learning%20Programme%20(ALP)

Ministry of Education, MOE (2022b). Practising Cyber Wellness. Retrieved from https://www.moe.gov.sg/education-in-sg/our-programmes/cyber-wellness