GIPI · Grupo Imágenes Palabras e Ideas

El 'Cordobilla': between wires and writing

Summary

This project was conducted during the 1998/1999 school year in a Public school in the city of Cordoba. Its purpose was to introduce the television in the classroom to help children re-build the contents offered by this medium from a critical perspective. In this sense, we were especially interested in exploring how the children spontaneously referred to issues related to violence in television programs.

Objectives

  • To analyze how children spontaneously refer to the issue of violence when they approach the television screen and analyze its contents critically, guided by adults.
  • To explore educational settings where television contents are critically analyzed.

Project Development

This project intended to go further than the reading-writing level and introduce the audiovisual world. From the beginning we were struck by how children spend many hours in front of the TV screens and how this world seems to be something ignored at school. Why are audiovisual media usually not present in the classroom and, when they are, their only purpose is to favour scholastic knowledge?


Within this framework, our research intended to bring the family closer to the school through activities typical in the family environment, which is why the television became our starting point. In prior works we had tried to bring the family closer to the school through homework. We saw that in this case parents became teachers. We wondered what would happen in we took the opposite direction and we decided to introduce television into the classroom. For this we created an educational setting in which boys and girls watched TV, talked and wrote.

To come closer to this experience we can look at the text written by participants for publication in the local newspaper: 

‘The main characters of this story are boys and girls in Year 4 of any Elementary School. In their classroom there are no textbooks, notebooks or pencils. Often, and specially when it is time for the writing workshop, which they have called "Between Wires and Writing", there are newspapers, video cameras and a television. Newspapers are bought, programs are recorded and children learn, among other things, that not everyone is interested in the same news, that each individual can have his or her own opinion and, above all, that the media, something very important outside the school, are used as tools that help to think.’ ‘El Cordobilla’, Children’s supplement from the newspaper “Diario Córdoba”.

 

Results

School knowledge and everyday life

Television is an exceptionally useful medium when it comes to fostering a relationship between scholastic knowledge and everyday life at school. TV contents allowed us to introduce into the classroom different references to our daily lives. We believe it constitutes an example of how the classroom can open itself to another reality, to turn knowledge into something meaningful and allow a more active participation from students. Furthermore, the fact that children became true journalists, publishing in a local newspaper, made it possible for the writing task to become something meaningful and not just a school assignment.

References to violence

The education in values that may arise from reflecting upon these contents involving violence does not happen spontaneously. Children approach television with prior beliefs and stereotypes that are not always revealed.

Reflecting upon television

Television and the narratives that can arise through it go further than our individual and analytical thoughts. The introduction of narratives can contribute to favouring the creation of appropriate settings that encourage an education in values.

Working in communities of practice

Within this context we have followed those studies that focus on the concept of "community of practice", where learning is considered as something social and collective, assuming as a fundamental principle one´s participation in socially situated ideas (such as watching television). Even though children are very familiar with audiovisual codes, it is essential for adults to generate a critical approach to them.

Financing

This project is part of a research study subsidized by the CIDE (resolution BOE 16-IX-1998) under the title ‘Aprender en la familia y en la escuela: imágenes, palabras e ideas (Learning in the family and at school: images, words and ideas)’

Acknowledgements

Third National Educational Research Award 2002 from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports.

Participants

Boys and girls from Year 4 of Primary Education in a Public School in Córdoba

Related publications

  • Lacasa, P.; Reina, A. (2004) ‘La televisión y el periódico en la escuela primaria: Imágenes, palabras e ideas’ Third National Educational Research Award 2002 . Madrid: CIDE
  • Lacasa, P., Reina, A., Cruz, C., & Alburquerque, M. (2003). ‘¿Qué se puede aprender en la escuela y en la vida cotidiana? Acercando la TV a las aulas’. In Yubero, S., Larrañaga E., and Morales, F. (Eds.), ‘La sociedad educadora. Dimensiones psicosociales de la educación’. Cuenca: Ediciones de la Universidad Castilla-La Mancha.
  • Lacasa, P. (2002). ‘Medios de comunicación, tecnología y multiculturalidad’. In Pardo, P., and Méndez, L. (Eds.), ‘Psicología de la Educación Multicultural’. Madrid: UNED
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