Step 5 in CATCHsystem is to get familiar with Media. This can be anything from recorded audio, video, music, movie clips, pictures, images, animation and so on. Most of us are familiar with Media, but do we really understand the power it has to influence. Just look at where and how the screens we use to view Media has changed. It started out in our homes and on the walls, moved to our laps, then into our cars and now in our hands!
Schools are slowly but surely pushing for more technology in classrooms. Programs like 1:1 Computing show promise and probe ware accessories enhance learning. But American schools are behind. In his well known video, Did You Know 2.0, Karl Fisch impresses on us that, “...we’re preparing students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist...” To help students with an unknown future, teachers need the knowledge and skills necessary to teach in a technology rich world. No longer is the job market confined to a city or state. Nor is it inside our own country, students today compete with job seekers in India and China. Instead of ten or twenty candidates for a position, there can be thousands. CATCHsystem serves students and teachers in digital learning and productivity. This gives teachers the opportunity to model 21st century skills. Teachers have the chance to lead students with new hardware and software inside the classroom. Students may not know what job or career they will have, but we can give them a solid base to stand on and create from. With knowledge and training in Messaging, Productivity, Sites, Documents and Media, American students will have the rest of the world CATCHing up with them again!
Not only has the place we view Media changed, but the distance and time has changed, as well. A kid in South Africa is able to view a breakdancing video on YouTube created by students on the streets of New York City. They imitate, improvise and improve. Then release new videos that other young people elsewhere in the world watch and the cycle continues. New forms of dance expression spread throughout the world. If breakdancing can spread and change like this, what about other forms of expression? What else can be learned from young people? What power does Media give students? When a young person posts a video and receives more than 7 million views, what are the possibilities?
Watch Chris Anderson: How web video powers innovation.