Education can happen in many different contexts. Besides the formal learning institutions, education and learning is happening all the time in cultural and social contexts where people exchange ideas and experiences in a concentrated way. Art, culture and social action in the field of new media technologies contribute in an important way to creating awareness about the powerful effects of media, and help to raise media-literacy. Educat ion can also play a critical role in situations where profound social and political change is taking place. The profusion of electronic media across many societies has accelerated the rate of social and political change t hroughout the world, yet an answer as to how to develop appropriate educational models that can operate under such rapidly changing conditions has not been developed.
N5M3 wishes to explore new models of education and learning that can play a critical role in processes of social and political change. The emphasis will be placed on non- institutional forms of learning, where media can p lay an empowering role for local communities and people's real-life concerns.
The Tactical Education strand within Next 5 Minutes 3 will bring together alternative strategies and models for education that testify to a critical awareness of the powerful effects, and the multiple roles of media in ou r societies. The choices for a particular medium in an educational process will depend to a large degree on the local context in which an initiative operates. While a critical examination of distance learning models and t he use of networked media for educational purposes may, for instance, be critical to bridge the traditionally large information gaps between urban centres and rural periphery in central and eastern Europe, community radio projects might be of much more importance in Nepal. In the US, on the other hand, a web centred project such as the Computer Clubhouse could be one crucial tool to involve inner-city youth in a learning process, whilst poetry slam sessions could be another.
Tactical Education will deal with new learning environments and media related models of learning that happen very much outside of the traditional context and institutions of education. The theme is an attempt to develop t he connection between the tactical, the media, and education.
The question of access to media and communication systems is only one side of the coin. Access without competence is a struggle already lost before it has begun. Media-literacy, and competence in the use of both the old and the new media, are crucial concerns for Next 5 Minutes 3. Especially the innovative independent new media cultures that have emerged in recent years around the world, provide a fascinating insight in the new ways in which local communities can indeed be empowered by new media tools. At the same time they show an ability to see through the golden promises of the international media and ICT industries, and make a wide audience aware of the critical roles these media and technologies play in our daily lives, around the globe.
The Tactical Education theme divides into three parts:
1. Media Literacy and Competence
This panel discussion is devoted to innovative models for the transfer of critical skills and competence in using and interpreting media, and that offer ways in which media can be used as truly empowering practice. The panel presents initiatives from such diverse backgrounds as Columbia, Bangladesh, the USA, the UK, and Serbia.
2. Conflict Resolution in Education
It is a well known fact that media often play a critical role in stirring up social and political conflicts. By affecting perceptions and representations of conflicting issues, media can also be instrumental to resolve th ese issues. Media related learning models can provide instruments to resolve political and other tensions on a grass-roots level. The workshop brings together successful examples of such models from various parts of the world to learn from each other, and inspire future acti on.
3. Poetry & Motion
On the Saturday evening Next 5 Minutes 3 will host a show program involving projects that explore the border area between street poetry, highly localised music cultures, and the contemporary media landscape in a tactical format. The show is organised in co-operation with the Spoken Word series at Paradiso in Amsterdam, which explores the cross over between rap music and contemporary poetry. * Tactical Education contact persons: Eric Kluitenberg (epk@xs4all.nl) and David Garcia (davidg@xs4all.nl) |
