Yesterday I was at Oslo Katedraleskole, visiting Edvin Svela’s class. Edvin had developed a project based on his students’ suggestion that they analyze the biases of a number of news organizations: Fox News, BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, etc. In order to compare each news station’s bias, they all focused on the same event, the recent Gaza-Israeli conflict. Students used You Tube to find examples of coverage, then analyzed the perspective, the rhetoric, and the visual elements. I was only able to watch the presentation of one group who had focused on Fox News–their presentation was passionate, articulate, well-informed, and perceptive.
This is such a great assignment–a way to encourage critical thinking, rhetorical analysis, and evaluation. I hope some teachers in the U.S. will try this, as well.
dkzody
March 15, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I gather that the Norwegian schools allow YouTube access from their classrooms?
Kathee
March 15, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Yes, they are. I wonder how American teachers could adapt this assignment?
Do you all know about http://keepvid.com? It’s a site that allows you to download and save video from other sites.
dkzody
March 20, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Teachers are allowed to access YouTube at Fresno Unified, but kids are not.