On January 14th, 2008 I was fortunate enough to reconnect with a former colleague from the School of Communication, Dr. Roman Onufrijchuk. We were given the task to explore the question of how media could construct open spaces in learning. We did so by letting the audiences follow us through our two very unique journeys to explore this question in our own teaching. My journey focused on the creation of media education lessons using Imaginative Education for elementary classrooms, focusing specifically on oral-language development through the disruption of students’ everyday understanding of media. Roman focused on the experimental use of multi-media learning– although without TV and film– and reported on his adventures with undergrad classes, using Internet, orality, chirography and print as means and methods for teaching & learning. It was video taped by IERG and available on their site: Seminar: How can media construct open spaces for learning.

This past term was quite exciting because for the first time I have stepped outside of my role as a media educator and took on a new role as a media education mentor. Although I truly missed teaching the students directly, working with teachers in two districts (Haida Gwaii and Prince Rupert) really helped to reinforce the difficulties of media education implementation; specifically authentic and integrated media education. New terms such as awakening (taken from Maxine Greene’s work) and subtle have found their way into the descriptions of my understanding of media education; a description and understanding that has currently morphed as I find myself meandering through Arts Education and Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy. This summer will, therefore, be spent trying to consolidate all of the life stories I encounter during my research term. And hopefully by the fall I will be able to share these stories and adventures in more detail.