How does this content work within a school or learning environment that is tech-free or extremely low-tech?
We hear you.
It's a challenge to figure out when and how to expose youth to multimedia in our world today. And if you're in a learning environment that waits to expose youth to media until an older age -- though you're eager and curious to find ways to do so sooner in a meaningful way -- this is the help doc for you!
Over the years, we've done a lot of listening and conversing about how to bring this kind of learning into these kinds of learning environments. A lot.
The biggest feedback we've heard from low tech / no tech learning spaces and schools is that the main reason for this delay in media exposure is because of the damages media can have at a young age. That's where the concept of experiences and hands on learning and all of this good stuff comes in so powerfully.
Learning in these ways is so important, and we are by no means saying this shouldn't be a priority, too. (We have many lesson plans with all kinds of activities that include this kind of learning opportunity, if your learning environment has the resources to make this happen.)
So we hear you. Really, we do.
There's a lot of scary media content in our world, and the last thing we want to do is prescribe information and condition youth into believing in judgments, stereotypes, and building prejudice.
Our take:
Better World Ed Learning Journeys are exactly the kind of media that gives a young person an exposure in a whole, meaningful, human way -- at a breadth and depth unlike any exposure a student can get in the local context one is in, even if one is in a diverse and inclusive community (which is rare). More on this here.
And the earlier the better, as research shows!
We have come to believe, especially in our media-rich evolving society, that middle school is far too late for a school or learning space to introduce multimedia content to a human, given how media heavy our world is (and how powerful peace / equity / justice focused media can be for a human's mind, body, and soul).
Plus, it's entirely possible to weave the Learning Journeys we create into your learning experiences in whatever form you prefer. This doesn't have to be a choice of one or the other. You can integrate the global learning journeys we create right into the heart of your current learning approach!
Imagine a world where all of us engaged with hundreds of Learning Journey stories of unique, amazing humans from around the world. Different world views, different ways of life, different perspectives. Different, uniquely beautiful people. And imagine we did this by the time we reached high school.
How different would we all be? How much more aware, curious, understanding, empathetic, and compassionate might we be? Let's make this happen together. Even in low-tech low-media engagement learning environments.