EXPERTS

An auditorium in an elementary school many many years ago… one afternoon in the 60’s. The head teacher, strict, big, dark male teacher gives the third graders permission to sing in the empty auditorium. I sing with my best friend Tuula. I can´t remember what song it was. Before we started to sing the head teacher had switched the recorder on. The singing stops and after a while the auditorium fills up with bright girls’ voices. What a wonder and joy. Our voices!

In 1960’s, when I was a child, the most important media tool was the television. It defined the home arrival times, bathing times in the evenings, the Saturday´s sauna times and the sleeping times. It also connected family and friends, because at first there was only one channel and so we all watched the same channel simultaneously.
My most important memories are linked with specific tv-programmes like “The Sandman”. I have also warm memories about “Peyton Place”. On Wednesday evenings father and mom allowed me to watch that adult´s program, to fell asleep on their bed and then father carried me to my own bed (I used to pretend that I´m asleep so that I could enjoy that every time). Also, Eurovision Song Contest with that boring vote system interested me over and over again.
Radio was at my father´s use. When the news started we had to calm down and stop noisy playing. But then, after the news, Music Radio for the young started, and then was the girl´s time to enjoy the radio. In the 70’s we got a record player and we were allowed to listen to our favourite music.
Father used to film our family´s most important travellings and events. We watched those films many times and remembered those happenings. We have rerecorded those films to VHS-videos and now to a digital form.
 

I started my school in a Central Elementary School in 1968. From those first few years I can´t remember almost anything. I think that´s because we had a very severe teacher who had strict discipline, was unpredictable and who often embarrassed small pupils with his sarcastic comments.
On the third grade I got a new teacher. That teacher had graduated from the Teacher Seminar the year before and was full of enthusiasm, and treated us kids very well. My teacher conveyed to me a lifelong love to art and culture. I hope his teaching style had some impact to my own professional identity.
At school, once a month, we used to watch teaching films. I remember one specific film about volcanic eruption in Iceland. After that film we draw pictures where the magma was flowing down on the mountainside. My teacher praised my drawing.
Last spring there was another volcanic eruption in Iceland. Our pre-school boys were very interested in that event. We watched an educational film about volcanoes and drew fabulous pictures about volcanoes. We also wrote stories, where the president was threatened to stay under the magma, but the Hornets rescued him. We read the stories in the spring festivity.
I had a Dejá-vu feeling!
 

At school´s spring festivity we agreed that children will take photos on their summer holidays. At autumn when school started we agreed when they bring the photos (attached to memory sticks) to school. We started to make our own movie. Making the movie with MovieMaker program went really well and the kids were excited. Then we started to publish the movies… and also the problems started right away! We couldn´t get those movies to cd / dvd discs. We considered and discussed, and tried to do that in many ways! A functional solution was that we downloaded them to own computer and then copy the movies from folders and pasted them to discs. It went well, and the joy was at its highest when the children saw their movies.

The most important challenge in media education is changing the concepts of teaching, learning and information. Nowadays we can´t think that teacher knows and teaches. We have to question the reality of information, the perspective of information and the meaning of information to different individuals and communities. Teaching is therefore other than just transferring “the truth” to pupils heads.
Also the concept of learning has changed. When learning, pupil creates relationships to his environment and to another people in a way that helps him to cope with challenges. Learning is individual and unique to everybody.
It is challenging to understand those issues as a teacher and an educator, as a parent and as a member of different communities, especially when curriculums and learning goals are the same for each pupil in elementary school.
 

I teach preschool pupils. Many of them know how to use Habbo Hotel, Panfu and so on. In few years they probably will log in Facebook with false birth times… I would like to prepare my pupils to the future and social media, how to surf the web happy and satisfied. But I don´t have any tools to do that! That´s my challenge today, not before it´s too late. Being media critical doesn´t help any more, I need more firm tools!

I think that nowadays media education is very important, and there should put more resources to it. With a large group of children it is challenging and difficult to operate. There should be peaceful time when you can get to know new equipments and media tools. One hour isn´t enough! It would also be great to be able to organize peaceful teaching moments to the children.

Certain routines have always been very very important in kindergartens and in schools. I think those routines are nowadays even more important to the children. But why those routines can be so difficult to learn? With those routines I mean: 1. in a group raise your hand up when you want to talk. 2. Listen to, when another wants to talk. 3. Speak loudly and clearly, when it's your turn to speak. 4. Sit still and listen. Children need to learn those 4 rules and sometimes they succeed and sometimes fail to obey the rules. It´s a pity that everybody can´t remember those rules!

A little girl's life changing experience was the colour television. It was so wonderful and exciting, when I could watch “Black stallion” and “Clown Hermanni” in colours. The Clown had a red nose and the black stallion was really black. I watched that miracle with my brother and friends. We also organized childrens’ movie nights. The telly was the center in our living room, and it was like celebration watching that. Those were the days! Today, television no longer wakes up such a passion due to the Internet and the information explosion. The media comes from doors and windows, so that you can get tired of it!

Once upon a time there was a preschool teacher, who tried and tried to get a video projector on. Children with red cheeks sat and wait eagerly something exciting and wonderful to do. Whiteboard invated small eager hands to draw letters to it. Teacher pat and press the buttons, tried to touch here and there. The children waited and waited. Small butts began to spin, legs began to swing impatiently. Are we starting?! They gave good advice to the teacher, but no, the video projector didn´t want to work. Teacher's cheeks went more red. The atmosphere began to fall flat… The teacher was forced to give up. Maybe tomorrow she will succeed. Wonderful kids encouraged the teacher: "Don´t worry, some day you will know how to do it!" 

 Well, the truth is that with 22 years of experience in early childhood education, I have a plenty of anecdotes…
But if you don’t mind, I’ll start my participation with a story, invented and very vivid at the same time. A short extract from my latest book…
- ... I’ll tell you a story, a story that here we love telling… “Once upon a time, there was a boy called Universe. At birth his mother and his father thought that he was so fragile that they embraced him strongly, protected and loved him, pampered and fed him, while waiting him to grow up. Universe was growing this way, in a love nest retained, that allowed the growing number of stars to form different and potentially incredible galaxies inside that let him develop in harmony.