NEW MEDIA LITERACY

Project Member 1: THE HISTORY OF BAL: (THE TURKISH HIGH SCHOOL) 

In the early 1950s, around 50 well-known businessmen from Izmir came together with the aim of establishing a boarding school which would provide education to children – starting from the age of 12 until 17 – almost completely in English as it was believed to be a great need for Turkey in those days. After some research, they found Edmond Giraud’s, a wealthy Frenchman of the time,  private property suitable for their aim. The property was 220 acres covered with magnificent pine and palm trees and various other kinds, and which was only 2 kilometres away from the Bornova town centre, Izmir.

Edmond Giraud, after some talks, agreed to sell his property including the marvelous mansion with its grand swimming- pool and the dove-cote ( pigeon-house) to Özel Ege Koleji (Private Aegean High School) on 26th March 1953 in return for very little sum of money on condition that it would be used only for education. He also became one of the shareholders of this newly founded school.

Classrooms, a dormitory, a restaurant and a conference hall were built on this beautiful green area with utmost care in order to protect the rich flora of the place. In 1953-1954 academic year, the school inaugurated under the name of  Özel Ege Koleji. In the first year, 38 boys were enrolled. In 1955, the Ministry of Education decided to establish new system high schools nation-wide. They intended to found one of these schools in Izmir and searched for a suitable place for this purpose.

When Adnan Menderes, the Prime Minister of the time, and Celal Yardımcı, the Minister of National Education came to Bornova, Izmir to lay the foundations of Ege University, they visited Özel Ege Koleji and thought that this school was suitable for the new system high schools they were planning to establish. The Ministry of education purchased the premises and named the school as Izmir Koleji.

Our school, together with  Eskişehir, Kadıköy/İstanbul, Konya, Samsun and Diyarbakır High Schools, is one of the first six colleges established with this new approach to the education system in Turkey, and only two weeks after the Eskişehir College, which started its education on October 8th,1955, our school commenced education on October 22nd,1955 and was the second high school in Turkey which aimed to teach children most subjects in English and help them become young people who would use their knowledge and talents in various fields after graduation.

Under the name of Izmir Koleji, they accepted only boy boarding students in their first years, however in 1964-1965 academic year, they began to enroll both boys and girls. In the same year, the school management decided to accept day students, as well.

In 1975, with the decision of the Ministry of Education, the name of these colleges were changed and they were called Anadolu Lisesi (Anatolian High School), and our school was then renamed as Izmir Anadolu Lisesi. In 1976-1977 academic year  our school gained its present name and has been called Bornova Anadolu Lisesi since then.

At the beginning of the 1979-1980 academic year, the students of Almanca Anadolu Lisesi, an Anatolian High School where many subjects were taught in German, joined our school, and therefore our school began teaching most of the subjects in two foreign languages, apart from Turkish, and in the same year some of the girls studying in the German language department were accepted to the school dormitory. However, the capacity of the dormitory was not enough to host new comers every year, and the students whose parents resided in Izmir became day students, and at present Bornova Anadolu Lisesi is not a boarding school; we have only day pupils.

Until 1977, we had American teachers working in our school, and since 1987 German teachers have been working in Bornova Anadolu Lisesi. At the moment, Bornova Anadolu Lisesi is the only Anatolian High School  which  bears the greatest number of students in our country. In 1997-1998 academic year the Ministry of Education opened the French department, and therefore our school became the first and even the only Anatolian High School which has three foreign language departments. Bornova Anadolu Lisesi has always had a rightful reputation with its success both in the academic and the personal development of our students.

Since 1955, our school has been renowned and appreciated for its success and has been proud of being considered as one of the most respected, prominent and towering institutes of Turkey. Numerous distinguished ministers, politicians, artists, actors and actresses, scientists, doctors, writers, journalists and businessmen who graduated from BAL work for the well-being of our country and humanity. BAL students have always been faithful to their school even after their graduation.

The students of Bornova Anadolu Lisesi are the most select and talented young individuals assembled anywhere. They have the necessary determination, courage and strong personality to achieve their goals. They possess great potential to combine their intelligence and intellect to make their most ambitious dreams come true and are sensitive to their environment and world matters, as well.

BAL directors and teachers make great effort to provide opportunities for the students to improve their abilities to express themselves freely, to build up talent to think of solutions to problems rapidly, and guide them enhance their capability to consider any matter in many aspects, with which the students gain strong self-confidence. The educational experience in BAL is unmatched in academic rigor, enthusiasm in teaching and the range of cultural, intellectual, and enrichment activities.

Visionary BAL teachers and directors work with the feeling of responsibility, and believe that it is great honour to mentor the future generations with dedication as the great leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk expected from teachers. And our gratitude for the present and previous faculty and incorporated bodies of BAL is profound…

WHAT IS MEDIA LITERACY?

Media literacy is the ability to analyze, evaluate and transmit messages obtained through mass media. Today, it is mostly focused on analyzing the media. Media literacy contributes to the audience’s ability to read media messages correctly and produce their own messages.

Main objectives in media literacy; It includes reading the messages conveyed by the media correctly, telling the person that the world presented by the media may not be real, and realizing that the media also has a managing function. In other words, media literacy education aims to educate individuals who read, analyze and critically look at the messages coming from the mass media.

As you can see its basically the term of media literacy but it is not only for the traditional media literacy. If we are going to talk about the traditional media we can explain it like;

Traditional media literacy is the set of knowledge to utilise traditional media organs as much as beneficial possible.

As soon  as possible İ will give some examples for the traditioanl media organs. But firstly we should explain that why we should understand the traditional media literacy’s meaning before learning new media literacy. The basic reason is, New media literacy was born after losing importanant of traditional media literacy. After this event new media literacy has started to getting more important and involve. In the present world we have to have some knowldege about the organs that we are using them  for making our life easier.But in the previous era we had some organs too to make our life much more easier. And in fact the actual set of knowledge shows some similarity with the traditional media knowledge.

WHAT IS NEW MEDIA LITERACY?

Media literacy is the general knowledge that peole should know before starting using the media materials that has to do with both old and new technology. It is divided into 2 sub categories;
– Traditional Media & Traditional Media Literacy
– New Media & New Media Literacy
First, let’s go through “Traditional Media Literacy” then We are going to explain “New Media Literacy”.
⦁    Traditional Media
While traditional media is active in the monopoly power of the market, especially TV channels, it has rapidly lost popularity due to development technology and other new social networks. In the past, people living in the house were connected to one TV channel, but with the development of private television they had the opportunity to choose from many different channels. Of course, as we experienced, no matter what the channel, we were sometimes confronted with the broadcasts we couldn’t necessarily watch. Rapid development of technology in front of the dsmart television industry, link television and so on. Although it has created areas that offer many channel options, the development of social media has led the masses to move to this area, with individuals finding areas to tell themselves easily, and the emergence of a new world with a large amount of memory where information is easily accessible. stores.

⦁    Traditional Media Literacy
The general knowlegde that you need to utilise to be able to more beneficially use the media materials that were previously mentioned.

⦁    New Media
Any online smart device with an internet connection (Computer, Smartphone, Tablet) can be accessed independently of the place where it exists, is called New Media.

⦁    New Media Literacy
The general set of knowledge that you need to utilise those digital devices and platforms. Although there are some differences from the -old- media and its literacy, one of the major rules that differenciate these two terms is; if it is desired to use these new media platforms or devices that incorporate new media technology more effectively, a much wider set of information is needed. Because:
A. With the development of technology, the possibilities provided by devices to humanity have developed and gained diversity.
B. It is needed a wide set of knowledge to find the point which you want to get information and utilise most effectively from these kinds of usages. which means that a wider set of knowledge is needed to find and utilise these benefits of using new media more effectively than its counterpart, traditional media.
For instance, If a person who uses the traditional media organs wants to get information about a haphazard topic, the only thing which it should do is to find  the proper organ which is related with the topic that it is looking for. But for the new media it is more complicated. for example a smart phone  is able provide the usages which you want but also you can find entirely unrelated datas on your smart phone by using the internet.

ADVANTAGES OF THE DIGITAL WORLD?

DISADVANTAGES OF THE DIGITAL WORLD?

HOW TO GET NEW MEDIA ABILITIES?

NEW MEDIA ACTIVITIES AT OUR SCHOOLS:

ONLINE MEETINGS:

PROJECT MEMBERS IN TURKEY:

ERASMUS KA201 OUTPUT’S WEB SITE LINK: