For three years now Kym Stewart, the amazing Media Lab crew, and IERG have created memorable experiences for students, opening their eyes to the magic of TV, movies and videos as part of their unique media-education program based on the theories of Imaginative Education.

Chroma Key was the word of the day for 47 grade 3 students , their teachers and parents as they spent an exciting morning in the famous ‘blue room’ at the Media Analysis Laboratory in the School of Communication. The budding Media Detectives ventured to Simon Fraser University on December 3^rd to take part in what is becoming an annual ritual for Grade 3 students from Armstrong Elementary school in Burnaby. For three years now the amazing Media Lab crew (David Murphy and Chris Jeschelnik) and IERG have created memorable experiences for these students, opening their eyes to the magic of TV, movies and videos as part of their unique media-education program based on the theories of Imaginative Education.

Cyndy Scheibe recently called media literacy a ‘process’ rather than a ‘content area’; “an approach to teaching, a different way of teaching, rather than more ‘stuff’ to teach” (Lundstrum, 2007, p. 18). Engaging in this type of ‘process-based’ media education-- where content and process are highly linked-- can be encouraged, according to Kym Stewart, by using strategies based on children’s own ways of imaginatively understanding the world around them.

Unlike more traditional approaches to media education which typically involve supplementing the mainstream curriculum with a “media-education” package, this program integrates media-educational components in the teaching of academic subjects through an overall imaginative framework. Kym, building on prior pilot projects in the Media Lab with Dr. Stephen Kline (www.sfu.ca/media-lab/risk) has, along with Jude Comeau (a teacher at Armstrong School), developed imaginative-based media-education units aimed at helping students become ‘Media Detectives’, ( Kym Stewart ) allowing students to engage in an imaginative awareness of the role of media in their lives.

It is a little odd that the eight- to fifteen-year-old’s enjoyment of books, TV shows,

and films that deal with the exotic and the extreme has had so little impact on

learning theories and curriculum planning (Egan, 1997, p. 85).

The fact that popular-electronic-media purveyors have been much more successful in understanding and capitalizing on children’s imaginations than school-curricula developers suggests that media education needs to be viewed through a broader educational theory: a theory which focuses on students’ emotional and intellectual engagement (Egan, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2005).

While media-education educators may have a box full of exciting activities for the classroom, these activities may not be associated with the cognitive tools the students use to understanding their world. Imaginative Education strategies encourage the understanding and uses of students’ cognitive tools-- tools which can be used to emotionally engage them to look beyond the actual, to look beyond facts to be replicated and to look towards an imaginative view of their world--a view which is inspired by the possible, the novel and the innovative.

The use of Cognitive Tools from the Mythic Kind of Understanding such as rhythm, rhyme, metaphor, humour, narrative, puzzles and mysteries used in the Media Detectives unit have made a tremendous difference in the way children learn and use the knowledge gained from this media education unit. The students’ recent trip to the Media Lab helped them engage with media at a completely new level. An increased sense of wonder was created as Dave and Chris opened their eyes to the ‘magic’ of blue screened images. Their blue screen adventures added to their imaginative inquire of the role media has taken on in their lives; an inquiry based on an awakening, a disclosing of the ordinary, the unheard, the unseen and the unexpected.

At present, teachers are often unsure of how to incorporate media education into the classroom without displacing other valued subjects like literacy and numeracy. They may also be hesitant to introduce topics that they themselves have not been taught. The connections made between this Burnaby school, IERG and the Media Analysis Lab have been invaluable for the teachers’ understanding of how an imaginative-based media education can be integrated into the mandated curriculum in a creative and engaging way--and the lasting memories they have made on these students has forever changed the way they view TV, videos and movies!