austraLasia 784
BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE RECOGNITION FOR SDB WEBMASTER
ROME: 29th December '03 -- Rome-based and Mumbai Province member Peter Gonsalves SDB has won accolades from the British Film Institute Masters Certificate Programme. In awarding Fr. Gonsalves his Certificate the citation reads: 'This is a really ambitious and innovative project, thoughtfully designed and conducted'. And the project? 20 young Salesians across the English-speaking world, including a number from the Asia-Pacific arena, were invited into a cyber-classroom conducted by Fr. Gonslaves, where the subject under discussion was the new sdb.org website. The participants were all between the ages of 24-45, and were asked to exchange views not only with their 'cybermaster' but amongst themselves. Together, teachers and students analysed websites and arrived gradually at 5 criteria which would direct the development of sdb.org.
Action research is a demanding area both for the researcher and the assessors. In this case the examiners were attracted by Fr. Gonsalves' approach to media education and entirely convinced of the discerning nature of his work, which they saw as 'appropriately critical of methodological lacunae and scrupulous in evaluation', thus overcoming a number of the obstacles that bedevil research of this nature.
Fr. Gonsalves is already well-known for his work in Media Education in his own province of Mumbai and indeed India-wide, through his publications in Media Education with an emphasis on its role in educating to peace. He was selected to develop the new SDB website in close collaboration with the Rome-based Hypermedia Company. The result has been not only due to this collaboration but also to those 20 or so Salesian 'cyberstudents' who participated in the initial research phase, creating a new-style 'cortile' or, in Fr. Gonsalves' own words a 'piazza where an international community meets to speak to itself and the world'.
_____________________
'austraLasia' is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia-Pacific
if you wish to add to or be removed from this list please contact jbfox@connect.com.fj
