Interfaith education finds fresh methods in digital technology
by Heidi Rautionmaa
Interfaith education has become one of the ways that social cohesion and acceptance of each other in the global human community could be promoted. It is a cognitive, affective and experiential process that has the potential to transform attitudes, and ultimately to promote more inclusive, cohesive, peaceful and sustain communities.
Unfortunately the discourse has focused to much still on the “why” of interfaith education. There is less talk on the “how” of interfaith education. It is more and more important to also question what good interfaith education is especially in using digital technology and media. It is important that learners are set out to use these tools more and more in fresh ways to make meaningful content.
We have seen that new technologies can also cause misuse of religions for political and terrorist agendas. There is a need to create good forums of knowledge exchange and where to gain interfaith competences through internet communication technology for the benefit of interfaith relations.
We must realize more and more these new possibilities in interfaith education in order to get better results. Interfaith education can not only teach and give tools to interconnect with people of diverse faiths with respect, friendship, and harmony, but it must also assist people to discover that religions and spirtual traditions, while might be different in doctrines, do share common values and to aid people to work together according these common principles.
How, through the use of advanced internet comunication technology, interfaith information is transformed into deeper knowledge and how it becomes an integral part of the meaning-making and identity formation processes? How the ICT is put to use so that the transformative processes are possible?
The internet facilitates new forms of social interaction that create new type of communities in the favor for interfaith relations. These netcommunities are also places for religious and spiritual sharings and experiences. There are interfaith ceremonies and collective meditations not only as a self-organizing tool but as a new space for common rituals and spiritual practices in internet.
I have personally had chance to participate interfaith encounters also by internet since 2000. Networks such as dicussion groups and webmeetings and webinars being created in internet and worked through internet have been relevant learning environments for me during these 15 years of being involved with international interfaith movement.
Interfaith education contributes personal, relational, and structural changes
Interfaith education has grown out of the interfaith movement that in the past four decades has emerged as a significant movement at local, national, regional and international levels where people of various faiths engage in critical dialogue, gain holistic perspectives on conflicts and violence, and are moved to becoming active local and global citizens for a culture of peace.
As interfaith literacy within this interfaith movement has developed, attention should now turn more and more to the most effective methods and pedagogies for teaching to understand one´s own religious position in relation to other religious possibilities and for educating about how to live together when benefiting this interfaith knowledge.
It is important that people are equipped with such knowledge and skills that give them interfaith competences so that they can really engage in common thinking and action towards common goals and mutual benefit. Interfaith education with new methods can shift away from a paradigm of dominance, exclusiveness, and violence and toward a new paradigm of equity, inclusiveness, peace and justice.
There is no one method or model of interfaith education that should prevail but I assume that dialogue-by-experience models of informal interfaith education found in interfaith movement have strong transformative effects on individual participants, causing shifts in consciousness that fundamentally, in a positive way, change the way they understand themselves and neighbors. Through person centered dialogical learning, people are able to see their own role in transformation. Societal change comes from the collective transformation of the individuals within that society. Individuals can be taught that they are actually co-creators of their reality.
I also see that the methods used in practical dialogue are the much more effective in building interfaith understanding than methods in formal discussions on interfaith matters.
Critical interfaith pedagogy would strengthen and support the critical and transformative capacity of interfaith education. But what is needed to be done so that the transition-transformation processes could start? What kind of pedagogies are there to be used in effective interfaith education?
Digital Storytelling gives the voice
We started an activity on October 2014 among concreate issues with young adults from different faiths and worldviews to encourage and equip young adults in Helsinki into dialogue and co operation in using digital technology and media.
There was news that came out in the same month about three Finnish young men that were arrested in Helsinki on suspicion of carrying out “terrorist”crimes and joining foreign fighters abroad. The case was linked to Syria and the IS. The news created confusion among many Muslims that considered those accused had good reputation. One of the men had left for Syria via an association well-known in Finnish Arabic circles and one of the other accused had worked as a teacher of Islam in at least two Helsinki schools in autumn 2014. There was also news in September that Finland has been found to have the highest per capita rate of Muslims going to fight in Syria out of a survey of 25 countries. The Muslim youth felt that such news has created discrimination toward them. More unknown people have started to greet them with negative attitude. Muslim young adults also saw they did not have possibility to get their voice heard in old media. It was obvious for me that youth needed now a safe forum where to share their points of views and where to find ways to process all that heard and experienced related those news, and that the Digital Storytelling is a great method to give this voice and solidarity support.
Digital storytelling is the practice where digital tools are used to tell the story. It combines the art of storytelling with multimedia features such as video and still pictures, animation, text, audio, voiceover and hypertext. In this project the Digital Storytelling is used also in building better interfaith relations for social engagement.
Throughout the ages, stories have been used to express and entertain, to educate, to advocate, and to organize. One of the primary aims of the process is to show people the transformative effects of giving voice to their own challenges, triumphs, opinions, and struggles and foundings in dialogue. The process of creating stories within a workshop is in fact more meaningful as the end products (media pieces) resulting from the workshop even though the stories are also useful for those that meet each other in the learning environment being created in internet during this interfaith and media project.
Reflective learning is a key competenece in learning process. Storytelling have been an essential part at reflection throughout the history. Both the process of the storytelling and of listening the stories can assist the reflective process and so support learning. Stories can act as a catalyt to discussion and dialogue stimulating futher reflection for both the audience and the creator. Deeper reflection includes a stepping back from events and actions with evidence of challenge, and possibly change, to existing beliefs and perspecties toward transformative learning.
Digital storytellig in community projects
Digital Storytelling is a great tool to use in community projects because it is through the sharing of stories that communities build their identities, pass on traditions, and construct meaning. Community building efforts use story to remember the past, to understand the present, and to imagine the future, together.
One goal of community building is to become part of someone else’s story, to have their story become part of you. It is through the act of telling that we realize that our stories are interrelated with others.
Both internally and externally, stories can connect individuals to others who share their experiences and generate the ability of individuals and organizations to act.
Stories can also surface knowledge and leadership. Stories might be for some individuals the primary resource that they can bring to the table. They may not have financial or technical resources, but they do have a wealth of experiences, wisdom, and beliefs. Through telling the stories we learn everyone´s value. Through telling our stories we learn to see ourselves as actors with a role to play in our communities.
Stories can create the conditions for change, because when we buld relationships through storytelling, the process often encourages individuals to think differently about themselves and about their capacity to act both individually and collectively.
Ultimately, stories are democratic. People are able to give themselves a voice through expressing their own thoughts and ideas. Storytelling fosters participation, dialogue, and voice.
Improving participants´ literacy skills
The stories are useful both as a process and a product. As a process, creating a digital story can build skills in reflection and critical thinking, oral, written, and visual storytelling, and multimedia production. As a product, we can use a digital story for outreach and organizing, fundraising, documentation and reflection.
When youth are able to participate in the multiple steps of designing, creating and presenting their own digital stories, they can build several literacy skills. These include the following: Research skills by finding and analyzing information when documenting the story, writing skills when developing a script, and organization skills by managing the scope of the project within a time constraint. Technology skills can be gained through learning to use a variety of tools, such as digital cameras and multimedia authoring software and presentation skills through the presentation of the story to an audience. Youth also gain interview, interpersonal, problem-solving and assessment skills through completing their digital story and learning to receive and give constructive criticism.
Digital storytelling by people provide a strong foundation in many different types of literacy, such as information literacy, visual literacy, technology literacy, and media literacy:
Technology literacy is the ability to use combuters and other technology to improve learning, productivity, and performance. Digital literacy gives the ability to communicate with an ever-expanding community to discuss issues, gather information and seek help. Information literacy enables to find, evaluate and synthesize information. Global literacy is the capacity to read, interpret, respond, and contextualize messages from a global perspective.Visual literacy provides for to understand, produce and communicate through visual imagines. And because of the religious dimensions found in the stories, the project provide youth with religious literacy that is one of the key competences of interfaith dialogue.
These Digital Stories will be put to the website for the benefit of modern interfaith education.
Resources:
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
and Heidi´s experience of participating the courses:
Sept. 11th 2010, Helsinki, Open media workshop with sessions on open source tools by m-cult and KEPA ( Kepa is the umbrella organisation for Finnish civil society organisations (CSOs) who work with development cooperation or are otherwise interested in global affairs).
May 3rd – 4th, 2013, Helsinki, Mobile learning -course by Michael Sean Gallagher (University of London), organized by Otava Folk High School.
Oct. 13rd – 20th, 2013, Berlin, EU-Comenius/Grundtvig In-Training: Intercultural Stimulation Course in Berlin by Comparative Research Network e.V.
Jan. 17th – Nov. 29th, 2014 Helsinki, Mediakasvatuksen toiminnalliset menetelmät / Functional methods in media education at Humak. Humak is a University of Applied Sciences that is an expert and a leading educator in the humanities and pedagogy as well as cultural management in the whole of Finland.
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