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Educator Profile - Chris Higgins

October 16, 2007

Leorah Marcu

As a Toronto District School Board teacher since 1991, Chris has brilliantly merged his computer industry experience with education. With a Masters in Education, Chris teaches computers at Swansea Public School in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and has integrated media literacy across his curriculum. He feels it is “ important to educate to this, rather than just letting everything happen without any critical thinking.” Chris maintains a blog for educators, featuring comprehensive media education resources. The most recent entry features a Teacher’s Toolkit outlining ways to implement the new media literacy component in the language curriculum.

Find Chris’ blog here:

http://www.swansea-canada.com/blog.htm.

   Also available is Chris’ Media Log Assignment in which students keep track of their engagement with different media. Through this model, Chris successfully encouraged his grade 7 and 8 students to analyze the benefits and disadvantages of current social networks like Facebook and Myspace. It is valuable for students to reflect on these websites due to their current popularity with students for negative and positive reasons.

Find Chris’ Media Log Assignment here:

http://www.swansea-canada.com/Media/Assignments/media.html

   With a grant from the Innovation Fund and the assistance of Swansea’s Principal and Superintendent, Chris created a mobile lab program called Studio To Go. This lab encourages student access to technology across the board, and offers lessons in media literacy lead by Chris himself. Current innovations in technology are included in the lab, like wireless Apple iBooks, iSight cameras, and more, along with application programs like iMovie, GarageBand, iPhoto, iTunes and iChat. Find more information here:

http://www.swansea-canada.com/VIDEOsite/chronicles.html

   In addition to this fantastic program, Chris also maintains Swansea Public School’s intricate website and is constantly adding to an archival photo collection he developed two years ago to teach history from primary source materials. This compilation allows students to make powerful connections between themselves and students who attended Swansea Public School in the past, especially appropriate for Remembrance Day. Find this fascinating photo collection here:

http://www.swansea-canada.com/Archive/digitarchiv.htm

Find Swansea Public School’s website here:

http://www.swansea-canada.com

   Another incredible initiative Chris continues to make use of is student podcasts. The latest one features student-designed movement pieces on sedimentary rock groups. These podcasts record student events, and special classroom activities.

Find exciting examples here:

http://www.swansea-canada.com/podcast.htm

  In addition to his outstanding contributions to media literacy, Chris is also a consultant for  MZTV Museum (Moses Znaimer Television). He also runs workshops on media literacy at conferences and attended the Boys To Men summer media literacy program.

For more information, or to compliment Chris on his fine work, write to: chris.higgins@tel.tdsb.on.ca

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