“Advancing English for Media Literacy in Kazakhstan” project: Cohort 4

In September recruiting campaign was launched in 7 cities: Almaty, Atyrau, Karaganda, Kyzylorda, Oral, Turkestan, Shymkent facilitated by KazTEA facilitators:  Zulfiya Ainabayeva, Alfiya Bissengaliyeva, Zhansaya Budikova, NUrzharkyn Samigolla, Saltanat Kulayeva, Nuriya Nazipova. 200 EFL teachers of mainstream schools, universities, BA, MA and PhD students were enrolled into the project.  The project followed the same structure:

1 week – Introduction to the project, Coursera platforms and e-learning strategies

2 week – training in media literacy and types of biased information conducted by the trainers from the Fund of Information Support for Community: Tatyana Khassanova (Karaganda), Danara Saranova (Shymkent, Kyzylorda, Turkestan), Aigul Takhitaliyeva (Atyrau),  Gulbarshyn Mushtanova (Oral) , Aidos Amanbay (Almaty). This time the trainers included more interactive tasks to raise participants awareness of social media features. vivid examples from local mass media to demonstrate various types of biased information. Aidos supported his talk with a samples and talks from journalists and bloggers via zoom.

3-7 weeks – facilitated sessions on the content and language within the MOOC “English for Media Literacy”. More detailed reports of facilitators about their strategies, techniques and tools they employed during the sessions are on the section of the project.

8 week – participants created and discussed their posts demonstrating the skills they have taken up, such objectivity of information, features of advertisement to promote their service or product, diversity of their target audience. Posts and comments are uploaded on the Padlet

Final session was attended via zoom by the representatives of the U.S. Embassy: John Orak (Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer,) Assem Bekimova (English Programs Coordinator) and U.S. Consulate General: Chad Kinnear (Assistant Public Affairs Officer).

These are some comments of the project participants from Facebok group “MOOC Facilitators Kazakhstan”:

Zhibek Akhmentova (Oral) noted after the session (faci;itator – Nurzharkyn Samigolla) about diversity: the activity of choosing "one side" and giving reasons… helps to see what and how people might think differently and appreciate each others' opinions

Gulvira Nurgaliyeva (Oral) claimed it’s essential to ‘develop some applicable strategies for women in Kazakhstan to be open to raise their concerns’

Akkerke Kassymbay (Almaty) enjoyed the interactive way of the facilitated sessions run by Zulfiya Ainabayeva …” very informative and interesting especially during the game «Walkie- Talkie»”

Aizhan Aibolat (Kyzylorda) admitted “Before this training, I wasn't aware that I was prejudiced by a lot of information, but now I can claim with certainty that I can recognize the bias, … and ask the question before reading the information.”

Aigerim Tulegenova (Kyzylorda) stated “at each session (Moldri Yessenbayeva -facilittor) we have a chance to practice theoretical information by discussing

Gulzhauhar Yeshmurat (Turkestan) is grateful to their facilitator -  Saltanat Kulayeva, for her interactive sessions where she  “received … new practical skills that I plan to apply in my educational activities.”