Welcome. The Junior Cycle Digital Media Literacy Short Course sits in an unusual position: it is rarely refused when offered, but rarely owned by a teacher with formal preparation. Schools commonly hand it to whoever has bandwidth, often an English teacher, an SPHE lead, an Art teacher, or the school's tech staff member.

This first lesson does two things: it establishes an honest baseline of your confidence, and it introduces the mindset that makes a wide subject deliverable without pretending to be expert across all of it.

Watch this presentation for an honest map of who delivers JC DML in Ireland, a preview of the five modules, and the mindset that underpins the whole course. As you watch, notice how the Lead Learner mindset reframes the pressure of out-of-field delivery: instead of demanding expertise you cannot reasonably hold across so wide a subject, it builds the lesson on the skills you already trust. The audit will surface where you feel least equipped, and the reflection asks you to apply one of these reframes to the single teaching situation you are most worried about this year.

This survey establishes your starting point for the course. Rate your current confidence honestly. You will complete a matched survey at the end of the course, so these responses become your evidence of distance travelled.

Now make the baseline personal. This reflection names where you feel equipped and where you don't, and pins down the specific situation you are most worried about this year.

In this lesson you established your starting point and the mindset that carries the rest of the course. The frameworks and reframes below are what to carry forward.