A New Type of Literacy
It was exciting to be able to choose your own learning path, or "adventure" this week. Since Nicole mentioned that she is well versed in the topic of media literacy and has done many presentations on the topic, I was intrigued to look into the topic further. The word, "media literacy" sounded familiar, but as I went through the sources I was refreshed on what is meant by media literacy. If you need a refresher too, click on this link! From this source, I was reminded of the definition of media literacy. The source states that, "Media literacy is our interaction with media and the message(s) that we take from it, as well as our ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media messages."
From my understanding from the sources that I viewed, media literacy is teaching students, as well as adults, about the purpose of media. As stated in another source by Nicole, "The purpose of mass media is not to educate, inform, or entertain, it's purpose is to make money for its stakeholders and deliver audiences to advertisers." This is a hard skill for students and adults to learn on their own without a media literacy background because we innocently view media sources (ex. websites, news reporters, etc.) as trusted sources that are giving us 100% true information, but even the most "trusted" of sources can find ways to "skew" information that they post or display in the media in order to gain more viewers/followers or make more money. I constantly see articles being posted on social media platforms, such as Facebook, with hundreds or thousands of people commenting on the topic with extreme emotions or opinions based on their perception of the article. I will admit that every once in a while I fall victim to these thoughts as well. I usually don't post my opinion on Facebook, but I find myself getting emotionally invested in the topics too. The people who instantly post and comment on articles or images/videos that are posted on social media fall victim to a lack of media literacy because they are not taking the time to reflect on the fact that the information is true or not before reacting to it. Reflection on the information that we are hearing, viewing, or reading, when coming from media sources is a major skill necessary for media literacy.
A few of Nicole's sources went into detail on how to address media literacy with students and/or adults. During this learning process, several attributes to media literacy are necessary to discuss. A few of these attributes can be found in this image below:
(http://k-12medialiteracy.wikispaces.com/file/view/VA%20DOE%20Media%20Literacy.jpg/393102112/800x600/VA%20DOE%20Media%20Literacy.jpg)
By answering the questions on the attributes shown in the image, students and adults can gain a better sense of media literacy.
When reflecting on how my institution and I address this topic with diligence and fidelity, I feel that we have more to learn. It's not that we aren't doing anything related to the topic of media literacy. In fact, one of our "specials" classes (ex. art, P.E., music, etc.) is titled "Media", and students meet with a teacher to complete media-related activities. I know a core concept of this class is media literacy because I have sat in and watched a few of the media classes since they occasionally take place in our classrooms. We have always had "Media" as a specials class, so students have been exposed to technology and media literacy for years, but this is the first year that we have 1:1 devices (chromebooks). In our 1:1 initiative, students are issued their own chromebook that follows them from school to home as well as year to year. Therefore, the topic of media literacy became even more important to discuss with our students as they would be navigating the internet and media sources in school as well as on their own outside of school. I know that more emphasis was placed on media literacy within their media class, but little to no guidance was given to classroom teachers on how to teach this skill. In the beginning of the year, classroom teachers received minimal training on the expectations of chromebook use in the classroom and were given access to a two week (ten day) "Chromebook Driving Academy" course to go through with our students. The "Chromebook Driving Academy" course was meant to teach students more about the "do's and don'ts" when using their chromebook as opposed to media literacy. I'm not saying that knowing how to properly use the chromebook's functions and keeping the technology safe isn't important for the students to know, but it would have been nice to have more training on media literacy as classroom teachers.
Media literacy is a skill that needs to be practiced and taught in multiple settings. So, I think our district needs to improve upon the fact that this term is only discussed for one or two lessons in media classes. This term needs to be well known and used in every classroom throughout a 1:1 building so that students don't fall for the many misconceptions that media can create. As I mentioned previously, our classroom teachers need more training on this topic. The teachers in my school come from a LARGE variety of technology and media backgrounds. A few of us have a great sense of media literacy and unconsciously teach our students that as the devices are used daily in class for various lessons and projects, while other teachers have little to no sense of the term or technology skills in general, and use the devices as little as possible in order to avoid media "misuse" from happening. I hope that as our school becomes more accustomed to having 1:1 devices that we will also find more ways to incorporate media literacy into our professional development so that students can be exposed to this 21st century skill at a young age.
Media literacy is an extremely important skill for our students to begin developing early because they have grown up in a world in which media and technology has always been present and will always been present in their lives. Not only is media present in our students' lives, but it is a way of life that our students would not be able to imagine living without. Having a sense of what media's purpose is and reflecting on the information that we are receiving from the media is necessary so that our students don't grow up with a false sense of the world around them. Without media literacy, our children will never have an opportunity to form their own thoughts and opinions about anything. Instead they will unconsciously fall into the "media trap" by following the opinions and beliefs that the media wants their audience to agree with.
From my understanding from the sources that I viewed, media literacy is teaching students, as well as adults, about the purpose of media. As stated in another source by Nicole, "The purpose of mass media is not to educate, inform, or entertain, it's purpose is to make money for its stakeholders and deliver audiences to advertisers." This is a hard skill for students and adults to learn on their own without a media literacy background because we innocently view media sources (ex. websites, news reporters, etc.) as trusted sources that are giving us 100% true information, but even the most "trusted" of sources can find ways to "skew" information that they post or display in the media in order to gain more viewers/followers or make more money. I constantly see articles being posted on social media platforms, such as Facebook, with hundreds or thousands of people commenting on the topic with extreme emotions or opinions based on their perception of the article. I will admit that every once in a while I fall victim to these thoughts as well. I usually don't post my opinion on Facebook, but I find myself getting emotionally invested in the topics too. The people who instantly post and comment on articles or images/videos that are posted on social media fall victim to a lack of media literacy because they are not taking the time to reflect on the fact that the information is true or not before reacting to it. Reflection on the information that we are hearing, viewing, or reading, when coming from media sources is a major skill necessary for media literacy.
A few of Nicole's sources went into detail on how to address media literacy with students and/or adults. During this learning process, several attributes to media literacy are necessary to discuss. A few of these attributes can be found in this image below:
By answering the questions on the attributes shown in the image, students and adults can gain a better sense of media literacy.
When reflecting on how my institution and I address this topic with diligence and fidelity, I feel that we have more to learn. It's not that we aren't doing anything related to the topic of media literacy. In fact, one of our "specials" classes (ex. art, P.E., music, etc.) is titled "Media", and students meet with a teacher to complete media-related activities. I know a core concept of this class is media literacy because I have sat in and watched a few of the media classes since they occasionally take place in our classrooms. We have always had "Media" as a specials class, so students have been exposed to technology and media literacy for years, but this is the first year that we have 1:1 devices (chromebooks). In our 1:1 initiative, students are issued their own chromebook that follows them from school to home as well as year to year. Therefore, the topic of media literacy became even more important to discuss with our students as they would be navigating the internet and media sources in school as well as on their own outside of school. I know that more emphasis was placed on media literacy within their media class, but little to no guidance was given to classroom teachers on how to teach this skill. In the beginning of the year, classroom teachers received minimal training on the expectations of chromebook use in the classroom and were given access to a two week (ten day) "Chromebook Driving Academy" course to go through with our students. The "Chromebook Driving Academy" course was meant to teach students more about the "do's and don'ts" when using their chromebook as opposed to media literacy. I'm not saying that knowing how to properly use the chromebook's functions and keeping the technology safe isn't important for the students to know, but it would have been nice to have more training on media literacy as classroom teachers.
Media literacy is a skill that needs to be practiced and taught in multiple settings. So, I think our district needs to improve upon the fact that this term is only discussed for one or two lessons in media classes. This term needs to be well known and used in every classroom throughout a 1:1 building so that students don't fall for the many misconceptions that media can create. As I mentioned previously, our classroom teachers need more training on this topic. The teachers in my school come from a LARGE variety of technology and media backgrounds. A few of us have a great sense of media literacy and unconsciously teach our students that as the devices are used daily in class for various lessons and projects, while other teachers have little to no sense of the term or technology skills in general, and use the devices as little as possible in order to avoid media "misuse" from happening. I hope that as our school becomes more accustomed to having 1:1 devices that we will also find more ways to incorporate media literacy into our professional development so that students can be exposed to this 21st century skill at a young age.
Media literacy is an extremely important skill for our students to begin developing early because they have grown up in a world in which media and technology has always been present and will always been present in their lives. Not only is media present in our students' lives, but it is a way of life that our students would not be able to imagine living without. Having a sense of what media's purpose is and reflecting on the information that we are receiving from the media is necessary so that our students don't grow up with a false sense of the world around them. Without media literacy, our children will never have an opportunity to form their own thoughts and opinions about anything. Instead they will unconsciously fall into the "media trap" by following the opinions and beliefs that the media wants their audience to agree with.
A number of the points you raised this week surfaced in my readings as well.
ReplyDeleteStarting with Nicole’s quote about the fact that the media are not a beneficent force for the good of society was the perfect way to begin. If we’re going to teach all these literacies successfully, we need to have our own Stockdale paradox moments and not get caught up in the idealism about what the media “should” be. The media are what they are. We have to be very clear about the nature of the beast in order to prevail!
If you’d like a good, quick listen, I recommend the podcast Nicole posted under digital literacy this week and I linked to in my blog. Besides what I mentioned in my post, the host of the show, Bonni Stachowiak, notes how “most of us were not trained in participatory media, and we haven’t really integrated that into our teaching.” In light of this, it’s understandable that some of your colleagues make minimal use of the Chromebooks. I wonder if they would make more use of them instructionally if they found some ease in reckoning with Bryan Alexander’s point that there’s way more out there than anyone can ever fully master and that it’s constantly changing and growing on top of that. So no one will ever master it all! “What’s a smaller step to take to start building literacy skills? Usually we think about ourselves in binary terms: I’m a master of the tech or I’m not. There’s too much to master. No one can master it all. So grab one particular corner of [the internet] and get comfy with it.”
I have to say, the fearfulness that is evident among teachers who have the incredible privilege of being in a 1-to-1 setting makes me sad. Which leads me to the other thought I had reading your post -- that of the emotions that get charged from our online interactions. Getting back to the podcast, Bonni talks a bit about the this emotional charge the web evokes when people share as a weakness of web. Granted, inasmuch as there is an endemic troll culture online, that fear is justified. But being overly emotional gets in our way of clear thought. Wouldn’t that be an interesting component of media literacy instruction -- avoiding emotionalism as a tool for engaging clear analysis and savvy?! Anyway, I greatly appreciated Bonni’s point that “we need levels of courage and confidence that the risks we take are worth it.” I wonder, can you encourage your colleagues to take Eleanor Roosevelt’s advice and do one thing each day (online) that scares them? Then maybe over time they’ll develop that courage and confidence to use the tools they have without fear of “media misuse”.
As always, thanks, Danielle!
So glad you enjoyed the topic. There is so much to focus on that can be taught across the grade levels. Hopefully sooner rather than later we'll come to realize this.
ReplyDeleteThank for you writing on this as I was very intriguing by this whole media literacy idea, but I felt that it didn't really fit in with my content area which is why I choose to focus on media literacy so your post gave me a good idea of it. I think it is interesting that you have course that focuses on it! We are also a 1:1 school with Chromebooks and I don't think we push these types of literacy enough with them to really teach them how to use it properly and critical think about the information that come from them. I think we would really benefit from a class or at least some type of integration of it into our classes since we are so focused on trying to utilize the Chromebooks more efficiently and in terms of teaching our students the skills they need to succeed in today's world.
ReplyDeleteI did think about Facebook/twitter post right after and how people react about things before they determine if it is true or not and start huge emotional debates over nothing. Once again it's up to us to teach people to think more critically and be able to determine how to read the media that is in front of us all the time!
I love that you addressed the bias present in various sources of media! This is definitely something that we need to address with students and help them to understand. It is for sure a critical thinking skill to take a step back and ask what bias is present in an article and then try to determine how that impacts your understanding of ,and ability to use, the information. As you discussed, the digitization of our world is something students today have grown up with. They don't know how to function in a world without constant access to technology, therefore, it is our job as educators to teach them how to successfully function amongst all the access to technology.
ReplyDeleteI think your graphic really helped break down how to look at the media. It is important to question what you are reading so that you can determine if the information being supplied beneficial or not. I agree with you that this is a topic that needs to be address in all different levels and revisited over time. If we just go over the information in the beginning of the year, then we aren't helping the students keep it embedded in their studies. Just like with all the other forms of literacy, we have to revisit the topics multiple times in a school year, and at different levels and content.
ReplyDelete