BP6_2009102_Media_Literacy

The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), defines media literacy as "the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and communicate." NAMLE explains, "media literacy touches so many areas of life and work, it's hard to contain it in one curriculum area or even one age-group or subject. The truth is media literacy is now a core component of an effective 21st Century education." If for no other reason than that statement, all learners today need the ability to be media literate.

According to Barish (2002), 20th century literacy included "the ability to read, write, and present cogent arguments on paper." 21st Century learners need to be able to synthesize arguments from various sources, including written, recorded voice, video and movies. Learners today also need to produce their arguments through those various media sources, too.

When I consider Media Literacy, I consider the ability to think and produce beyond being told what to do. Filmmaker George Lucas (2009) points to the "oldest forms of learning (as) the most effective forms of learning." He was referring to the two forms of education, the Aristotle/Plato mold (small group of students with questions and discussions) and the hands-on artisan school of learning (i.e., apprenticeships). He has become an advocate of teaching strategies that closely resemble some of the "old ways," namely project-based learning. Lucas concluded, "This type of education system (project-based learning) would significantly improve the character of the people who emerged from it. They would be more independent thinkers, more critical thinkers, and more logical thinkers. And they would be better equipped for a world that is completely overwhelmed with information."

For my classroom, those points are critical. I regularly observe students waiting to be told what to do, wanting to use the first piece of information that they research for without checking for validity, amused by video that is trivial or not relevant to their objectives, and basically not thinking! The post-Industrial Revolution form of schooling that Lucas referred could be the box that 20th century learners were taught to maintain, but it is not working for this Century. Today's 21st Century learners seem to be frustrated with that model, too, since information beyond the textbooks is readily available. What I experience is that today's young learners are, also, asking questions and wanting answers to problems and arguments that are regularly available on the World Wide Web. When directed to answer their questions through media literacy, students demonstrate an engaged sense of higher level thinking.

When I started teaching a technology class for middle school, I started with the standards produced by ISTE/NETS. These organizations steered me toward the realization that learners need to know strategies for evaluating media on the Internet and World Wide Web. At local conferences in 2001, ISTE provided attendees with Information Literacy pamphlets that provided steps for evaluating information, including all media, on the web. The underlying rationale was to direct learners to think, evaluate, and rethink before using information as facts. Students were also directed to produce projects that would also be rethought and revised.

In my classes, I want my students to know questions to ask as they peruse information. Visuals can be edited with incredible skills, now-a-days, and information in the form of blogs and web sites are abundant. In yesteryears, students were pointed towards encyclopedias, the textbook, and the card catalog in the public library for information. Very little thinking needed to occur, since all the sources were within the boundaries of accepted, notable authors and publishers. Today, learners are poised in front of a myriad of information providers through the Internet and World Wide Web. It's up to the learners, then, to have knowledge to make informed decisions whether or not to use information provided on the internet. I love it when students collaborate to decide if an image is "real," edited, or enhanced; a game is worth their time; a web site is opinion or facts; their presentation is effective or not. Most of the training I received for directing my students to this type of work was through the direction of ISTE.

Students today have options for presenting information. Writing papers is only one method for communicating researched information. Students can learn skills to produce meaningful projects that contain similar information as the written piece, but compiled with images, voice or narrations, movies or video, or music as background enhancing or as the information. Media literacy is the key to 21st Century learner successes. As Lucas said, "Highly educated people like engineers, lawyers or doctors would make better presentations if their schooling had emphasized the need to communicate as effectively with graphics and sound as with words."

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (n.d.). Retrieved on 10/11/09 from http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS

Lucas, G. (2009, October 6). George Lucas wants more greek philosophers and cobblers. The Wall Street Journal, pg A15.

National Association for Media Literacy Education (n.d.). Retrieved on 10/11/09 from http://namle.net/media-literacy