MEDIA LITERACY AND IT'S IMPORTANCE

Media literacy involves not only knowledge but also critical thinking, linguistic, visual and film literacy. Media communication has become quite a force in society today, allowing for consumption of loads of information. And today's digital consumers are masters of media multitasking, which involves simultaneous contact with two or more other forms of media. As consumers of media, it is important to have the ability to understand, translate and use the information we receive.

Decoding Media

Now that we know what media literacy is and how it is ingrained into our lives, let's talk about how we, as the consumers, can decipher all the messages being sent our way. There are five key questions to ask of any media:

1.   Who created the message that is being sent?

2.   What techniques were used to attract my attention?

3.   How might other people understand or interpret this message differently from me?

4.   Are there any lifestyles, values or points of view that are not represented or are omitted from this message?

5.   Why was this message sent?

Media literacy requires questioning and inquiry in order to interpret the message

By asking these 5 simple questions, you have empowered yourself with media literacy! If you have the necessary awareness of the media, you can analyze the media, reflect on the media, and then take action... if you decide.

Why Is Media Literacy Important?

1   By focusing on process skills rather than content knowledge, students gain the ability to analyze any message in any media and thus are empowered for living all their lives in a media-saturated culture.

2.   Meets the needs of students to be wise consumers of media, managers of information and responsible producers of their ideas using the powerful multimedia tools of a global media culture.

3.   Engages students. . . bringing the world of media into the classroom connects learning with "real life" and validates their media culture as a rich environment for learning.

4.   Gives students and teachers alike a common approach to critical thinking that, when internalized, becomes second nature for life.

5.   Increases the ability and proficiency of students to communicate (express) and disseminate their thoughts and ideas in a wide (and growing) range of print and electronic media forms - and even international venues.

6.   Media literacy's "inquiry process" transforms teaching and frees the teacher to learn along with students -- becoming a "guide on the side" rather than a "sage on the stage."

Therefore as a teacher in this 21^st century, I am challenged to look at media literacy critically and I plan to equip my students with the skills to be able to use Media profitably.

And I plan to integrate Media literacy in my teaching in the following ways; 

•Encouraging students to follow (and write about) current events. including tracking a single story across diverse media sources.

• By making my own decision-making process transparent by explaining how i assess credibility of sources and why i  choose the media that i use in class.

 • Pointing out ways in which media messages might be interpreted differently by people from different backgrounds or groups.

• Beginning discussions of media “texts” or documents (not only print, but also image- or sound-based “texts”) by asking students what they notice.

• Allowing students to go beyond the curricular issue at hand to identify and comment on incidental aspects of a media message (e.g., the characteristics of the people presenting the material, the techniques used to attract attention, and the ways in which advertising and product messages intrude into other types of media content).

• Fostering communication skills and creativity by encouraging the production of media messages about a topic.

• Being flexible in assignments, allowing students to choose which media formats are the most effective way for them to communicate the required information or complete the required task.

·      Teaching students to routinely ask the kinds of questions that will help them think critically about information presented in media (including the information from their textbooks or the popular media they use at home); see the end of this booklet for sample questions. 

. “In the 21st Century, the century our children will live in — the century they will, in fact, shape — media literacy will not be a luxury; it will be a necessity.”
Linda Ellerbee, journalist, television producer.

"While young people have more access to the internet and other media than any generation in history, they do not necessarily possess the ethics, the intellectual skills, or the predisposition to critically analyze and evaluate their relationship with these technologies or the information they encounter. Good hand/eye co-ordination and the ability to multitask are not substitutes for critical thinking"

MY NEW UNDERSTANDING OF DIGITAL LITERACY

As new technologies and media are used more and more in teaching and learning, as well as in the home and throughout social life, we need to develop more than just ICT skills; we need a broad digital awareness of the wider context in which technologies and media operate to wrap around these skills in order that we can participate in this increasingly digital world.

 Consequently, there have been many recent attempts to define strategies for teaching and learning that take account of our need for skills, knowledge and understanding in the use of new technology and media. Often, this is called ‘digital literacy’.

So, what does ‘digital literacy’ really mean? To possess ‘literacy’ in traditional terms means being able to read and write in the shared language of a culture. Digital literacy shares some similarities. It refers to the reading and writing of digital texts, for example being able to ‘read’ a website by navigating through hyperlinks and ‘writing’ by uploading digital photos to a social networking site. In this sense, digital literacy means the functional skills required to operate and communicate with technology and media. It also refers to the knowledge of how technologies and media affect the world. The internet now makes it possible to look up information on almost any area of human interest in just a few moments. Doing so requires some simple operational skills, but more importantly it requires the ability to be analytical and evaluative about the knowledge that is available on the web.

In fact, what it means to acquire knowledge is now changing significantly.

So digital literacy means knowing how technology and media affect the ways in which we go about finding things out, communicating with one another, and gaining knowledge and understanding. And it also means understanding how technologies and media can shape and influence the ways in which school subjects can be taught and learnt. In a dense landscape of information sources, communication opportunities, and tools for creating new digital objects, teaching and learning cannot be confined to pen and paper activities.

This means that learners and we teachers need to make sense of how technologies can be used within subjects and to understand how such technologies affect what we know about those subjects.

 Therefore digital literacy is an amalgamation of:

Knowledge of digital tools: hardware/software awareness and competence.

Critical skills: evaluation and contextualization.

Social awareness: understanding your identity, collaborating, and communicating to audiences in context.

Knowledge of digital tools: hardware/software awareness and competence.

Operational involves the ability to use a system of language and to read and write in an appropriate and adequate manner in a range of different contexts.

Creative refers to the ability to produce meaningful and engaging content in appropriate formats and for particular audiences.

Collaborative means to communicate, interact and work with others to create shared understandings and meaning.

Find and select: Knowing what information is available and being able to retrieve it.

Life and career skills: Today’s life and work environments require far more than thinking skills and content knowledge. The ability to navigate the complex life and work environments in the globally competitive information age requires students to pay rigorous.

I have shared with you my visual representation of how I understand digital literacy.

TECHNOLOGY INFUSED LESSONS

Evaluating one of my previous lessons

I will consider a physics lesson.

The topic was Moment of a force.

The technology tools where; computer, projector.

And students where meant to use slide share to view different presentations on moment of force. And then later they were to create their own notes in PowerPoint and present it to class. And they were to work in groups and collaborate even online, using google drive.

Now looking at the lessons of others online and using the evaluation tool, I feel my lesson somehow fulfilled some of the necessary strengths of a technology enriched lesson, but still it looked. Since learners where worked in groups, this helped them to develop their collaborative skills.

Learners also were to use the technology tools themselves meaning they had hands on activities, this helped them to be creative.

The lesson had activities which could cause the learners to think critically on their own.

However I feel I didn't consider students first evaluating the web information, and this could have led them not to filter the information well.

Also the SAMR levels where not fully integrated in the lesson.

So I Intend to improve on my lessons infused with technology, by consideration the necessary steps, in order to make use of technology. Actually this what digital literacy does for it looks at acquiring functional skills required to operate and communicate with technology and media.

LESSON REVIEWS

What does ‘digital literacy’ really mean?

To possess ‘literacy’ in traditional terms means being able to read and write in the shared language of a culture. Digital literacy shares some similarities. It refers to the reading and writing of digital texts, for example being able to ‘read’ a website by navigating through hyperlinks and ‘writing’ by uploading digital photos to a social networking site. In this sense, digital literacy means the functional skills required to operate and communicate with technology and media. It also refers to the knowledge of how technologies and media affect the world.

Lesson Reviews:

GR 6 -7 Science Electricity. Project.

In this project students were using digital technologies to record their experiences for two very different outputs. One was to support their learning, to enable them to remember successful circuits they had created. The other was to document their learning process for an audience. In further work students could evaluate the technologies they had used, in terms of whether the same technologies were appropriate for each task.

Making the multimedia presentations gave the children the chance to reflect on their learning journey and remember how they had achieved the creation of their Christmas decoration. They also began to develop some audience awareness by having to choose which video and audio clips to include in their presentation. Although the digital technology was not the focus of the learning in this piece of work, the students were clear about the purpose of using the digital cameras and voice recorders to document their learning and their perceived advantages of doing so:

Although the digital technology was not the focus of the learning in this piece of work, the students were clear about the purpose of using the digital cameras and voice recorders to document their learning and their perceived advantages of doing so.

Students developed their group decision-making skills by deciding which pieces of information needed to be recorded. They were also able to comment on their collaboration skills.

So the lesson plan equips learners with the collaborative skills, ability to evaluate web information, it takes into consideration the theory of multiple intelligence. There is moving, taking pictures, creating documents.

Learners were able to comment on each other’s work, this means this lesson put into consideration the SAMR Model and also TPACK.  

Learners are given chance to have hands on activities, which led them to have experiential learning and helped them to also be creative.  

The objectives of the lesson were achieved because the learners were able to make electricity.

Here is the link

http://cctionline.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/Education_Digital_Society/DSFL_7-Electricity.pdf

I also evaluated the Technology supported lesson, and it was on Web designing.

Content Area Objectives Addressed:  

1.     Research an area of interest (telecommunications model--research) 

2.     Organize information into storyboard or flow chart 

3.     Present information electronically for peers learn and review 

  Technology Objectives Addressed:  

1.     Create a web page, 5-8 pages (presentation software model ---linear) 

2.     Incorporate 2-5 of the multimedia components  

3.     Operated/Observed the use of a projector 

4.     Consulted an expert using a web camera.

In this lesson students, are provided with the technology tools, meaning they were to have hands on activities. Learners were to evaluate different web pages.

Students worked in groups but each was able to do something and this made the learners feel part of the whole process.

The students had knowledge about the, key boarding word processing and internet connections, so the lesson looked at the prior knowledge. Lesson considered TPACK model and SAMR model and it had reached reflection stage.

The lesson was rich in technology and considered different approaches, it helped the learners to know how to present the information.

Here is the link 

http://edtech.boisestate.edu/bridges/Lesson%20Links/Chapman%20web%20design/creating_a_web_page.htm

It promoted collaboration among learners and they were able to integrate technology to accomplish the tasks.