A lot of the things we asked our interviewee related to a video we found on the Internet that talked about media literacy. In the video, there are four researchers of media literacy who talk about how we can help students to thrive in this digital age. To start the video, Mathew Needleman, who is a LAUSD schoolteacher and literary coach, talks about how important it is for parents to talk to their kids about media. Children are able to see things before they can read, so it is important that parents are exposing their kids to media they can see and understand. This will help them down the road when they do get to school and are experiencing media and different types of digital learning. We asked our interviewee how important media literacy is for 21st century learning. She said that not only is it important, but it is a natural and essential evolution of our traditional ideas of teaching and learning.
As important as it is, there is a large space for improvement within these schools. Jeff Share, a trainer at a center for media literacy, talked about how much room for improvement there is with media literacy within schools. Jeff talked about how we need to reframe how we approach media literacy. These students have different type of needs and everyone learns differently. ur interviewee told us that it isn’t enough to show middle schooler’s and piece of media and say “analyze”. They need structured resources and handouts that contain focus questions and sentence starters to help guide them in the right direction. Elizabeth Thoman talks about how important it is for people to grasp the concept of media literacy. It is everywhere now so it is critical that students are able to understand it. Our interviewee told us that she thinks the most important skill students can learn is the ability to connect text to self.
She says that there are a lot of connections to be made throughout all types of media and they are all important. Lastly, Tessa Jolls, who is the president at the center for media literacy, talks about media literacy as an information source. She talks about how people use media to find out many things in life. She talks about how important it is to understand “why this message was sent to me?” and “what am I getting out of this message. Teaching young students about things like this can help them in the future to be able to analyze an critique all types of media. Media Literacy is critical in understanding what is going on in this digital age. Is someone trying to sell us something or get our vote, or maybe someone is trying to influence us.
All of these things come into play with media and students in today’s classrooms need to be prepared for the media and digital overload they will receive in the real world. Incorporating media and digital learning in the classroom is a crucial step in preparing our students. Overall a lot of what our interviewee told us was related to what we saw in the video. One great thing our interviewee told us was that “if students cant connect texts to their own lives and what it means for them as citizens of the world, they may miss the “why” of doing whatever it is they’re doing. Training students to become media literate is extremely important for their success in the classroom in today’s digital age.
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By Chris Lempka and Joe Leavitt