Media Literacy: One of the Critical 21st Century Literacy Skills

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Media Literacy One of the Critical
21st Century Literacy Skills

• Frank Baker
• media educator
• fbaker1346_at_aol.com
• Media Literacy Clearinghouse
• http//medialit.med.sc.edu

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Recently recognized in the text101 Best Web
Sites for Secondary Teachers
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Media Literacy One of the Critical
21st Century Literacy Skills

• "In this technological age, teachers must
  expand their students' technological, visual
  and information literacy as well as provide them
  with a sense of intertextuality, or the ability
  to make meaning from a variety of texts. This
  requires teachers to reshape their curricula and
  enhance students' abilities to understand and use
  multiple technologies in order to acquire,
  evaluate and organize information."

Smolin L.
Lawless K,  in The Reading Teacher, March 2003
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Media Literacy One of the Critical
21st Century Literacy Skills

• economic forecasters and business analysts
  are predicting that jobs in the 21st century will
  require information processing skillsa multitude
  of literacies now exist visual literacy, media
  literacy, textual literacy, numerical literacy,
  technology literacy.merely teaching reading and
  writing is no longer sufficient

Contemporary Literacy Essential Skills for the
21st Century (Multimedia Schools March/April
2003)
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Media the world of our students
March 2005
Generation M Multi-taskers (Kaiser Family
Foundation)
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Multi-tasking
The mental habit of dividing one's attention into
many small slices has significant implications
for the way young people learn, reason,
socialize, do creative work and understand the
world.
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• Our students are growing up in a world
  saturated with media messagesyet, they (and
  their teachers) receive little or no training in
  the skills of analyzing or re-evaluating these
  messages, many of which make use of language,
  moving images, music, sound effects.
  Journal Adult Adolescent Literacy,
  February 2004

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Using media to teach

• "If video is how we are communicating and
  persuading in this new century, why aren't more
  students writing screenplays as part of their
  schoolwork? Heidi Hayes Jacob

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Film as language

• "Film has its own language, its own grammar..
  It's helpful for students to know this language
  and to think critically about film in an
  increasingly visual world."

Martin Scorsese
If people arent taught the language of sound
and images, shouldnt they be considered as
illiterate as if they left college without being
able to read and write?
George Lucas
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Media literacy what is it?

• What does it mean to be media literate
• in the 21st Century?
• Take a few minutes to create your own working
• definition after which we will share

Video
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Media literacy

• Media literacy is concerned with helping
  students develop an informed and critical
  understanding of the nature of mass media, the
  techniques used by them, and the impact of these
  techniques. More specifically, it is education
  that aims to increase the students' understanding
  and enjoyment of how the media work, how they
  produce meaning, how they are organized, and how
  they construct reality. Media literacy also aims
  to provide students with the ability to create
  media products.

Media Literacy Resource Guide, Ministry of
Education Ontario
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Media literacy

• Media literacy empowers people to be both
  critical thinkers and creative producers of an
  increasingly wide range of messages using image,
  language, and sound. It is the skillful
  application of literacy skills to media and
  technology messages. As communication
  technologies transform society, they impact our
  understanding of ourselves, our communities, and
  our diverse cultures, making media literacy an
  essential life skill for the 21st century.

Alliance For Media Literate America, 2002
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Media literacy benefits

• Meets the needs of students to be wise consumers
  of media
• Engages students
• Gives students and teachers alike a common
  approach to critical thinking
• Provides an opportunity for integrating all
  subject areas

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Media literacy benefits

• Helps meet state standards
• Increases the ability proficiency of students
• Inquiry process transforms teaching
• Focuses on process skills rather than content
  knowledge

Source Literacy For The 21st Century (Center
For Media Literacy)
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Sunshine State Standards
Language Arts Social Studies Health
-identifies bias, prejudice or propaganda-understands specific ways that mass media can potentially enhance or manipulate information -understands the role of special interest groups, political parties, the media, public opinion and majority/minority conflicts on the development of public policy and the political process -knows how messages from media and other sources influence health behavior.
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Partnership for 21st Century Skills
http//www.21stcenturyskills.org/
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Media literacy core concepts

• All media are constructions (of reality)
• Media use languages with their own set of rules
• Media convey values and points-of-view
• Audiences negotiate meaning
• Media power profit

Source Center for Media Literacy
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All media are constructions
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Media use languages with
their own set of rules
Language of film Camera workLighting Editing
SetsSound/musicCostumes
Expressions
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Media convey values and points-of-view
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Audiences negotiate meaning
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Media power profit
FOX (News Corp) NBC (NBC/Universal) CBS
(Viacom) ABC (Disney)CNN (AOL/Time Warner)
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Critical inquiry

• Who created/paid for the message?
• Why was it produced? (purpose)
• For whom? (target audience)
• What techniques are used?
• What lifestyles are promoted?
• Who benefits?
• What does it mean?
• Who/what might be omitted and why?

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Techniques

• In what ways does
• advertising make
• goods/services
• so appealing?

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Techniques
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Techniques
In what ways does this fake web site for
aprescription drug advertisement, look like the
real thing?
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Visual literacy analysis
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video
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Connecting Curriculum and
Technology

• National Ed Technology Standards for
  StudentsGrades 3-5 Evaluate the accuracy,
  relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness,
  and bias of electronic information sources.
• Grades 6-8 Research and evaluate the
  accuracy, relevance, appropriateness,
  comprehensiveness, and bias of electronic
  information sources concerning real-world
  problems.

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Advertising Lesson Plan

• You Want to Sell Me What?
  The Many Forms of Advertisinghttp//cnets.iste.or
  g/students/pf/pf_you_sell.htmlLink to PDF
  http//cnets.iste.org/students/pdf/3-5FormsofAdve
  rtising.pdf

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Advertising product placement
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Virtual product placement
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Script Writing

• How will the digital universe change the way
  scripts/plots are developed?

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Digital enhanced TV

• HDTV is nothing more than
• pretty pictures
• EDTV has yet to realize its full
• potential the ability for the viewer
• to interact with the program
• PBS produced video

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Student produced media
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Student produced media

• One camera (elementary)
• Animation (secondary)

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Resources
Telemedium The Journal of Media Literacy
What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning
and Literacy
New Literacies In Action Teaching Learning in
Multiple Media
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Media Literacy One of the Critical
21st Century Literacy Skills

• Frank Baker
• media educator
• fbaker1346_at_aol.com
• Media Literacy Clearinghouse
• http//medialit.med.sc.edu