21st Century Literacy Skills All Teachers

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21st Century Literacy Skills AllTeachers
Students Need to Succeed

• Frank W. Baker
• fbaker1346_at_aol.comMedia Literacy Clearinghouse
• http//medialit.med.sc.edu

Summer Leadership Institute 2006
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The current critical need

• Economic forecasters and business analysts
  are predicting that jobs in the 21st
  centurywill require information processing
  skills. ..media literacy (is one of these)...
  Merely teaching reading and writing is no longer
  sufficient..
• Source Janet Murray, Contemporary
  Literacy Essential Skills for the 21st Century
  MultiMedia Schools Magazine, March/April 2003

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The need for media literacy

• "Our young people need to be educated to the
  highest standard in this new information age, and
  surely this includes a clear awareness of how the
  media influences, shapes, and defines

Former USSecretary of EducationRichard Riley
their lives. .Media literacy courses can give
young people the power to recognize the
difference between entertainment, television that
is just bad and the information they need to
make good decisions.
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Recommending media literacy

• American Assn of School Libraries
• Cable In The Classroom
• International Reading Assn.
• National Communication Assn.
• Natl Board of Prof Teaching Standards
• Natl Council for Teachers of English
• National Middle School Assn.

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Why teach media

• Movies, advertisements, and all other visual
  media are tools teachers need to use and media we
  must master if we are to maintain our credibility
  in the coming years.Jim Burke, fromThe
  English Teachers Companion

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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century
Generation M media multi-tasking
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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• 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
• Source R. Hobbs,
  Journal Adult Adolescent Literacy, February
  2004

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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• While more young people have 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.
  Dr. David Considine, media educator

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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• "It is incumbent upon our educational system to
  prepare its students with the skills necessary to
  be able to approach the media criticallythe
  middle school years are an ideal time to teach
  media literacy." Marie Davies, The impact of
  the mass media upon the health of early
  adolescents. Journal of Health Education, 1993

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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• What is media literacy?
• OR
• Why is it important that ourstudents be media
  literate?

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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• 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. 
  (Source Media Literacy
  Resource Guide,
  Ministry of Education Ontario, 1997)

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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• Media literacy
• the ability to---
• access, analyze, evaluate produce
• communication(both print electronic media)

Source 1992 Aspen Institute Natl. Leadership
Conf.
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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• 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.
  Source Alliance For A
  Media Literate America, 2000

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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• What is media literacy?
• Set of skills, knowledge abilities
• Understanding how media work and produce meaning
• Awareness of personal media use
• Critical thinking applied to media messages
• Appreciation of media

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What media literacy is NOT

• A separate course
• Expensive
• Media bashing
• Judging whether media or good or bad
• Just television or video production
• Teaching with media rather it is teaching about
  the media

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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century
1999 study finds media literacy in all
states standards
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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• Partnership for 21st Century Skillswww.21stcentu
  ryskills.orgInformation Communication
  Technology (ICT) Map

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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• English, Language Arts 8th grade
• demonstrate the ability to distinguish
• between fact and opinion compare and
• contrast information and ideas make
• inferences with regard to what he/she
• has viewed

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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century
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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• All media are constructions
• Media use their unique languages with their own
  set of rules
• Media convey values points-of-view
• Different people see the same media messages
  differently
• Media are about power profit

Source Center for Media Literacy
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Media Literacy Critical Skills Knowledge for
the 21st Century

• Who produced/paid for the message?
• What is its purpose?
• Who is the target audience?
• What does the message mean?
• Who or what might be left out?
• What techniques are used to attract attention and
  increase believability?

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Understanding the visual

• Visual literacy slides

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The languages of TV Film

• CAMERAS
• Position (perspective) Movement (pan, tilt)
• Lens (zoom in, pull out)
• LIGHTS
• SOUND (music, sound effects)
• EDITING (post production)
• ACTOR EXPRESSIONS WARDROBE

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Thinking Critically About Media

• Schools should incorporate media literacy
  education throughout the curriculum, not just in
  English classes, and at all grade levels.
• Technology, and its use by students to produce
  their own media, is a key component to media
  literacy education.
• Source http//www.ciconline.org/uploads/C
  IC_Media_Literacy_Report.pdf

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Thinking Critically About Media

• School districts and colleges of education should
  increase professional-development efforts to
  reflect the importance of media literacy
  education.
• Parents should play an important role in media
  education, too. School districts can encourage
  their participation by holding workshops for
  parents and conducting other outreach efforts.
  Source http//www.ciconline.org/uploads/CIC_Med
  ia_Literacy_Report.pdf

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Recommendations

• Schedule professional development workshops on
  this topic
• Help teachers see the media/education links
• Recruit school library media specialists to
  identify needed resources which correlate to
  state standards
• Give students opportunities to create and produce
  media and showcase those
• Support stronger media literacy standards

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Schedule a teacher workshop

• Frank W. Baker
• fbaker1346_at_aol.com
• Media Literacy Clearinghouse
• www.frankwbaker.com
• A national Leader In Learning finalist May
  2005