With the pervasive spread of the Internet in addition to spider web technologies, digital media consumption in addition to production practises convey acquired novel critical dimensions. There is a massive exposure to all types of media content (text, images, video, in addition to audio) in addition to people, to a greater extent than than anytime inwards the history of humankind, are actively engaged inwards consuming, producing in addition to sharing dissimilar forms of cognition from the piddling to the arcane academic.
The nature of the medium through which a message is communicated is merely every bit of import every bit the message itself. media critics (e.g., Sherry Turkle, Nicholas Carr, Mark Bauerlein, Andrew Keen, to scream a few) who debate that digital media convey the might to shape our cognitive capacities inwards profound in addition to transformative ways. It is inside this context that the concept of digital media literacy acquires its importance becoming thus an essential cook inwards raising students consciousness to the implications of interacting alongside digital media. The exercise of this post service is to innovate to this concept, render y'all alongside to a greater extent than or less definitions of what it is, in addition to utter over to a greater extent than or less ways to integrate it inwards your instruction.
Media literacy, every bit Istvan (2011) stated, is an umbrella concept "characterized yesteryear a multifariousness of perspectives in addition to a multitude of definitions" (p. 2). Among the diverse definitions provided so far, Here are 2 that nosotros honor helpful every bit they both highlight the critical human face of the literacy:
According to the Commission of The European Communities (2007) media literacy "is mostly defined every bit the might to access the media, to sympathize in addition to to critically evaluate dissimilar aspects of the media in addition to media contents in addition to to create communications inwards a variety of contexts" (p. 3).
As for the Ontario Association for Media Literacy (AML) (cited inwards Duncan, 2005)
“Media literacy is concerned alongside developing an informed in addition to critical agreement of the nature of the volume media, the techniques used yesteryear them, in addition to the comport on of these techniques. It is instruction that aims to increase students’ agreement in addition to enjoyment of how the media work, how they create meaning, how they are organized, in addition to how they cook reality. Media literacy also aims to render students alongside the might to create media products.”Media literacy, therefore, is non solely virtually accessing in addition to using media but to a greater extent than importantly developing a critical consciousness regarding how these media operate in addition to how pregnant making processes are produced in addition to negotiated inside them. It's solely through such an informed agreement that nosotros teach to heighten critically aware digital citizens who tin laissez passer on the sack safely navigate their paths through a complex in addition to informationally fat globe in addition to productively participate inwards the cognition economy.
Besides knowing how to effectively exercise media to create meaningful multimodal content, media literacy also entails reading alongside a critical optic what others convey produced in addition to shared. Drawing on Mills (1995, p. 199) in addition to Duncan's (2005) operate I came upward alongside the next listing of questions to assist students investigate the content of a text using a critical approach:
What variety of text is it?
What genre is it business office of? (e.g., advertising, news, song, etc.)
Does the text convey a status? (e.g., canonical, literacy, popular)
How is it authored? (e.g., individually, anonymously, collectively)
What information is readily available virtually the author(s)?
How does this information assist y'all alongside the reading in addition to agreement of the text?
Whose betoken of thought does the text favour?
Whose interests does the text foreground?
Does the text exclude whatever groups of people or beliefs?
Does the text await y'all to convey some sort of assumed background cognition to sympathize it?
Is this assumed background cognition subject on stereotypical assumptions? If so, what are they?
Does your reading set align alongside the i communicated yesteryear the writer or not? Why?
Which voices, if any, are silenced inwards the text in addition to why?
Ways to integrate media literacy inwards your instruction
There are a broad variety of strategies to assist y'all integrate the ethos of digital media into your cast instruction. However, the of import affair hither is to move able to justify the rational behind your exercise of such media. Some examples to assist y'all inwards this procedure include:
1- Ask students to operate inwards groups in addition to create brusk explainers or video clips roofing a detail topic
2- Assign students to read in addition to critically evaluate the content of a spider web page using the questions above.
3- Using i of the online timeline makers students chronicle the major developmental epochs, processes or events surrounding a detail historical lawsuit or figure.
4- Students suit a brusk even out they convey read or written into a brusk moving-picture present they tin laissez passer on the sack create using either spider web tools or mobile apps.
5- Discuss alongside students the dissimilar techniques they tin laissez passer on the sack exercise to topographic point faux word so convey them operate inwards groups to locate sample faux word online in addition to utter over their operate alongside each other.
You tin laissez passer on the sack also depository fiscal establishment gibe this post from Common Sense Media for insightful ideas on integrating media literacy inwards your cast projects.
Sources:
Duncan, B. (2005). Media literacy: Essential survival skills for the novel millennium. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/pMgQ2Z
István, S. (2011). The media in addition to the literacies:Media literacy, information literacy, digital literacy. Media, Culture & Society, 33(2), 211-221
Daunic, R. (2017). four Ways to integrate media literacy inwards the classroom. Common Sense Media. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/f39ZmX
Mills. S. (1995). Feminist stylistics. New York, NY: Routledge.
