TIE 300

 Okay, please bear with me. I swear I have a point to this long story.

Ah…the 90’s, the glorious decade of my childhood. At the time computers were emerging as not only a part of business but as a new home essential. I remember getting our first desktop computer back in 1999 when I was in 5^th grade. It was a really crusty, clunky, windows 98 computer that my brother in law got me because he got ‘a good deal’ and my own parents couldn’t afford to get us one. So there I was, this young little girl excited about running a Crayola disk program where I could “magically” color in fun pictures. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. We still had no Internet, but I thought computers were the best invention. I was in love.

Since that sweet age I’ve been a tech addict. My co-workers call me a “techie” because I’m always on some sort of gadget. I was also almost always the tech teacher in my family. For example, just a few months back my sister asked me, “How do you copy and paste?” I laughed of course, but that wasn’t too nice of me. I grew up learning and evolving with technology. People older than me haven’t had that luxury.

Now, remember that I said I WAS the tech teacher of the family and I have a reason for using past tense. I got my first job last year at a CPS school last year and I was so excited because I could finally afford to buy myself a MacBook air. I never owned any apple product because they are so expensive but I finally got one, but I was so confused! Everything was different from a Windows computer. How did I get get on the Internet? What’s a screen shot? How do I get full screen? I had to turn to my 12 year old nieces who attend an all Macbook school. They’ve become the new teachers because I was old school and didn’t know all this new stuff.

My nieces doing school work.

So, this brings me to my point: I thought I knew everything about computers, and programs, and the Internet but I really don’t. Throughout the past 10 weeks I’ve learned about so many different awesome tools that have given me so many ideas on how to incorporate more technology into the classroom. It’s given me the courage to teach with technology when before I wasn’t sure if I could. For the first time in my life I became the lost student that didn’t know how to be an expert at all the different tools that were introduced to me. It’s shown me how resources are out there right under my nose, and how to teach and learn in a new fresh way.

I see now that technology surrounds and consumes a lot of our education, but in a good way! We are preparing students for a world powered by these tools and the skills that they acquire.  

Media Literacy

image source

According to the National Association for Media Literacy Education the definition of Media Literacy is as follows: 

“Within North America, media literacy is seen to consist of a series of communication competencies, including the ability to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE, and COMMUNICATE information in a variety of forms, including print and non-print messages. 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”. 

Even though our students believe that they know all there is to know about technology, I think that when it comes to learning with technology there is still a disconnect. I think that students are very strong in being able to access technology and even analyze different technological activities, but I don’t think that they could clearly communicate what they’ve learned about those activities. 

Sometimes, as educators, we get really excited and we want to use all of these cool devices, but how much is too much? If we are using specific devices in the classroom sometimes the lesson itself becomes how to actually USE the device rather than how we can use it to learn a specific subject. 

I think that continuing to expose students to familiar technology will allow them to grow into much better analyzers who will not only use technology well, but they will comprehend the importance of the technology they are using and how it helps them to better understand the information they are receiving. 

Media Literacy is important in our education because we are evolving everyday into a much more ‘media dependent’ society. A place where we are not only exposed to different forms of Media daily, but we also seek it out and enjoy using different media forms.Being able to take an image, video, or passage and give it a source of meaning to understand what it is trying to tell/teach us is a very important skill. 

Awesome questions to guide Media Literacy learning.