- Students' use of media is continually expanding
- Students need to learn to use symbol systems as well as language
- Various conceptions of expanding literacy studies: visual literacy, media literacy, critical literacy, information literacy, technology literacy
- Using multimedia and popular culture texts as tools for K-12 learners
- Visual literacy: aesthetic dimensions of images and how they shape viewer response; subjectivity of images
- Information literacy: locating information from a variety of sources (research); skills-based -- criticism that it doesn't "emphasizes the ways in which meaning is constructed through interpretation" (limited to fact-finding)
- attempts to expand: digital literacy; synthesizing ideas and facts rather than just finding them
- Critical literacy: analyzing social context, effects of media; exploring themes of "power, identity, pleasure, and transgression"
- Possible synthesis of diverse forms of multimedia literacy
- Categories of multimedia literacy:
- AA: authors and audiences
- MM: messages and meanings
- RR: representations and reality
- Studying media literacies improves students' reading comprehension, writing skills, critical reading, critical listening, critical viewing, knowledge of media production, history, economics, and terminology
- Central objective for media education: "the ability to apply knowledge and skills learned in the classroom to the world of everyday life"
- Recognizing the difficulty teachers have implementing media literacies curricula: schools are often underfunded and/or resistant to changing their curricula; as standardized tests become the measure of schools' performance, there is less time for the existing curriculum, let alone something new
Luke, Carmen. "What Next? Toddler Netizens, Playstation Thumb, Techno-literacies."
- The information revolution and early childhood
- concepts of development
- media and information technology literacy
- critical criteria for software selection
- issues of equity and access
- Reactions to and fears about any new media development (the written word, books, movies, television, now IT): parents and educators have been wary of every new development in media
- New concepts of youth and childhood now emerge in tandem with new technologies, rather than taking years to become incorporated into academic and popular thinking
- Early literacy and development are shaped by media usage/exposure
- Hypertext environments = parallel cognitive demands, rather than linear, serial processing (Jenkins' example of Pokemon); having to follow multiple storylines
- Software quality: problems with gender, racial normativity, intellectual stimulation and interactivity vs. yes/no, point-and-click responses
- Need for critical analysis of media in other forms besides print/film
- Access: IT and analytic skills must be taught to all students in school
- IT-mediated learning and socialization: importance of parents and educators paying attention to children's media consumption
Both Hobbs and Luke engage the questions of how to mediate the influence that new media technologies are having on youth. Hobbs' suggestion is that in order to successfully teach children how to use and how to be critical consumers of new media, we must integrate the various approaches to media literacies that have developed into a more comprehensive whole, and that it would be optimal to teach children media literacy in school. However, she recognizes the difficulty that instructors would have in implementing new media curricula. I'll bring up for I think the third time the issue of standardized testing, and how its predominance as a marker of academic success leaves little room for teaching anything that isn't explicitly covered.
Luke delves further into the issue of exactly how new media are affecting children; like Jenkins, she suggests that new media are not inherently harmful, but rather simply different than the old in that they require more parallel rather than linear processing, and tend to be more interactive and demanding of consumers. However, she is less celebratory than Jenkins in acknowledging the possibilities for reinforcing existing power hierarchies and noting the prevalence of facile interaction in even "educational" children's media. I would also note the stronger potential for overuse that new media have; Luke briefly mentions "Playstation thumb," but I would like to see a stronger emphasis on overuse injuries. Freshman year of college, I developed carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands to the extent that I was ordered by doctors not to type for three months or risk needing surgery. I still use wrist braces for long periods of typing (I'm wearing them as I type this) or writing, and I can no longer hold heavy objects (like grocery bags) for more than a few minutes. More than the psychological damage parents usually worry about (which Luke indicates tend to fade as soon as the next technology emerges), I think physical consequences are a big concern. Luke also addresses the problem of access, arguing that new media literacy must be taught in all schools in order to improve access for children who might not have the newest technologies at home. However, neither Hobbs nor Luke provide much insight into how schools could go about implementing media literacy curricula. Not knowing a whole lot about public education or education policies, I must say I can't really provide any suggestions beyond scaling back the emphasis on standardized testing. Any ideas?
2 comments:
First of all, I'm so sorry to hear about your hands! At least five of my friends from Stanford over the past couple of years have developed severe problems with their hands, very similar to the ones you've expressed, from overexhaustion, and it has really been difficult for them to get back on track. All of them are young women, too. This is certainly a testament to perhaps the overuse of computers or other types of new media technology? I feel as though with each new advancement in technology, consumers are like "kids in a candy store," which can quickly result in negative consequences. We like to cram everything we can into life (which at times feels like the philosophy of the quarter system here at Stanford), which can be at the expense of ourselves and have serious, deleterious ramifications. I hear you on the fact that it doesn't seem as though there is enough of a bastion of support or understanding for these types of issues.
I'm going to echo Betsy in my condolences about your hands! I hope with time they are getting better.
To answer your question about ways to change public education to incorporate new media, check out my newest post. As I mentioned in my reading summary I think the only way to restructure our current system (and reduce/eliminate standardized testing as you mentioned) is to identify how to educate the educators and bring classrooms up to speed in terms of their media equipment. Obviously this will take a lot of economic restructuring, so I would also recommend school systems to work with consulting firms to do some cost analysis (NYC public schools have already used firms to answer some other tough education problems with success).
Post a Comment