© BE CYBERWISE 2013

GET DIGITAL: STEP TWO

MEDIALITERACY

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OCAL,Clker

GET DIGITAL: STEP TWO

MediaLiteracy

How To Use This GuideThis guide accompanies the CyberWise Guide to Media Literacy (which hopefully you just watched). If you are reading this guide online then simply click the links within to access the material they reference. You can also print this guide in order to have a hard copy on hand. Either way, we hope you find the information within useful. Enjoy!

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Hopefully you just watched the CyberWise Guide to Media Literacy video! If so, then you already know that technology has transformed the media landscape, and therefore the definition of media literacy has expanded. So while reading and writing remain

essential literacy skills, the ability to interpret and tell stories across all mediums is a prerequisite to being truly media literate in the 21st century. Here are two excellent sources for a definition of “media literacy.”

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What is Media Literacy?

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The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) provides these 6 Core Principles for media literacy education. Media literacy education…

1. Requires active inquiry and critical thinking about the

messages we receive and create.

2. Expands the concept of literacy to include all forms of

media.

3. Builds and reinforces skills for learners of all ages… that

necessitate integrated, interactive, and repeated practice.

4. Develops informed, reflective and engaged participants

essential for a democratic society.

5. Recognizes that media are a part of culture and function

as agents of socialization.

6. Affirms that people use their individual skills, beliefs, and

experiences to construct their own meanings from

media messages.

The Center for Media Literacy (CML) defines Media Literacy as:

"…a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate

with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-

expression necessary for citizens of a democracy."

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The white paper Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century (Jenkins et al., 2006) identifies the “new media literacies” that empower young people to engage confidently in today’s participatory culture.

According to USC/Annenberg’s Project New Media Literacies website, “(t)he New Media Literacies constitute the core cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in our new media landscape. We call them ‘literacies,’ but they change the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to one of community involvement. They build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom. If these New Media Literacies are learned — and they can be learned without computers in the classroom (to see how, check out the CyberWise

CyberCivics blog) — they can form the building blocks for students' participation in new media.” 

Descriptions of each these skills (on the following pages) have been excerpted directly from: http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/the-literacies/

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Caveman Cartoon: From Baloo’s Cartoon Blog

Media Literacy Circa 8000 B.C.

The New Media Literacies

So here’s the bottom line... technology is changing everything about the way we read and write. In order to be effective communicators in this digital world young people must be equipped with new skills and competencies. So what are these skills? Read on…

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Play: the capacity to experiment with one's surroundings as a form

of problem-solving. Having a strong sense of play can be helpful when you pick up a new piece of technology that you've never used before, when you're trying to write an essay and your outline isn't functioning as you'd hoped, and when you're designing anything at all, from a dress to a web page to a concert's program.

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Performance: the ability to adopt alternative identities

for the purpose of improvisation and discovery. Being able to move fluidly and effectively be-tween roles can help you when you're exploring online communities, when you're trying to decide what actions are ethical, and when you're shuffling between home, work and school.

Simulation: the

ability to interpret and construct dynamic mod-els of real-world proc-esses. Being able to interpret, manipulate and create simulations can help you understand innumerable complex systems, like ecologies and computer networks - and make you better at playing video games!

What are the New Media Literacies?

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Distributed Cognition: the ability to interact

meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities. That can mean something as simple as using a ruler or calculator, or something as complex as efficiently using Wikipedia on your iPhone to access information on the fly.

Collective Intelligence: the ability to pool knowl-

edge and compare notes with others toward a common goal. This ability is key to open source projects. Being able to pool knowledge with others can allow us to solve challenges far more complex than the individual mind can process.

What are the New Media Literacies? (cont.)

Appropriation: the ability to meaningfully sample and

remix media content. Being able to remix media content (and knowing when doing so is appropriate) can help you understand literary works, music, and art; it can also help lead you to a deeper understanding of copyright and cultural clashes.

Multitasking: the

ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details. Being a good multitasker is required in our new media landscape - and that includes learning when it isn't good to multitask.help you understand literary works, music, and art; it can also help lead you to a deeper understanding of copyright and cultural clashes.

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Networking: the ability to search for, synthesize, and dis-

seminate information. Writing something isn't enough without the ability to circulate it to the communities where it will matter.

Negotiation: the ability to travel across diverse communi-

ties, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms. We now need to know how to live in multiple communities - from the hyperlocal to the global and from those composed of people like us to those consisting of people very different from us.

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What are the New Media Literacies? (cont.)

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Judgment: the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility

of different information sources. If you're worried about your students using Wikipedia at inappropriate times and taking everything they read on the internet as gospel truth, you're worried that they aren't exercising good judgment. But judgment also includes knowing when sources are appropriate for your use: for instance, sometimes Wikipedia might be the appropriate resource to use. 

Transmedia Navigation: the ability to follow the flow

of stories and information across multiple media. Anyone who needs to do research needs a good understanding of transmedia navigation - how to follow threads through video, still photography, written work, music, online sources etc.

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Visualization: the ability to translate information into visual

models and understand the information visual models are communicat-ing. VIsualization has become a key way we cope with large data sets and make sense of the complexity of our environment.

Here are two excellent resources that help educators, parents, community leaders, and others understand the importance of integrating media literacy into education:

1) In a landmark report (Informing

Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age), the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communi-ties in a Democracy recommends that digital and media literacy be viewed as a critical element in all levels of education, and with institutions such as libraries in local communities.

Renee Hobbs, Professor in the Harring-ton School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island, where she founded the Media Education Lab, has outlined specific steps that policymakers, educators, and community advocates can take in Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action. According to Hobbs, “to fulfill the promise of digital citizenship, Americans must acquire multimedia communication skills and know how to use these skills to engage in the civic life of their communities.”

What are the New Media Literacies? (cont.)

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Images from:

Media Literacy in Education

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Media Literacy in Education (cont.)

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Cable in the Classroom

Media Smarts

National Writing Project

Powerful Voices for Kids

Project Look Sharp

Project Literacy Among Youth

Adobe Youth Voices

Global Kids

PBS Teachers: Digital Media Literacy

ITVS Educators: Community Classroom

And Don’t Miss...

The CyberWise Media Literacy Learning Center!

The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) enhances growth in media literacy education in the United States by organizing and providing national leadership, advocacy, networking,

and information exchange. Together, NAMLE members weave a diverse network of people and organizations committed to

advancing media literacy education as a new vision of literacy for the 21st century. Join today at http://namle.net/

2) In the new book, The Teacher’s Guide to Media Literacy: Critical Thinking in a Multimedia World, authors Cyndy Scheibe

and Faith Rogow, both experts in the field of media literacy education, provide a road map for understanding and implementing media literacy in the 21st-century classroom. This book includes dozens of activity ideas, self-reflection exercises, voices from the field, a glossary of terms, and seven annotated, original, classroom-tested lesson plans that illustrate different approaches to media literacy.

Media Literacy Resources

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It used to be if you could do this, and this, then you were media literate. Hip hip hoorah!

But the definition of media literacy has expanded, because knowing how to interpret and tell stories across all mediums is an essential skill for the 21st century.

If you’ve already watched the CyberWise Guide to New Media, then you know we are living in a “participatory culture.”

That means this digital environment that our kids spend so much time with has the following attributes:

•Low barriers for artistic expression•Strong support for creating and sharing•Experienced users passing their knowledge on to novices•An atmosphere where contributions matter•And an opportunity for social connection

Hey this sounds like a great environment for learning!

But unfortunately New Media has found a hard time getting into the classroom.

One way to understand how this could be is to look at its short history. Less than 20 years ago the public was first granted access to the Internet. Back then everyone was so excited what this meant for education - over 55 billion dollars were spent on technology during that first decade.

Unfortunately, despite this investment, most achievement indicators were flat.

In other words it didn’t work.

If you take another at the timeline, you’ll see that one of the reasons it didn’t work may have been that computers were introduced to the education too soon.

Before the decade when all these platforms transformed computing from a passive viewing experience into a participatory experience.

So now the question is...

What skills does a participatory culture require?

Well the folks at USC’s Project New Media Literacies have defined these skills. And if you look at the list carefully, you’ll see they aren’t so much technical skills, but rather social and behavioral skills that are learned best through collaboration and connection…

CyberWise Guide to Media Literacy Video Transcript

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But we still have a lot a of work to do to develop a digital media curriculum that incorporates these new literacies. And we need to address adult safety and privacy concerns that to date have largely kept new media out of the classroom.

In other words, we need a new approach. Experts suggest that this new approach is digital citizenship.

In fact, the ISTE, the folks who develop technology standards for schools, emphasize digital citizenship in their updated standards.

And most agree that these skills should be taught the minute a connected device is put in a child’s hands.

So where do we start?

Well fortunately there is a wealth of digital citizenship resources online, we just have to make time to use them. Because living in a participatory culture is a lot more fun when everyone is participating.

THE END

See you for Lesson 3: Digital Citizenship!

Video Music:

"Look Busy”, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0"

Video Images:

Thumbs uphttp://www.clker.com/clipart-thumbs-up-smiley.htmlThumbs downhttp://www.clker.com/clipart-thumbs-down-smiley.htmlComputer Lab by: Extra Ketchuphttp://search.creativecommons.org/?q=imageCovered computers by cdsessomshttp://search.creativecommons.org/?q=image#Televisionhttp://www.clker.com/clipart-8654.htmlWorldhttp://www.clker.com/search/internet/3Girls . Photo by George Loch / courtesy Argonne National Laboratory,NazarethCollege's photostream, FlickrSlide Show. From Marc Smith http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=imageNew media arty picture. From pnsnam New America Mediahttp://search.creativecommons.org/?q=imageRed poster. Linda Hhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/25747180@N00/2284649096/Grunge Stamp. From webtreatshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/44071822@N08/4167513274/Child with IPhone From apdkhttp://search.creativecommons.org/?q=image#Question Smileyhttp://www.clker.com/clipart-4257.htmlCollaboration Imagehttp://www.clker.com/search/collaboration/1Digital Citizenship Cartoon. From giulia.forsythehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/5689393230/in/photostream/Chalkboard from D Sharon Pruitthttp://search.creativecommons.org/?q=image

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Transcript (cont.)

©2013 CyberWise, LLC

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