Henry Jenkins notes that
media literacy advocates “have longed called for schools to foster a critical understanding of media as one of the most
powerful social, economic, political, and cultural institutions of our era.”
(2010, p. 31) In addition he says, “the new media literacies should be taken as
an expansion of, rather than a substitution for, the mass media literacies” and
they “should be seen as social skills, as ways of interacting within a larger
community, and not simply as individualized skills to be used for personal
expression.” (2010, p. 31-32) In
embracing Jenkins’ statements it becomes evident that new media literacies
empower our students with “social capital – those interpersonal connections
that make it easier to effect change.” (Leistyna and Alper 2006, p. 55)
Media education is needed for a number
of reasons. If we continue to train students to work autonomously, we are not
properly preparing them to “enter the workplace [where] they are increasingly
being asked to work in teams, drawing on different sets of expertise, and
collaborating to solve problems.” (Jenkins
2010, p. 33) New media literacy prepares them for collaborative participation. We
also must teach students to “access books and articles through a library; to
take notes on and integrate secondary sources; to assess the reliability for
data…to distinguish between fact and fiction, fact and opinion; and to construct
arguments and marshal evidence” (2010, p. 30) because their success requires
critical thinking skills to navigate the plethora of information available to
them.
In order to effectively do this all
involved in the education process must learn from “librarians, who in the
modern era, are reconceptualizing their role less as curators of bounded
collections and more as information facilitators who can help users find what
they need, online or offline, and can cultivate good strategies for searching
material.” (Jenkins 2010, p.30) Tom Wolfe summed it up in the introduction of
the Matthew McLuhan Speaks video when he quoted McLuhan saying, “Today’s
children will be baffled and bored sitting in classrooms run by print bound
teachers. The educational system must be totally changed.”
Sharlene,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we are doing our students a disservice by not helping them to grow and adapt with the technology more successfully. The connected learning video briefly addressed this issue. One thing that stood out the most to me were the specific skills that students acquire when they are highly engaged with technology, like social skills, technical skills, and creative expression. Another thing was the need for teachers and schools to become more adept at providing and nurturing authentic opportunities for students to learn based on their interests, engagement with these new technologies. Teachers have to become more knowledgeable and have expertise in these new technologies for our students to be successful.