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Abby Hancock
Semi-pro
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:46 pm Posts: 24
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With our students lives becoming more and more electronically based, should we teach media literacy, or at least help to encourage it?? By media literacy I mean the ability to analyze, access, evaluate, and communicate info from media. How much should we help them understand what is real and not, right or wrong that is on the TV? Do we as teachers even have time to bring anything like that up in the classroom?
_________________ Abby Hancock
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Wed Sep 22, 2004 8:05 am |
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Neal Rainey
All-star
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:44 pm Posts: 30
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No, I don't think any of us are going to have much time to devote to this unless we sacrifice something else, but, YES, I do believe media literacy is more important now than ever. With a seemingly infinite number of TV programs, certainly infinite variety of internet websites, and millions of dollars being pumped into advertising in both medias, I think it is extremely important to educate children and young adults about media literacy. We need to ALL be asking questions like "Is this an advertisement and, if so, who paid for it and why?" and "What kind of biases really exist in mainstream and alternative media news sources?" I think a great way to introduce kids to media literacy is a video called "The Culture of Cool". It's basically an entertaining look at the modern "chicken or the egg" paradox of consumer culture: Does the culture dictate the products that become popular or do the marketers dictate what becomes popular in the culture's mind?" It's a neat documentary. Also, we should be introducing kids to using more than one news source for our news (and not just NBC, ABC, or CBS); they need to also learn about less corporate information entities. What does everyone think? Do we have even close to enough time to do this? I think, as a future social studies teacher, this stuff falls particularly well in my subject area, but I think we all could incorporate it to some degree.
_________________ Neal Rainey
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Wed Sep 22, 2004 2:06 pm |
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Melissa Cooke
Semi-pro
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:45 pm Posts: 26
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I think that media literacy should be encouraged and integrated into the school day. I don't think that we as teachers would have extra time to make a unit on media literacy. Maybe we could at least put it into our lessons.
_________________ Melissa Cooke
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Wed Sep 22, 2004 9:22 pm |
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Morgan Gill
All-star
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:46 pm Posts: 32
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Media is such a big part of adolescent’s lives today, if you can incorporate it into the classroom (or atleast make allusions to it in lectures) I think it can be a powerful teaching tool. Adding personal relevance to any obscure topic can make it more enjoyable, and by including prominent figures from the media in your lessons, you encourage student interest.
Also, teaching our youth to critically examine media sources is incredibly important. There is so much false, biased, or confusing information available through the media: if we can devote even a small amount of time to teach students to sift through all this information, we will be doing them a huge service. For example, MartinLutherKing.org is actually a hate site, and websites like this can be dangerous to children who aren't able to think critically about today's media. I know teachers have an ever-increasing amount of information to include in their lessons, but if media literacy can be taught in even a small part, I think the benefits will be enormous.
_________________ Morgan Gill
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Mon Sep 27, 2004 10:51 am |
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Lindsey Evans
Semi-pro
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:46 pm Posts: 24
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I think that since the media is becoming part of children's lives at such a young age now, we should definitely try to incorporate media literacy into the classroom. Teachers may not be able to have a specific lesson on media literacy, but teachers should at least try to incorporate as many types of media into the classroom. And stressing good sources on the internet for papers and bad sources is a good thing too. Many students use whatever pops up on their searches, and do not care if it is actually true information or not.
_________________ Lindsey Evans
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Wed Sep 29, 2004 11:39 am |
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Amy Middleton
All-star
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:47 pm Posts: 38
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I would just like to throw in one little bit of info.... While most children Do have access to multimedia sources, not ALL students do.. I never had a computer at home with internet in high school. I had to ride the bus home from school, so I could never get to the library at school, and until I was 16, I had no way to the public library. Also, in high school, i had several friends who had no television at all. So, whenever/however you incorporate media, do keep in mind that not ALL students know "basics".
_________________ Amy Middleton
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Wed Sep 29, 2004 3:19 pm |
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Jessica Peters
Semi-pro
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:45 pm Posts: 27
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I do not think that we have time to devote to media literacy. The children will believe what they want to anyway. I do not see the importance of it. I understand that you need to be aware of the media and the importance that it plays in the US. I think that we should teach them not to believe everything that they hear and read. That is much component of interpreting media literacy.
_________________ Jessica Peters
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Fri Oct 01, 2004 10:22 am |
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Amanda Davidson
All-star
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:44 pm Posts: 42
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In today's society media literacy is very important. As teachers I do not believe that we will have the time to teach media literacy, but I do believe that we can find ways to integrate media literacy into the curriculum of other subjects. I do not believe that we will be able to tell the children everything they need to know, but we could at least introduce it to them and let them analyze it themselves. Parents would be the major part in teaching children about media literacy, and parents should teach it.
_________________ Amanda Davidson
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Mon Oct 04, 2004 12:26 pm |
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Cassandra Weimer
Semi-pro
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:46 pm Posts: 24
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I think that we all have to make time for media literacy. It may be one of the most valuable life skills we can pass on to our students!!- the grandchildren of baby booming consumers. Critical consumption is really important! Who are we kidding? We are the most manipulated society in the world, and this becuase of the load of advertisements we face each day. We're all affected and it's really scarry- how dare we not set aside time for this as teachers? I can't see any excuse for not including it in the classroom- not even the familiar crutch: "I don't have time."
_________________ Cassandra Weimer
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Tue Oct 05, 2004 11:58 am |
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Elizabeth Puckett
All-star
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:45 pm Posts: 38
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I think it would be great to incorporate media literacy into the classroom. Last semester I took Dr. Considine's course on media literacy. I really didn't realize how greatly influenced students are and can be by the media that surrounds them constantly. I think students should be able to point out biases and be able to evaluate what's be thrown at them. I believe media literacy could be integrated into other core curriculum courses such as newscast with Social Studies and editorals with Language Arts. Students would probably enjoy the topic as well and more than likely have strong opinions themselves about the media.
_________________ Elizabeth Puckett
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Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:50 pm |
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Elizabeth Cooner
Semi-pro
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:44 pm Posts: 28
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When i was coming up though school, very few had a personal computer. I dont think I ever used the computer with internet until I maybe was a Senior in highschool. It was not an everyday thing for most people. Now, you would be amazed at how the children have caught onto the concept of the internet, video games, etc. I think that media literacy is very important these days. I will incorporate it into my classroom.
_________________ Elizabeth Cooner
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Thu Oct 21, 2004 9:04 am |
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Telena Snyder
All-star
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:44 pm Posts: 36
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i feel that as teachers we have some responsibility to teach kids to decifer what is truth and what isnt. But sometimes that may involve your opinon so simply informing students that not everything you hear from media is truth. That everyone has a opinion and sometime media source include that in thier information. While i do consider media literacy very important in a childs education, they should just know that they themselves are gonna half to make that personal call on what is truth, because we all view truth in different ways.
_________________ Telena Snyder
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Thu Oct 21, 2004 3:44 pm |
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