Tara McPherson: How Literate Are You?
Filed at 5:55 pm on November 27, 2006 • 2 comments
Traditional notions of literacy focus on reading and writing, but, in a digital era, full literacy means competency in a range of media. While media literacy isnÌt a new concept, the term has traditionally focused on interpreting mainstream media messages. ThatÌs a good first step, but we need to push toward a multimedia literacy that includes creating media. We also need to develop curriculum to support such a definition.
All fifty states include media literacy requirements of some form in their educational standards. Yet the recommendations vary wildly from state to state and are often buried in the obscure language of standards, with no curriculum in place to achieve these goals. In a climate relentlessly focused on ÎaccountabilityÌ and testing, teachers feel pressured to cover Îthe basics,Ì leaving scant time to innovate new modes of learning.
To further complicate matters, the best models of media literacy pedagogy tend to build on studentsÌ own interests, skill sets often honed outside of formal education and through a variety of Ïmedia platformsÓ from game consoles to email to mobile phones. Introducing these modes of learning into the classroom dissolves easy boundaries between Ïinside and outside,Ó moves away from textbook-centric toward project-based education, and threatens to destabilize traditional notions of the Îteacher/studentÌ relationship. Small wonder change has been slow within school systems.
Still, if the promises of Îparticipatory mediaÌ are to be fully realized and public education is to remain relevant to students, we need to develop innovative models of multimedia pedagogy for K-12 learning in and out of the classroom, closing the loop between what students do for ÎfunÌ and how and what they learn in school. This means we need to advocate for systemic changes in how we think about education and also learn from grassroots practices that are already having success.
We also need to cultivate thought leaders in the community of teachers, in higher education, and in policy venues in order to revitalize the classroom, and we need to make sure these communities are speaking to each other. The MacArthur Foundation initiative in digital media and learning can emerge as a key broker in this conversation.
Where to start? Here are just a few examples of multi-media learning from both non-profits and universities:
- Nature Mapping in Waterville, Washington
- Community Mapping in Los Angeles
- The Center for Digital Storytelling
- Girlstart
- River City
Please respond with more examples of your own!
Next: This week's theme: innovative uses and unexpected outcomes > >
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Tags: authoring-skills, informal-learning, innovative-teaching, multimedia-literacy
Comments (2)
1: Renee Hobbs from Temple University, Philadelphia at 11:17 am on Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Many educators in K-12 setting are incorporating media literacy in English language arts education. At the recent National Council of Teachers of English conference in Nashville this November, more than two dozen presentations by K-12 teachers and teacher educators explicitly explored topics related to multi-modal literacy.
In 2003, NCTE formally adopted a resolution on composing with non-print media on behalf of all 60,000 members. They resolved to encourage preservice, inservice, and staff development programs that will focus on new literacies, multimedia composition, and a broadened concept of literacy; encourage research and develop models of district, school, and classroom policies that would promote multimedia composition; encourage integrating multimedia composition in English language arts curriculum and teacher education, and in refining related standards at local, state, and national levels; and renew the commitment expressed in the 1983 Resolution on Computers in English and Language Arts to achieve equity of access to the full range of composing technologies.
There are more than 330,000 teachers who specialize in English education—- and, on average, they are 48 years old. They will be teaching for another 15 years. Some of these folks are using traditional mass media like newspapers, magazines, television and film in ways that promote critical analysis skills; many more can learn strategies for helping their students compose with digital technologies when staff development programs are provided that meet their needs and speak to their lived experiences as education professionals.
2: Tara_McPherson at 5:40 pm on Thursday, November 30, 2006
It’s fabulous that NCTE is taking the lead on multi-modal literacy in the classroom. I’d love to have educators post to this forum any links they have for actual curriculum efforts in this regard, especially for the K-6 age range.
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