Visual Literacy is So Important!

Hopefully, we can include media literacy in our SRSS classes for middle and high schoolers.  The extent to which we will be able to do so will depend on the availability of computers for T1 students.  Here is a wonderful quote that is included in the article.....by David Considine, 2002 which is certainly true today in 2012....same concept.

"While young people have more access to the Internet and other media than any generation in history, they do not necessarily possess the ethics, the intellectual skills, or the predisposition to critically analyze and evaluate their relationship with these technologies or the information they encounter. Good hand/eye co-ordination and the ability to multitask are not substitutes for critical thinking" (David Considine, 2002, p.5).
 

The author states that educators and students need to look in multiple on-line databases and look at arguments on both sides so they are informed.   Here are 4 suggestions from the Partnership of 21st Century Skills.  I would recommend implementing them in our SRSS classes.

Analyze Media

Understand both how and why media messages are constructed, and for what purposes

Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors.

Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of media

Reading strategies no longer are limited to print media - visual literacy, the myriad of  digital resources that challenge critical thinking are paired with print - all of these are part of the overall job of teaching and learning in the 21st Century.

What do you think?


Instant Resources: The Importance of Media Literacy.  Peter DeWitt. 7.23.12.  Education Week
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2012/07/instant_resources_the_importance_of_media_literacy.html?cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS2