As a media producer, educator and outspoken advocate of emergent media pedagogy (social and participatory media, Remix culture, Open Source publishing and production, Creative Commons open licensing and citizen media in all forms), I’m delighted to announce the launch of my (full disclosure) partner, author, Liam O’Donnell’s newest graphic novel, Media Meltdown. While I am indeed biased, the new graphic novel (for readers aged 8-14) speaks to the most critical aspects of media literacy in fun, engaging and pedagogically relevant ways.
The publisher has also provided a variety of materials – including the entire book and supplementary materials for EDUCATORS! - at the online site that accompanies the book launch. Here’s more info from the site:
As an educator, you understand the value of teaching your students to become media literate. Today’s world is radically different than the one most of us grew up in. It’s important for us to help kids learn to competently navigate the issues surroundingInternet safety,privacy, cyberbullyingand online marketing.
Kids are relatively inexperienced in the game of life, and they often lack the ability to evaluate information critically. But they’re no less subjected to pushy marketing or skewed information than the rest of us. It’s incumbent upon us—their teachers, librarians and parents—to equip them with the tools that will help them make good decisions in the face of biased, misleading or hateful information.
Literacy today means more than just knowing how to read and write. For centuries, literate people were those who could read and understand texts. Nowadays, visual images are equally important in conveying ideas. But who’s teaching kids to read the meaning of visual images?
You are. Media education is powerful, offering you dozens of opportunities to capitalize on the “teachable moments” in your students’ world. It’s relevant to kids’ lives; it integrates with every subject across the curriculum; it develops critical thinking; and it’s easy to bring into your classroom. Best of all, kids enjoy media education, because they get to discuss and examine what they are naturally drawn to!
A few key points to examine with students:
Media do not represent reality. They convey carefully crafted ideas and information from one perspective.
Most new information comes to us through newspapers, the Internet, television, radio, advertising or magazines. Unless we learn from personal experience, we find out about events and ideas through the media.
Media use specific techniques to create emotional effects. Ever cried at a movie? Laughed at an ad? Our feelings are easily manipulated. The media use this fact to whatever advantage they seek.
Your students probably will have even more experience with the media than you do. So prepare yourself. Meet them where they are—and then guide them to where they need to be.
For months, I’ve been trying to connect my wired educator network with ideas from critical pedagogy while looking to traditional academics (specialising in critical pedagogy, social justice and anti-oppression education) to share the key questions that might inform a meaningful assessment of web2.0 tools in relation to social justice, equity and diversity.
Here are a few of the questions, challenges and priorities as I see them.
Every day, all around the world, people are sharing enormous amounts of personal information and data via social networking tools. From photos, locations, interests and activities to the names, locations and relationships of those in our lives. While this sharing revolution has great benefits it also presents many challenges in relation to personal boundaries and privacy online. Increasingly, those who choose not to share – or to limit their sharing on their own terms – entreated to hostility, mischaracterisation or coercive admonishments to which they are rarely equipped to respond.
I was recently solicited for my thoughts on the key priorities for 21st Century learning and surprised myself – and my client – with the answer. Prior to this query, I might have rhymed off the usual classroom2.0 mantra: blogging, social media, virtual worlds, mobile technology and, of course, multi-tasking. But the more I reflected on my teaching and client experiences these past few years, the more I realised these priorities aren’t especially technical at all.
This led me to the conclusion that few 21st century learning priorities are less about technical skills, tools, services, software or hardware but far more social, cultural and behavioural as they relate to states of being, thinking, feeling and acting with technology.
The basis for this post are the problematic assumptions among some educators that these “softer” skills are either already present or easily accessible to learners (or else constitute some sort of “giftedness” or intrinsic “aptitude” or need not be explicitly taught or modeled). Furthermore, I’d like to suggest that these priorities be socially, culturally and cognitively differentiated according to the unique needs of varied learners and learning communities.
Given my own recent explorations of remix culture, I was inspired to contact Pogo via his Youtube channel and ask for an interview. To my delight, he agreed.
The following is the first in a series of interviews with people who are changing the way we learn, think and engage via emergent technologies.
TED: Larry Lessig – How Creativity is being strangled by the law
Scaffolding 101
I’ve been talking a lot lately at conferences and consultations about the idea of “scaffolding” content. Scaffolding isn’t new. It’s teacher talk for supporting a resource or learning objective with various structures such as: questioning sequences, introductory discussion, activities or some form of production (an written, oral or multimedia item) connected to the chosen resource. In this way, we don’t just show or share an item, we provide an explicit and directed inquiry to actively engage participation in meaning.
The slides above were prepared for a talk I gave with the Canadian Association of Communicators in Education, which represents Canadian information officers from school boards and principals associations.
Designed for non-techies, my presentation provides an introductory overview of web2.0 social media tools and trends. It also concerns challenges unique to school boards, their members and the communities they serve.
In addition to these slides, I created a selection of bookmarked resources, tools, articles and studies referenced in the spoken presentation.
Note: This non-commercial, educational talk is licensed with a share and share alike Creative Commons license. You may re-distribute and remix my presentation with attribution and under a similar CC license.
In this current moment of economic, cultural and social adversity it’s all to easy to give in to cynicism, hopelessness and fear. What’s more difficult is locating the inspiration and optimism necessary to move forward.
Distinguished author and educational leader Parker Palmerreflects on how we got here and where we’re headed in this moving interview with Bill Moyers:
And of course, that’s part of our problem. I mean, I could make the same argument about the current economic collapse. Who didn’t know it was coming? Who didn’t know that a system that encouraged us to live beyond our means and provided all kinds of devious and ethically doubtful ways for us to do that was going to fall apart someday?
Who didn’t know that housing was over-evaluated? That stocks were overpriced? Who didn’t know that a system that makes the rich richer while the poor get poorer will someday face a curtain call? We all knew that at some level, just like we know we’re going to die. And yet our capacity to deny reality is huge.
…
The opportunity now is for us to get real. And I think that’s going to make us, in the long run, more happy. The tragic gap, and I call it tragic not because it’s sad. It is. But more fundamentally because it’s an inevitable part of the human condition.”
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