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Articles Archive - 2007
Media Education: Make It Happen!
Written by Warren Nightingale, Media and Internet Education Specialist
with Media Awareness Network
In Canadian schools, there is a growing awareness of the need to connect
formal learning to the real world and to bring media content into the
classroom for analysis, evaluation and discovery. The process of teaching
students to question, evaluate and understand their media culture is known
as media education. The end result is a media literate individual who
has the ability to read the messages that are informing, entertaining,
and selling him or her daily. These skills are at the heart of a healthy
and informed society.
When you consider the scope of media education—from learning hands-on
production techniques, to recognizing how the various elements of a specific
medium convey meaning, to thinking critically about media issues and media
influences—it’s easy to see how studying the media lends itself to a number
of approaches within a wide variety of subject areas.
In Canada media education is a mandatory stream in English Language Arts, and outcomes
for media education are included in other subject areas, including Health,
Information and Communications Technology and Social Studies. As provinces
and territories rewrite their curricula there is a growing movement to
strengthen media literacy expectations. For example, Ontario’s new elementary
and secondary Language curricula include a new expectation strand: Media
Literacy. The Media Literacy strand gives media education the same focus
as traditional strands, Reading,
Writing and Oral Communications.
Educators overwhelmingly agree that helping young people think critically
about popular media is an important part of their job. In research conducted
by Media Awareness Network in 2005, 88 percent of teachers see a critical
role for themselves in developing media literacy skills in their students,
and 81 percent felt that media literacy should be an important part of
a student’s education.
Educators may understand the importance of nurturing critical literacy
skills, however, integrating media literacy into the classroom can seem
intimidating, whether it is being done formally or informally.
Teachers needn't be apprehensive. Here’s why:
- Media education isn't about having the right answers: rather, it's
about asking the right questions.
Because media issues are complex and often contradictory and controversial,
the educator's role isn't to impart knowledge, but to facilitate the
process of inquiry and dialogue. Media education encourages an approach
that is always probing, posing questions such as: Who is the audience
of a media production and why? From whose perspective is a story being
told? How do the unique elements and codes of a specific genre affect
what we see, hear or read? How might different audiences interpret the
same media production?
- Media are a part of life all kids enjoy and share.
Media is a stimulating and relevant topic for students – something they
all have an opinion about and enjoy discussing. And they love the power
that comes with understanding that all media productions – be it a drama
or documentary, news report or advertisement – are constructed with
a viewpoint and for a reason.
- Media education has been called the perfect curriculum.
Media education is timely, it's multidisciplinary, it's easily assimilated
into the classroom, and it promotes critical thinking skills. Media
education is also embedded in reading, writing, listening and oral communication
outcomes and lends itself perfectly to thematically organized education
in the elementary and secondary grades. A wide range of themes can be
addressed within a media education context including consumerism, global
issues, body image, representation of gender and diversity, and much
more.
- Media education acknowledges and builds on the positive and creative
dimensions of popular culture.
Media education incorporates production of media texts and critical
thinking - decoding, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating media -
to help us navigate through an increasingly complex media landscape.
That landscape includes not only traditional and digital media, but
also popular culture texts such as toys, fads, fashion, shopping malls
and theme parks.
- Media education can be a shared experience for students and teachers.
“My students know more than I do!”. This is the common concern among
teachers when it comes to multimedia. While students may have more familiarity
with certain kinds of media (such as video games and social networking
over the Internet), teachers have the life experience and critical thinking
skills to pass on to students. Unlike any other topic, media education
is the subject area where knowledge is equally shared between teacher
and students. This generates a unique dynamic, to foster creativity
and enthusiasm from both teachers and students.
This role of the teacher as a facilitator and co-learner in a student-centred
learning process is not only the model for media education; it has also
become an accepted new critical pedagogy. Today, the chief challenges
are to locate and evaluate the right information for one's needs and
to synthesize what one finds into useful knowledge or communication.
Media education - with techniques of critical thinking, creative communication
and computer, visual and aural literacy skills at its core - is a key
part of a 21st century approach to learning.
To help educators understand and facilitate media literacy in their classrooms,
Media Awareness Network has created Media Education: Make It Happen!—a
program of free, bilingual media education resources. The program components
are:
- Booklet - The 14 page booklet provides a snapshot
of media education, key concepts for media literacy and an overview
of media education in Canada.
- Workshop - The 65-slide PowerPoint workshop provides
an overview of what media education is and offers strategies for implementing
media education into the classroom.
- Workshop Guide – The Workshop Guide is a support
resource for facilitators of the PowerPoint workshop. The guide includes
handouts, background information, tips for presenting and additional
workshop activities.
The Media Education: Make It Happen! program was created to encourage
educators to become involved in Canada’s annual National Media Education
Week. The purpose of the week, which was launched in 2006 by Media Awareness
Network and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, is to encourage the integration
and practice of media education in Canadian schools, homes and communities.
To download the free Media Education: Make It Happen! workshop,
guide and booklet, and to find out more about this year’s National Media
Education Week, November 5-9, 2007, visit www.mediaeducationweek.ca.
Warren Nightingale is a media education specialist with Media Awareness Network. Media
Awareness Network (MNet) is a Canadian not-for-profit centre of expertise
and excellence in media education and Web literacy. MNet's vision is to
ensure children and youth possess the necessary critical thinking skills
and tools to understand and actively engage with media.
© 2007 Media Awareness Network
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