Rethinking Learning Through New Media and Technologies: Teachers Discovering Media Production Media

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Rethinking Learning Through New Media and
Technologies Teachers Discovering Media
Production Media Literacy ResourcesPresentation
Slides/ Course outlineshttp//medialiteracyprojec
t.blogspot.com/Melda N. Yildiz yildizm_at_wpunj.edu
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How to Teach Media Literacy
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As we enter the twenty first century, it is
essential that the schools be places that help
students better understand the complex,
symbol-rich culture in which they live in. A new
vision of literacy is essential if educators are
serious about the broad goals of education
preparing students to function as informed and
effective citizens in a democratic society
preparing students to realize personal
fulfillment and preparing students to function
effectively in a rapidly changing world that
demands new, multiple literacies. Renee
Hobbs, 1997
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• It is no longer enough to simply read and write.
  Students must also become literate in the
  understanding of visual images. Our children must
  learn how to spot a stereotype, isolate a social
  cliché and distinguish facts from propaganda,
  analysis from banter, important news from
  coverage.
• Ernest Boyer

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• Media Education is both essential to the
  exercising of our democratic rights and a
  necessary safeguard against the worst excesses of
  media manipulation for political purposes.
• Len Masterman

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Reasons using new media

• Provides
• Access-- Liberate teachers and students from
  textbook format. Provide alternative resources-
  Teachers and students will be able to research
  through online resources.
• Global Point of View-- Students and teachers will
  participate online discussion groups, weblogs,
  wikis, and listservs.
• New tools for classrooms Students and teachers
  will be able to produce media presentations,
  learning objects, interactive teaching material.

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• Although media production is considered to be a
  time consuming, difficult, and expensive process,
  educators need to integrate media literacy and
  media production into their curriculum in order
  to prepare new generation for media-rich culture.
  Rather than just being technical or peripheral,
  media production must be simple and central to
  the learning process. This paper presentation
  promotes media literacy skills through media
  production techniques, offers creative
  suggestions for producing video in the classroom
  with minimal resources and equipment, describes
  K-12 teachers' reactions and experiences with
  media, and showcases their projects. It is based
  on a qualitative research conducted in eight
  classes and investigated over one hundred
  educators in seven different states.

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Course has three main parts

• De-construct (Read Media) Media Literacy
  Activities (deconstructing webpages, news,
  advertisement, and newspapers POV (point of
  view) exercise, etc.)
• Research (Use Media) Information Literacy
  (Library Skills, researching internet resources,
  etc.)
• Construct (Write Media) Media Production (Create
  an oral history project, video documentary,
  website, webquest, weblog, and multimedia
  presentation)

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• The aim is to develop an awareness about print
  and the newer technologies of communications so
  that we can orchestrate them, . And get the best
  out of each in the educational process.
• Without understanding of media languages and
  grammars, we cannot hope to achieve a
  contemporary awareness of the world in which we
  live.
• Marshall McLuhan

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Advantages of semiotics

• Allows us to break down a message into its
  component parts and examine them separately and
  in relationship to one another.
• Allows us to look for patterns across different
  forms of communication.
• Helps us understand how our cultural and social
  conventions relate to the communication we create
  and consume.
• Helps us get beyond the obvious, which may not
  be all that obvious after all.

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• Media Literacy The ability to access, analyze,
  evaluate, and communicate media messages in a
  variety of forms.
• The Aspen Institute, 1989

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Learn one thing!

• Language Arts Literacy
• STANDARD 3.5 (VIEWING AND MEDIA LITERACY) ALL
  STUDENTS WILL ACCESS, VIEW, EVALUATE, AND RESPOND
  TO PRINT, NONPRINT, AND ELECTRONIC TEXTS AND
  RESOURCES.
• http//www.state.nj.us/njded/cccs/s3_lal.htm35

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Why Study Media?

• Media Saturation
• Media Influence
• Manufacture and Management of Information
• Media Democracy/ Critical Autonomy
• Increasing Importance Emphasis
• Privatization of Information
• Educating for the future

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Principles of Media Literacy

• Media construct reality
• Media use identifiable techniques
• Media have commercial interests
• Media presents ideologies
• New media creates new languages, new audiovisual
  grammars and new ways of using language

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• Media are symbolic systems not simply reflection
  of reality which must be accepted, but with
  languages which need to be actively read, and
  interrogated.
• Len Masterman

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Main Questions

• Who produces it? Originator, creator, or author
• Who are the stories intended for? Target Audience
• What is missing?
• Whose point of view is being presented?

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Teachers Role

• Education must begin with the solution of the
  teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the
  poles of the contradiction so that both are
  simultaneously teachers and students.
• Paulo Freire

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"I learned how to deconstruct commercials, how to
use the camera equipment, and how to create a
public service announcement. Most importantly, I
experienced that every message can be interpreted
differently. Depending on the era, personal
experience, each sign makes different meaning to
different people. Prior to taking this course, I
simply watched a commercial at face value. I
never really looked at the details or asked
myself what target audience the advertising
company was aiming for. Since class, I have been
a commercial-analyzing junkie. I look at the
color scheme, the logo, the endorser (if there is
one), choice of music, and the intended target
audience.
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• I am happy to have met you, because you have
  given me much more to think about than just the
  content of this class.
• More than learning video production, this
  course gave me the chance to reflect on my own
  viewing habits and I learned something about
  myself.

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• Video (TV) is helping or hurting education?
• Can school video production efforts compete with
  commercial endeavors?
• Are teachers using video effectively?
• Can students learn anything from planning or
  producing their own videos? (Valmont 1995, p.1)

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Media (video) production is considered to be
time consuming

• Reasons not to have production in the curriculum.
  Lack of
• equipment
• technical knowledge to be able to use the
  equipment
• support department
• interest
• time allocated in the curriculum

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Production is crucial because

• Students need variety ways to present their
  ideas.
• Different learning styles demands different ways
  to present a project besides essays. (Gardner,
  1993)
• Teaches Media Literacy skills
• Gives students different perspectives and point
  of view to look at the world/ surroundings-
  Multiculturalism

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• Media Production is an essential component in
  education
• Teachers education needs to include media
  production techniques and pedagogy
• Media Literacy skills are important component for
  multicultural education

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Bloom's Taxonomy and Critical Thinking The goal
is to go beyond Knowledge/ Comprehension
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• The study explored the wide range of meanings
  K-12 teacher participants associate with media
  production the impact of video production
  activities on their understanding of media and
  the ways in which they integrated media education
  in their curriculum projects. This participatory
  paper presentation outlines strategies for
  integrating media literacy and media production
  into the curriculum, offers creative suggestions
  for producing video in the classroom with minimal
  resources and equipment, and showcases the
  participants video and multimedia projects and
  describes their experiences with media. We will
  explore how a critical approach to the study of
  new media combines knowledge, reflection, and
  action promotes educational equity and prepares
  new generation to be socially responsible members
  of a multicultural, democratic society.