Teaching+Media+Literacy.

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__**Article: Teaching Media Literacy_ J. LaBrie **__ This article was very similar in terms of the level of responsibility for educators to provide opportunities within the classroom for our students to be responsible global and digital citizens. As I have said before, the opportunities are endless when it comes to providing our students with meaningful classroom experiences that are relevant to their everyday lives. This article endorses this belief but also continues to shed light on the drawbacks to not educating our children with their use and responsibility of these experiences. Sure, we can say that digital citizenship is not our responsibilities but instead that of the parents, however when we are encouraging students, as we should be, to use the internet for classroom activities we must not ignore the responsibility is shared jointly with us educators as well. Media literacy has gained attention because the amount of external factors is substantial. Understanding our responsibilities as educators is only the beginning of this quest toward digitally literate students. There are many skills in which to mention that students should clearly be able to perform. I would consider myself to be relatively tech savvy. With that said, however, this article mentioned one such skill that I had not even considered. The article points out that previous to the digital age, reading skills were very orderly with a tangible book or text. One must be able to read from right to left and turn the page from left to right. There was nowhere for a reader to stray. In order for true comprehension, these orderly skills must be performed. Now, while reading a website or internet source there are many more skills that play a role. As the article mentions, online readers must take a much more active and decisive role in their reading and comprehension skills. Websites are interactive and change constantly depending on the links chosen and path followed by the reader. It is for this reason, students must be prepared and properly instructed to choose wisely and efficiently in order to locate valuable information and weed out that which is useless. In a very basic way this reminds me of the children mystery stories where you can choose the pathway and eventually the ending depending on what decisions you make; the internet provides this but on a much larger and more interactive scale. Another topic discussed in this article that caught my eye was the lack of knowledge of web search engines even by adults. As declared in the article, many adults are not aware that many of the initial sites to pop up after a search are those that have paid their way to the forefront of our screens. Those that pay google or yahoo are the sites that are more likely to appear after a search. For example, if a not-for-profit agency does not pay for search hits, they are less likely to be viewed even if it is more credible or more closely linked to one’s original search. Online users must be taught valuable information such as this so that when researching, they are not fooled by the first sites that catch their attention. It is important to be thorough and reduce assumptions of value when selecting sources from a search engine. This is just one such topic that can and should be addressed when encouraging students to do webquests, research papers and the like. The above concern was mentioned in the article but this got me thinking. What other “tricks” or “assumptions” are made when navigating the web? Are there other possibilities that fool online users out there? I’m sure there are sites that are willing to spend a lot of money to make their information easier to find. One idea I had was the use of artwork and flashy photos to maintain one’s attention. What other elements can you see certain online sources using to hold the attention of a greater audience? Is this all bad? Are there any circumstances that they could be useful? I’m just wondering.

**__Article: Teaching Media Literacy J.Zumwalde__**

**__Summary:__**

With more and more students conducting the majority of their reading online it’s vital to provide instruction and information to students about how to determine if a source is valid as well as using informed judgment to determine reliability. Critical thinking skills are crucial to creating such decisions. With the majority of students only reading from texts in schools many students do not receive the instruction needed to develop their critical thinking skills.

**__Reflection:__**

I was extremely pleased to have the opportunity to read and discuss this article. I actually took Literacy in the Media class in high school as an English elective my junior year. The article discussed how many U.S. schools lack this in their curriculum and other than the article and my class, I have not heard of another media literacy course. I believe that as an educator it is our responsibility to ensure that students are provided with the knowledge necessary to interpret what that encounter in the digital world.