Guest Post: Media Literacy in Secondary Ed. Classrooms

Please meet my former student--a teacher!--and one of the co-authors of Transparent Teaching of Adolescents, AnnMarie Dearman.

Secondary school. . . Technically speaking, it just means that it comes after primary school. But really? Secondary? The connotation of the word is that well, they’re done with us already.  So it’s not that much of a surprise that there is such debate about what is and should be taught in the secondary classroom. The bigger issue, though, is what is NOT being taught in the secondary classroom… media literacy skills.

A concept I’ve recently stumbled upon is the more profound definition of “literacy.” Yes, it encompasses reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and all skills that need to be steadily built upon to improve. However, in Education, what sometimes we forget is that literacy in the real world is changing – so many aspects of our lives are based in technology, and our approach to literacy skills must incorporate this arena. The use of media literacy is an excellent strategy for teachers to use in bringing our content areas up into the 21^st century.

Teaching students how to evaluate and analyze their literacy, which is a combination (a cacophonous barrage of data, really) of music, video, art, and severely condensed consumer information and news bites that they process in nanoseconds--if not simultaneously--is our responsibility. They process this information quickly, but do they process it wisely? How can we better help them navigate their literary world in every content area? 

I know that it’s impossible to please everyone, but I encourage you to consider incorporating media literacy into your classroom in some facet, whether through applicable YouTube videos, tweets, movie trailers, commercials, Facebook posts, and texts. Any classroom, any level, any subject. Not only do I think you can get them more engaged and stimulate some in-depth cognitive thinking skills, instigating synthesis of the content, I think you’ll find that you enjoy your days a little more, too. 

And I think students will learn to make a little more sense of their world.

Why Social Networks Matter in Teaching

The question posed by Dr. Alec Couros is “Why do (social) networks matter in teaching & learning?”

Free stock image from: http://www.turbophoto.com.

The positive benefits of the accumulation of ideas and projects in whatever format--Pinterest, Edmodo, Sharemylesson--do matter to teaching. Perhaps, though, these deserve a different category or title? We can opt to interact or not. We can offer and take with or without any socialization. There is minimal pressure to perform or to reciprocate. Don't teachers have enough pressures already?  These networks matter because they are there when we need them, but they don't require anything from us. The greater our library of resources, the more likely we are to reach more students. That matters.

Maybe the question would work better as "Why do social networks matter to teachers and learners?" because the heart of social networking is the "social" part. Do my teacher group forum discussions (Facebook, LinkedIn) matter to my teaching? They really matter more to me as a person. I either get support for my ideas, which reinforces my current thinking or others oppose my ideas, which helps me reflect on the validity of my current thinking. In that I may arrive at a more definitive conclusion or a more powerful understanding, these asynchronous social networks do matter.

Twitter chats or Google Hangouts, in their synchronous functioning are not unlike just getting together in a F2F group after school or a "teacher happy hour". In either of these networks, one can observe as a spectator or engage to the degree he/she chooses. The choice of anonymity is again helpful because sometimes, social pressures weigh in. Likewise, for the more extroverted folks, this is an opportunity to feel connected. In that the choice of participation style exists, here, these networks do matter.  

Finally, what really seems to stand out to me is the joy of finding like-minded educators and thinkers (ASCD, Edutopia). I used to get very tired of that solitary feeling that I was "the only one" who wanted to do this or that or think this or that. Social networking allows us to find a "family" of sorts. In his book, Illusions, Richard Bach put it best: 

    "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely
      do members of one family grow up under the same roof.” 

While I've certainly found a few like-minded teachers in my organizational settings, finding a host of them, a gaggle, cluster, gang or family of them, helps me to keep focused on my goal. They, either as role-models or in direct confrontation, don't let me fall. Whether they realize it or not, the knowledge that they are there, that they exist, matters greatly.

In my relatively cold online world, I find a warm sense of belonging. I don't see how that could NOT matter.