Media Literacy

According to Wikipedia, Media Literacy "is the process of accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and forms." To go along with this, media literacy gives people the opportunity to question the things they are reading, watching and listening to. Media literacy also gives a reader, viewer, or listener the opportunity to use different types of perspectives in a way that lets them view things "outside of the box".

While searching on Google for this assignment, I found some good websites that stood out to me to help us all gain a better understanding and perspective of what teens nowadays are growing up with in the media. Here are the following websites:

The first one I found on the Media Education Foundation (MEF) website. On this website, I found three pieces that I thought would be great for the use in this class.

• The first piece talks about media violence and how it is now worst than ever. This piece also shares some facts about media violence. One fact that worried me was that media violence is especially damaging to young children under 8 especially because they cannot tell the difference between real life and fantasy. This one was worrisome because I have 4 nieces and nephews all under this age frame.

• The second piece was more about how to be a critical media viewer. I feel like this one can be very important for us in this class. For example, one question that we have discussed and have been to asked to focus on throughout this course was: Question why certain messages are consistently present in mainstream media and why others are absent.

• The third piece is a critical viewing activity; in which suggestions and questions are made to help someone view media with a more critical eye. Once again this would be very helpful for us in this class.
  

The following website that I found focused more on media literacy from a teacher's perspective and slightly from a parent's perspective. It talks alot about what we focused on in the beginning of the semester with focuses on popular television characters and how kids are being bombarded with ads that may be affecting them.

Media Channel- Advertising and Marketing

Freshwater Provides Virtual School Learning Opportunities

Written by Becky Komppa

Virtual school opportunities are here and originating from our local instructors! Providing online learning opportunities as an option for students is becoming increasingly popular as is evidenced by the number of offerings available to Minnesota students. Over 1,750 state approved offerings are available to Minnesota students who, according to School Choice laws, can take 50% of their courses online. (ISEEK.org) Local students can experience online learning courses as part of an effort by Freshwater Education District schools, who are working under an E2T2 grant, to provide more opportunities for students, as well as upgrading teachers’ technological skills. During semester one, which just concluded, students were able to select from eleven elective courses. These included Art 1A, Introduction to Business, Accounting, Creative Writing, Media Literacy, Teaching Young Children, Spanish 3A, Fitness & Wellness, Physics and CADD (computer assisted drafting.) One college online course was offered, Introduction To Business Part A. During semester two, students were able to register for Natural Resource Science II, Sculpture-3D, Intro to Business Part B, Intro to Computer Appli­cations, Advanced Com­puter Applications, Accounting II, Careers with Children, Spanish 3B, Medical Terminology, and Psychology. Two online college courses were offered, Introduction to Computer Applications and Introduc­tion to Communi­cation Studies. College courses are offered in cooperation with Central Lakes College. A learning team is involved in the educational process of each student. Counselors have assessments available to help the student and their parents consider if the online experience is for them. Student supervisors are assigned to supervise the student daily during a scheduled class period. Distance teachers work with the student supervisor in addition to the student and principal. Many varied educational tools are available to the online instructor to help students succeed. Teacher and student interaction is, believe it or not, often greater in the online environment than that which often takes place in classrooms having large numbers of students. A student survey that was conducted at the end of the first semester was quite positive on an overall basis! Students shared that online courses should continue to be offered, and increased in number and selection. Surveys are in the process of being received from instructors, principals, and student supervisors. Currently, planning is being done for the offering of courses for the 2009-2010 school year. These course offerings, about to be finalized, will also add sociology, and perhaps an elective course in the history area. Core courses are planned for the 2010-2011 school year in the areas of English, History, Science and Math. Teacher training continues to be ongoing and will be a key component in developing the core, and additional elective course offerings. It is hoped that all schools will include the online offerings in the local registration books. Students, having at least a C grade average are encouraged to talk to their local school counselor to begin the online course request process. The online project, according to Joe Joerger the online coordinator, is an effort whereby our Freshwater Ed. District schools are trying to work together for common purposes. He said an important goal of the project is have a cooperative effort that helps our students, communities, and teaching staff. Bruce Lund, director of the Freshwater Education Dis­trict, says, “When our consortium’s students take our quality online courses from our well trained teachers, we know those students are getting a high level course! We know our teachers are getting better when they take our training. We know our communities appreciate the opportunity for their students to take classes prepared by their local consortium teachers. There are some great benefits to all parties involved in this project!”

Teacher-Training Curricula for Media and Information Literacy Report

The UNESCO´s international Expert Group documents for teacher training curricula worldwide are available at the institution webpage.

Those documents prepared by the experts are a model in teacher-training curriculum on media and information literacy to integrate media education and information literacy in the initial training of teachers at secondary school levels, and will be designed for application and adaptation worldwide, according to the needs of each country. The framework will assert the desired competencies of teachers in this field and will focus on raising the awareness of youths in using information and media.

The documents of the meeting, including the final report, are available at the UNESCO´s portal Here