Media and Information Literacy

"People say believe half of what you see.

Son, and none of what you hear.

But I can't help bein' confused.

If it's true please tell me dear."

Marvin Gaye, Heard It Through the Grapevine

Relevant Links (Please add your own links or delete dead links)

• The Center for Media Literacy
• Reel Action; dedicated to teen literacy media producers
• Student Information Literacy Standards; PDF file

Some Questions to Consider (Are there more questions?...)

• Can students critically assess the messages they may get in junk e-mail?
• Are your students able to create media as well as react to it?
• What higher order thinking skills are necessary for media literacy in the digital age?

There are two current senses of media literacy:

1. How to understand media that is directed toward you from advertisers and other mass (and micro) media, and
2. how to create media to communicate and inform.

Each is important to the 21st century learner and each has major implications for how teaching and learning happens in a classroom. In ED 429, we emphasize the central importance of learning how to create media under the working assumption that students who know how to create persuasive or informative media will be more capable of deconstructing and analyzing messages that are directed toward them.

How those messages get directed toward toward them is worth considerable discussion. Baby Boomers can relate to "mass media" easily as they have grown up with radio, television, magazines, and other media who try to reach as broad an audience as possible. Increasingly, mass media is giving way to "micro media"--media that is specifically targeted at much smaller niche audiences with a high degree of interest in a product or service. Digital distribution of media, through targeted e-mail, web sites, social networking sites (see the Digital Citizenship page for more information) to niche audiences is efficient and cost effective. Because micro media can reach a worldwide audience, geographically separated indlviduals can find "communities" that serve their own special interests easily. Every time we type information into a search engine or visit a web site, we are adding to the knowledge that advertisers need to reach us. Are our students aware of this?

Some Standards for Media Literate Students

Information Literacy

1. The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently and effectively.
2. The student who is information literate evaluates information critically and competently.
3. The student who is information literate uses information accurately and creatively.

Independent Learning

1. The student who is an independent learner is information literate and pursues information related to personal interests.
2. The student who is an independent learner is information literate and appreciates literature and other creative expressions of information.
3. The student who is an independent learner is information literate and strives for excellence in information seeking and knowledge generation.

Social Responsibility

1. The student who contributes positively to the learning community and to society is information literate and recognizes the importance of information to a democratic society.
2. The student who contributes positively to the learning community and to society is information literate and practices ethical behavior in regard to information and information technology.
3. The student who contributes positively to the learning community and to society is information literate and participates effectively in groups to pursue and generate information.

Excerpted from Chapter 2, "Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning," of Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning. Copyright © 1998 American Library Association and Association for Educational Communications and Technology. ISBN 0-8389-3470-6.

Media Creation Tools

Digital Video

The current tool of choice among most media creators is digital video. Digital video can be created once and then distributed to an increasingly wide variety of devices. We're used to seeing video on our computers and DVD players now, but with a few simple conversions the same media can be distributed to web sites, cell phones, portable media players (known generically as "podcasting"), and even PDAs. Video is a persuasive and engaging format that particularly appeals to N-Genners.

Apple Computer's iMovie is a good example of a video creation tool. Free to anyone that purchases a Mac, iMovie is simple to use and it provides tools to export your video to a variety of devices with a single click. (Windows Movie Maker, currently included with Windows XP, is a much more limited tool with fewer output possibilities. Most Windows folks do much better with third-party software such as Adobe Premiere Elements or ULead's VideoStudio.)