I read Literacy for the 21st Century by the Center for Media Literacy, an article that describes a method for teaching students to “access, analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a variety of forms.” Much of the information in the article is extremely useful, such as the five key questions and the five core concepts and how to teach them; on the other hand, much of the article is testimonials of the program and advertizing-type text. I found this fact to be just a little ironic since the point of the program is to teach people to see through that type of thing. In effect, they are using testimonials to sell us something that will help us see through their testimonials and other such material.
“The convergence of media and technology in a global culture
is changing the way we learn about the world
and challenging the very foundations of education.
No longer is it enough to be able to read the printed word;
children, youth, and adults, too, need the ability
to both critically interpret the powerful images of a multimedia culture
and express themselves in multiple media forms.”
Elizabeth Thoman and Tessa Jolls
Media Literacy: A National Priority for a Changing World
The quote points to the need for the teaching of media literacy in today’s classrooms. While I agree that media literacy is crucial to a well-rounded education in the 21st century, I took issue with some ideas from the article. The article implied that in the past literacy focused mainly on learning and memorizing knowledge in our brains. The authors argue that with new facts just a click away, teaching facts is no longer necessary. What is necessary now is to be able to analyze and evaluate information. While the article makes a plausible argument, I believe that storage (in the brain–not in a computer) of knowledge is also important. As Kelly Gallagher pointed out multiple times in Readicide, students need a basis of knowledge upon which to draw in order to be good readers or good citizens. While I don’t see that learning all of the dates of the specific battles of the Civil War is necessary now that the information is a click away, a knowledge of the general time period and the general concept surrounding it is necessary to analyze or evaluate further information about it. If we as educators go too far in throwing out learning facts and figures, we will be a nation of the kind of people Jay Leno finds on the streets who don’t even know who George Washington was.
Now that I’m off my soapbox, I will say that this program is sound and helpful. Good arguments are made as to why media literacy is important. These are: 1) the influence of the media is central to our democratic process, 2) there is a high rate of media consumption, 3) the media shapes perception, beliefs, and attitudes, 4) visual communication and information is increasing in importance, 5) there is a need for information and lifelong learning in society.
The company’s website gives further information and links to other articles that have been published about media literacy (along with more promotional material.)
June 23, 2009 at 3:47 pm
You make some good points here…and I agree that purging facts in learning is silly. Probably we’re looking to establish a basis of fact (perhaps in K-5, and then as appropriate through higher-level classes…I can’t imagine a chemistry class that doesn’t deal in facts, for instance) that allows for an education that goes beyond factual recall.