Chapter+8-+Cathy+Heller+and+Embekka+Thompson

__**Chapter 8: Media Literacy**__ //**"Media Literacy encompasses both anaylsis of media messages as well as creation of media productions." --- Curriculum 21 Essential for a Changing World**// Students can use the computer for a variety of activities including research. This detailed website on the [|tree octopus] can be used to prepare a research project on this exotic animal. If you didn't click the previous link, please do so now.

If you google the words "tree octopus" you will find other websites with various information, which is interesting since there is no such animal known as the tree octopus.

//**"While young people have access to the Internet...they do not possesss the ethics, the intellectual skills, or the predisposition to critically analyze and evaluate their relationship with these technologies or the information they encounter." - Curriculum 21 Essential for a Changing World**//

How are we teaching students to be critical thinkers about media? Do they believe everything that they see and hear? Do they triangulate data? The following link uses other hoax sites to help students analyze web pages: []

While we often teach students how to analyze writing for the author's purpose, media literacy includes analyzing media for the content, advertisements and propaganda used in variety of mediums. Look at any of the following children's links and notice how much advertising is embedded. These advertisements are aimed children or the adults that supervise them. Media literacy should teach students how to look at all media critically.

[|Nickelodeon] [|Disney] [|National Geographic for kids]

//**What are the implications of media literacy in a K-12 environment?**//

There is a new definition for literacy that encompasses learning about all aspects of technology. Many teachers are not prepared to teach “media literacy”. //Many teachers would be considered “illiterate” if they had to incorporate teaching media literacy tomorrow.// There has not been adequate professional development for US teachers in the area of media literacy.

US teachers are not using media tools to connect with their students. This increases the “digital divide//”. If we talk about the importance of building trust with our students we need to tap into their world. This is a way to change the culture of a school for the better.//
 * Media literacy should not be a seperate class but should be incoporated into all subject areas, as early as kindergarten. Teachers should demand media literacy education as a vital componenet of teaching and learning. Schools and districts should offer profesional development training to meet medial literacy requirements related to state standards.**


 * __Critical Thinking Questions for Students to Consider When Evaluating Media Messages__**
 * 1) Who created and paid for the message?
 * 2) Why was it created?
 * 3) Who is the message designed to reach?
 * 4) How does the message get my attention; in what ways are the message credible?
 * 5) How might different people from me understand this message differently?
 * 6) What values, lifestyles, points of view are included or excluded and why? Where can I get more information, different perspectives, or verify the information?
 * 7) What can I do with this information?

The following websites have lesson plans for students in K-12 that incoporate National Educational Technology Standards:

[|Thinkfinity]

[|The Gateway]

[|Cybersmart Curriculum]