Media Literacy is a concept that is becoming more and more visible in classrooms today. Teachers are seeking out ways to incorporate media into the literacy instruction as much as they can. However, the question that still remains is : whether or not this media literacy actually helps? In this blog post, I want you to think about the positives and negatives of media literacy. While it all seem to be perfect, educators want media literacy to actually help students.
Media Literacy provides students with exposure to technology. Some may also argue that it provides fun, innovative instruction to literacy. I have to agree that it does these things. In a world where technology is becoming more and more important, incorporating it into literacy can only prove to be helpful for students. It can help with motivation for literacy because it is a topic that some students struggle getting motivated for.
On the other hand, the problem that arises is that not all students have been exposed to technology needed for media literacy. This essentially means that it takes a lot of time to set up lessons involving media literacy. As educators, we want maximum time for instruction, not preparation. Additionally, students may lack the technology needed for at home reinforcement. We cannot assume that students have access to these technology, so we need to find ways to give students as much time during school to work on media literacy.
With all of thsi being said, do you feel like it helps or is it too much of a burden on educators?
I feel that media literacy needs to be incorporated in the classroom, even though, as you stated, it is usually extremely time consuming. Teachers and students need to work together and communicate with one another to make media literacy effective. Students need to be given time in class to work on media literacy projects and the school libraries need to have the technology available so that students have access to technology tools before and after school.
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