Double Journal Entry #5 Article: Teaching Media Literacy

Quote:

“Advocates of digital media education agree that reading online demands different skills than reading print-only texts does. They differ, however, on the extent to which training in the new literacies should go beyond procedural learning—how to use search engines, read URLs, identify Web site publishers, and so on—to include more cognitively demanding tasks that teach sound critical judgment and sense making.”

David, J. (2009, 03). Teaching media literacy. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Teaching-Media-Literacy.aspx

Response: 

After reading the article, “Teaching Media Literacy” (David, 2009), I agree with the writer that online literacy and media literacy are indeed two different things.  Media Literacy involves reading and analyzing printed texts such as; books, newspapers, and journals.  Online literacy involves reading the same information in an online format.  As a non-traditional student returning to school, it has been difficult at times for me to verify the validity of a source that I want to use in a paper.  I know how to search online and find the topic of interest that I need to write about, but I don’t know how to determine if it is a reputable source.  I submitted a paper last week and I did not realize that I could not use Encyclopedia Brittanica as a reliable source.  I haven’t had any instructions on how to decode online media and determine what is appropriate or not appropriate to use.  I feel that many people including teachers from the “older” generation are intimidated on how to instruct on online media literacy when they feel that their students know more about technology than they do.  As future instructors, we must embrace technology and learn everything that we can so that we will be of a greater benefit to our students.