Monthly Archives: October 2024

The Ongoing Relevance of Media Literacy in a Digital Age

1 Reply

This week our guest speaker was Andrew McLuhan. He brought forward the work of Marshall McLuhan and discussed the 4 laws to media. Understanding the history behind media and how we have come to media literacy or digital citizenship studies helps to see where we may be headed, as well. The 4 laws to media were as follows:

  1. Enhance: enhances some human function.
  2. Obsolesce: obsolesces a previous way of achieving that function.
  3. Reverse: When pushed to the limits, new media will reverse it’s original characteristic.
  4. Retrieve: The new media brings back some features of earlier media.

I think these 4 laws of media are the starting point of a much more complex understanding of media but important to remember when looking at media literacy and what it means to be media literate in today’s world. For instance, when looking deeper at some examples of these 4 laws in a way I could better understand or in a way I could connect better, I found an article that provided some examples when looking at social media:

  • Enhance: online connections and non-local friendships; the image of the user of the social media site.
  • Obsolesce: face-to-face socialization and real life.
  • Retrieve: long distance correspondence; Narcissus and masquerade.
  • Reverses: into social isolation; online virtual life and socializing; fake identities and fake news.

We can see that McLuhan’s work continues to be relevant in today’s society with the rapid growth of technology and media. With that rapid growth comes the importance of teaching media literacy and understanding the media we are seeing.

Image from https://www.niallmcnulty.com/2021/06/why-is-media-literacy-important/

This week’s catalyst content was provided by myself and classmate Kelsey. From both resources provided, we can see the Media Literacy it a broad concept, or an umbrella term, with many pieces to it. From my research, it was apparent that media literacy skills are crucial in today’s world with the ever developing media and technology, spread of misinformation, and our overall lack of critical thinking skills. When looking through resources and various articles, I was trying to find more recent resources. Many I found were from 2020 or earlier, and although the content provided would still be relevant, I felt that media continues to change quickly, and our media literacy skills may be falling behind.

Consistent across most resources found, was the importance and ability to critically think about the media we are consuming. Media literacy educator Renee Hobbs states that there are five inter-related competencies that are now needed to participate in the digital world.

Access refers to technology skills such as keyboard, mouse and interface skills, understanding hyperlinking and digital space and using effective search and find strategies.

Analyze and evaluate refers to the ability to identify the author, purpose and point of view of a message; evaluate credibility and quality; and recognize and resist stereotypes.

Create and Collaborate refers to being able to brainstorm and generate ideas, work collaboratively to create messages using language, image, sound and digital forms like curation and remix, using feedback to edit and revise

Reflect involves examining the impact of media messages and technology tools on our thinking and actions in daily life.

Act refers to engaging in using digital and media in solving problems and at the same time take advantage of global connectivity.

Image from https://www.bathacademy.co.uk/2023/03/03/how-limiting-your-social-media-will-increase-your-productivity-2/

When I reflect on my own media literacy skills – or whether I feel I am a media literate person – I had always felt I was. However, after reading and learning about these various competencies, or even thinking about the questions when consuming media, I unfortunately think I fall into the middle ground. I have always found myself as not a strong critical thinker, and when thinking about media, I am not sure I truly take the time to think about what I am seeing, listening to, reading, etc. As highlighted in my video, there are lots of questions you could ask yourself when consuming media. There are questions geared towards understanding advertisements, news sources, social media content, and the list goes on.

As I know not everyone in the course is a teacher, I am curious about your own reflections:

If you have younger family members or friends, how do you think your media literacy skills can influence them?

 

**Use of ChatGPT: I am terrible at creating a blog title, so I used ChatGPT to help me come up with something! I actually didn’t like the 3 it generated for me and used a mash of them for my title.

 

 

Thank you for engaging in the discussion questions during our zoom (and for your patience with my lack of Zoom knowledge!). Here are the additional questions to reflect on:

Thinking about your media literacy skills when consuming news (our group started discussing this as well so maybe you already did):

Can you describe a time when you encountered information that seemed questionable? What steps did you take to verify its accuracy?

Thinking of your media literate skills from a social media perspective:

How has social media influenced your views on current events? Have you noticed any changes in your critical thinking as a result of your online interactions?

 

 

Digital Citizenship in Schools: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

2 Replies

How can schools integrate digital citizenship into existing curricula without it feeling like an ‘add-on’?

This was the topic presented by classmates Miranda, Jenni, and Allysia this week. Reflecting on my own digital citizenship – or any media instruction – in my current role as a grade 3/4 teacher, I have been guilty of having more “one-off” lessons or units, rather than embedding it throughout the various outcomes. This has become a goal of mine this year, and although I have been able to have a few conversations with my students regarding digital citizenship that has tied into what we are already learning, I have a long ways to go.

Miranda, Jenni and Allysia shared through their videos and the resources provided, that a barrier to teaching digital citizenship is the lack of integrated curriculum, or that teachers feel they need to reinvent the digital citizenship curriculum, however, as explained in the ISTE resource Embed Digital Citizenship in all subject areas, teachers can simply “hack” the outcomes, or integrate it to what we are already teaching.

Speaking of not “reinventing the wheel”, I was aware of resources such as common sense education, however if it was not for this course, I honestly am unsure if I would have dug deep into the various lessons to find those resources. Because digital citizenship is not at the forefront of our divisions strategic plan, as well as the new technology ‘ban’, I am curious if other educators are simply putting digital citizenship on the backburner for now. In order to teach these skills, educators also need to feel comfortable with digital/media skills. Could this be another barrier? Are teachers feeling unprepared to teach the resources? I hope in the future and with the revamping of curriculum outcomes that language around digital use and technology can be more embedded in the curriculum, so that we do not have to “hack” the outcomes, but instead it would be common practice. Maybe wishful thinking?

Thinking of my own practice, I always give myself “baby step” goals each year which usually align with our divisions strategic plan. For instance, Indigenous Content and embedding indigenous ways of teaching, history, and content has been one of our goals. Each year I have slowly been increasing my own experience and adding more into my teaching practice. I feel this will be the same with teaching digital citizenship. As I am becoming more comfortable understanding the various aspects, become more comfortable with resources and scope and sequences such as Ribble’s Digital Citizen Progression Chart, I am finding myself looking for ways to include digital citizenship into our everyday lessons.

Moving forward, I am looking forward to using Common Sense Education, delving into some of our health and ELA outcomes to see where I can incorporate digital citizenship, and supporting colleges with resources as well (I’ve shared quite a few of these resources already – I think they might be getting sick of me!). Thank you to the videos and resources provided, as they show it may be easier than we think to embed digital citizenship into our curriculum, it just means we need to be willing to adjust and take the time to do so.

“Unmasking Myself: Navigating Identity and Authenticity in a Digital World”

1 Reply

Who am I? The concept of identity is challenging enough to wrap our heads around, before taking into account the digital world. Personally, I feel I have spent years trying to truly feel who I am as a person, and I wonder – has the digital world played a role in this journey, without me realizing it?

When thinking about how we approach the concept of identify in a digital world, our classmate Brittany shared the concept of digital identity, as described in the article The Illusion of Self in the Digital Age, that “our identity is becoming, or is already a fractured collective of who we are but also who we are or who we present ourselves to be on all the different platforms.”

To gain a better understanding, I decided to look into other interpretations of what digital identity means. A few other definitions I found was:

  • “A person’s digital identity is an amalgamation of any and all attributes and information available online that can bind a persona to a physical person.” (Forbes.com)
  • “A digital identity is a collection of information about a person that exists online. ” (Onfido.com)

From this, my understanding is that your digital identity begins with what you are sharing about yourself online and what can be found publicly.

Reflecting on my own digital identity: 

Growing up in the age when social media was just forming, I feel as though I have changed my online persona or identity multiple times throughout those years. From my super awkward song lyric slightly-emo high school posts, to my unfortunate images of my college partying days, to my beginning career era where I was overly cautious about what I was posting publicly. In the past, my online presence was primarily Facebook and has slowly expanded over the years.

As Dr. Couros described in our conversation, digital identity was previously explored with the fear tactic of “what you post will affect your job prospects” and this was the experience I have had. When in our small groups discussing Brittany’s questions about whether or not we post conscientiously on social media, I shared about my past experience with posting a funny (to me) meme about math homework (I can’t even remember if now!). I was pulled into the office the next day as someone made a complaint about it. From then on, I have been more cautious of who I have on my social media and what I am posting, however I do feel I have very different online presence depending on the platform. As Khalil Liouane described, with each platform and each mask, it could be shaping us as a whole, or it could simply be showing the different masks we wear. Personally, I think it contributes to me as a whole and that I have just recognized the audience to which each platform is for. 

Listening to the Social Media Ted Talk  provided by Josh had me reflecting about my own fragmented sense of identity, where I would change my online identity to match what may be trending or seen as more acceptable. However, I think as I am getting older, this has definitely slowed down or stopped (I am very NOT on trend with the current slang words, fashion trends, or following ‘popular’ people… is this just a part of getting older? Or have I developed a stronger sense of who I am and not influenced as easily?). There is a sense of belonging that comes with the online identity. I am guilty of feeling as though I know someone, even though I simply follow them on instagram, yet have never met them. On the flip side to that, I am not sure that’s always a negative thing?  

Is it authentic? Is it trending? Is it just to get a “rise” or followers or reach a certain limit? These are a few other thoughts I have when thinking about my own digital identity and how I am influenced by others, created more fragmented sense of identity.

Moving Forward

After reading the article and listening to the Ted Talk provided by Brittany and Josh, it has made me realize that I need to check in with myself on my own digital identity and what I am sharing online. I remember times of thinking “am I posting too often? Should I make a schedule for my posts? Does this sound like ME?” I am recognizing that the concept of identity in a digital world is much more complex with many pieces playing a role. I often find myself taking a “step back” from social media to “find myself” again, which makes me worry for our students who are truly growing up without necessarily having the opportunity to discover who they are first, without the digital world.

My final takeaway:

Just like many aspects of the digital world, I feel the concept of identity is growing and changing, as we see technology grow and change. I do fear children and teens are influenced by what is seen on media and that it is shaping their identity – not always for the best. I wonder how me, as a teacher, especially in the younger years, can help educate students on the reality of social media (not everything you see is true, can be a highlight reel etc.) and how to encourage students to continue being their authentic self.

 

Use of AI: I did use ChatGPT to help me create a catchy title for this blog post. 

Leaving my comfort zone: Giving AI a try.

2 Replies

This will be part 1 of my blogs this week, as I wanted to do a follow up to my previous post.

When first reading about AI and learning more about the various types, I was still quite skeptical and hesitant to really cross over from the fear side. However, since discussing it more as a class, and actually spending some more time discussing it with other colleagues, I think I am slowly leaving my comfort zone and seeing the many possibilities of using AI.

Screen Image from https://loudme.ai/

I was quite intrigued when learning about LoudMe or other song generating AI. This past week I attended a literacy PD for our division, where we were reminded that we need to be including songs, poems, etc. into our literacy instruction when possible. I am not a musically gifted human being aside from singing in my car when no one is around, so LoudMe sounded like a perfect opportunity to see what we could come up with!

Image from Maths With Mum blog https://www.mathswithmum.com/skip-counting-by-3/

To start, I thought about a few concepts I would be covering in the upcoming weeks and decided on generating a song for skip counting by 3’s.

Prompting generative AI takes practice, as I am learning, so I tried a couple different ones. It wouldn’t create a rap song for me, which I think the kids would have thought was fun, but did generate two different pop type songs. I will attempt to link them here if you wish to listen.

Attempt #1

Attempt #2

I was going to try some more prompts but realized this could be a fun activity to actually do WITH my class and choose a song they want to use. We will see how that goes!

  As part of my personal journey into media, I have been learning about and using the app Threads. I’ll share more information from Threads later on, but what I have noticed is the amount of teachers or educators who have been sharing ChatGTP or AI tips and tricks. I have ‘followed’ some and have some of the posts saved to give a try at a future date. I have found my overall perspective shifting this week and would like to continue trying Chat GPT or other generative AI platforms in the future.

Another realization I had this week, is that the school division I work in has created a few AI Professional Development opportunities as well. I was starting to wonder when we would start hearing more about it from the division level in regards to expectations, assessments, or accountability, and it looks like they are starting to provide that information.

We also have our Teachers Convention coming up, where I registered for “AI – Helping Teachers Teach”. I am looking forward to learning more about how it can be beneficial and going to try and go in with an open mind, while letting some of my concerns or fears regarding AI take the back burner for a bit. Don’t get me wrong – they are still there – but I’ll admit I need to extend my knowledge.

Thanks for reading!

Kathleen