21st Century Literacy: What Teachers & Students Need to Succeed

 These new technologies bring about new ways of doing literacy tasks that require new social practices, skills, strategies, dispositions and literacies  New literacies are central to full civic, economic, and personal participation in a world community  New literacies change as relevant technologies change  New literacies are multiple, multimodal and multifaceted

Media Literacy: Critical Skills & Knowledge for the 21st Century “Our students are growing up in a world saturated with media messages…yet they (and their teachers) receive little or no training in the skills of analyzing or re- evaluating these messages, many of which make use of language, moving images, music, sound effects” Source: R. Hobbs, Journal Adult & Adolescent Literacy, February 2004

Media Literacy: Critical Skills & Knowledge for the 21st Century “While more young people have access to the Internet and other media than any generation in history, they do not necessarily possess the ethics, the intellectual skills, or the predisposition to critically analyze and evaluate their relationship with these technologies or the information they encounter. Good hand/eye coordination and the ability to multitask are not substitutes for critical thinking.” Dr. David Considine, media educator

Media literacy empowers people to be both critical thinkers and creative producers of an increasingly wide range of messages using image, language, and sound. It is the skillful application of literacy skills to media and technology messages. As communication technologies transform society, they impact our understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our diverse cultures, making media literacy an essential life skill for the 21st century. Source: Alliance For A Media Literate America, 2000

What is “Media Literate?”  Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self- expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.

Media Literacy: Critical Skills & Knowledge for the 21st Century Media Literacy includes:  Understanding how media works to produce meaning  An awareness of personal media use  Critical thinking applied to media messages  Appreciation of media 

Media Literacy: Critical Skills & Knowledge for the 21st Century  All media are constructions  Media uses unique language with their own set of rules  Media conveys values & points-of-view  Different people see the same media messages differently  Media are about power & profit Source: Center for Media Literacy

Media Literacy: Critical Skills & Knowledge for the 21st Century  Who produced/paid for the message?  What is its purpose?  Who is the “target audience”?  What does the message mean?  Who or what might be left out?  What techniques are used to attract attention and increase believability?

Visual Literacy  The ability to evaluate, apply, or create conceptual visual representations.  

Thinking Critically About Media  Schools should incorporate media literacy education throughout the curriculum, not just in English classes, and at all grade levels.  The new “Common Core” includes this in all curricular areas  Technology, and its use by students to produce their own media, is a key component to media literacy education. Source:

 The impetus of the development of higher order thinkers and critical examiners of media is clear. Our ability to understand what we see, to interpret what we experience, to analyze what we are exposed to, and to evaluate what we conclude against criteria that support critical thinking is a must for survival in the world today.

Thinking Critically About Media  School districts and colleges of education should increase professional-development efforts to reflect the importance of media literacy education.  Increase access to specialists in these areas  Parents should play an important role in media education, too. School districts can encourage their participation by holding workshops for parents and conducting other outreach efforts. Source:

Questions? Comments? Discussion ?

 M. Prensky, (2001). “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” On the Horizon, Vol. 9, No. 5, 2001, pp. 1–6.  A. D. Chandler and J. W. Cortada, Eds., A Nation Transformed by Information: How Information Has Shaped the United States From Colonial Times to the Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).  N. Andersen, “New Media and New Media Literacy: The Horizon Has Become the Landscape—New Media Are Here,” report produced by Cable in the Classroom, 2002, pp. 30–35.  21st Century Workforce Commission, A Nation of Opportunity: Building America’s 21st Century Workforce (Washington, D.C.: National Alliance of Business, 2000), p. 4.  P. Gilster, A Primer on Digital Literacy (Mississauga, Ontario: John Wiley & Sons, 1997).  B. A. Chauvin, “Visual or Media Literacy?” Journal of Visual Literacy, Vol. 23, No. 2, Autumn 2003, pp. 119–129.  A. Bamford, “The Visual Literacy White Paper,” a report commissioned for Adobe Systems Pty Ltd., Australia, 2003, p. 7.  M. McLuhan and Q. Fiore, The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (Corte Madera, Calif.: Gingko Press, 1967).  J. Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1981).