Digital & Media Literacy:
Connecting Classroom and Community
Renee Hobbs
MEDIA LITERACY FOR ELEMENTARYSCHOOL TEACHERS (ML4T)University of Zagreb, CroatiaMay 11, 2015
Harrington School of Communication and Media University of Rhode Island USA
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Questions for Today
What is media literacy and why is it important?
How is media literacy relevant to the elementary curriculum?
What does media literacy look like in the classroom?
What do students actually learn when they learn media
literacy?
How can teachers play a role in advancing media literacy?
Stakeholders in Digital & Media Literacy
MED
IA &
TECH
A
CTIV
IST
GO
VER
NM
ENT
LIBR
AR
Y
EDU
CA
TION
CR
EATIV
E
LOVE HATE
PRINT VISUAL SOUND DIGITAL
What is your own love-hate relationship with media, technology and popular culture?
expanding the concept of text
What forms of media texts did you use before coming to this program today?
Rhetoric
Print Literacy
Visual Literacy
Information Literacy
Media Literacy
Computer Literacy
Critical Literacy
News Literacy
Digital Literacy
Historical Context
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Communication & Education. Institutions of education, communication
practices & democratic values are interconnected.
Inquiry Learning. People learn best from experiences that are carefully
supported or scaffolded to meet the needs of the learner.
Critical Pedagogy. Awareness, analysis, and reflection enable people to
take action to make society more just and equitable.
Medium Theory. Media & technology are immersive cultural
environments; media structures re-shape human perception & values.
Active Audience Theory. Audiences are active; meaning-making is
variable; lived experience & social context are key dimensions of
interpretation.
Theoretical Framework
Media Literacy is a Lifelong Process
What media content do you use now that you did not use when you were growing up? What media content did you use long ago that is not so important to you now?
ACCESS
Keyboard and mouse skills Be familiar with hardware, storage and file
management practices Understand hyperlinking & digital space
Gain competence with software applications Use social media, mobile, peripheral & cloud
computing tools
Identify information needs Use effective search and find strategies Troubleshoot and problem-solve Learn how to learn
Listening skillsReading comprehension
Defining Digital & Media Literacy Competencies
Analyze &
Evaluate
Understand how symbols work: the concept of representation
Identify the author, genre, purpose and point of view of a message
Compare and contrast sources
Evaluate credibility and qualityUnderstand one’s own biases
and world view Recognize power relationships that shape
how information and ideas circulate in culture
Understand the economic context of information and entertainment production
Examine the political and social ramifications of inequalities in information flows
Defining Digital & Media Literacy Competencies
Create &
Collaborate
Recognize the need for communication and self-expression
Identify your own purpose, target audience, medium & genre
Brainstorm and generate ideas Compose creatively Play and interact Edit and revise Use appropriate distribution, promotion &
marketing channels Receive audience feedback
Work collaborativelyComment, curate and remix
Defining Digital & Media Literacy Competencies
Reflect
Recognize how entertainment media communicate values & ideology
Understand how differences in values and life experience shape people’s media use and message interpretation
Appreciate risks and potential harms of digital media
Apply ethical judgment and social responsibility to communication situations
Understand how concepts of ‘private’ and ‘public’ are reshaped by digital media
Appreciate and respect legal rights and responsibilities (copyright, intellectual freedom, etc)
Defining Digital & Media Literacy Competencies
Take Action
Acknowledge the power of communication to maintain the status quo or change the world
Participate in communities of shared interest to advance an issue
Be a change agent in the family & workplace
Participate in democratic self-governance
Speak up when you encounter injustice
Respect the law and work to change unjust laws
Use the power of communication and information to make a difference in the world
Defining Digital & Media Literacy Competencies
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When students can access, the power of choice activates intellectual
curiosity
When students can analyze, they have critical autonomy – control over
their interpretations
When students compose media, the discover the power of collaboration
as a key dimension of human creativity
When students reflect, they consider the impact of their communication
on themselves and others and develop a sense of social responsibility
When students act, they use of the power of information and
communication to make a difference in the world
Learning Outcomes
Media literacy educators are passionate about its
transformative value and research is demonstrating its effectiveness
Teacher Leadership is at the Heart of Media Literacy Education
• Book Clubs• Tech Tuesday Sessions• Teachers Teaching Teachers• After-School & Summer
Programs• Graduate Programs• Curriculum Development • Participatory Action Research • Sharing and Discussion of
Student Work• Advocacy and community
building • University-school partnerships
How Do How Attitudes towards News Media, Media Literacy and Video Production
Contribute to Adolescent Civic Engagement?
Inspires leadership & entrepreneurial thinking
Res
earc
h E
vid
ence
AUTHORSHIP
Creative sillsCollaboration skills
Technical skills
MEDIA ANALYSIS SKILLS
Comprehension
Identify Purpose
RecognizePoint of View
ATTITUDES
Giving & Receiving Feedback
Intellectual Curiosity
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Sign an online petition
Express an opinion to news
media
Blog about an issue
Write an opinion letter
QUALITY OF MEDIA CHOICES
Increases civic engagement
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Conclusion
Media literacy is a response to the contemporary cultural
environment
Media literacy enables people to be lifelong learners
Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy
Media literacy educators use a wide variety of instructional
practices to advance five core competencies
Media literacy educators are passionate about its
transformative value and research is demonstrating its
effectiveness
Martens, H. & Hobbs, R. (2015, April). How media literacy supports civic engagement in a digital age. Atlantic Journal of Communication 23(2), 120 – 137. DOI:10.1080/15456870.2014.96163
Hobbs, R., He, H. & RobbGreico, M. (2014) Seeing, Believing and Learning to be Skeptical: Supporting Language Learning through Advertising Analysis Activities. TESOL Journal.
Hobbs, R., Donnelly, K., Friesem, J. & Moen, M. (2013). Learning to engage: How positive attitudes about the news, media literacy and video production contribute to adolescent civic engagement. Educational Media International 50(4), 231 – 246.
Hobbs, R. (2013). Improvization and strategic risk taking in informal learning with digital media literacy. Learning, Media and Technology, 38(2), 182-197.
Hobbs, R., Yoon, J., Al-Humaidan, R., Ebrahimi, A. & Cabral, N. (2011). Online digital media in elementary school. Journal of Middle East Media 7(1), 1 – 23.
Hobbs, R., Ebrahimi, A., Cabral, N., Yoon, J., & Al-Humaidan, R. (2011). Field-based teacher education in elementary media literacy as a means to promote global understanding. Action for Teacher Education 33, 144 – 156.
Hobbs, R., Cohn-Geltner, H. & Landis, J. (2011). Views on the news: Media literacy empowerment competencies in the elementary grades. In C. Von Feilitzen, U. Carlsson & C. Bucht (Eds.). New questions, new insights, new approaches. The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media. NORDICOM. University of Gothenburg, Sweden (pp. 43 – 56).
Hobbs, R., Cohn-Geltner, H. & Landis, J. (2011). Views on the news: Media literacy empowerment competencies in the elementary grades. In C. Von Feilitzen, U. Carlsson & C. Bucht (Eds.). New questions, new insights, new approaches. The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media. NORDICOM. University of Gothenburg, Sweden (pp. 43 – 56).
Hobbs, R. and RobbGrieco, M. (2010). Passive dupes, code breakers, or savvy users: Theorizing media literacy education in English language arts. In D. Lapp and D. Fisher (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts. Third edition. New York: Routledge (pp. 283 – 289).
www.mediaeducationlab.com
Renee Hobbs
Professor of Communication Studies
Director, Media Education Lab
Harrington School of Communication and Media
University of Rhode Island USA
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @reneehobbs
WEB: www.mediaeducationlab.com