My Project

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Mr. / Girgis

Over the last decade, we have seen media literacy education move into the cultural conversation. Calls for media literacy education reverberate in classrooms everywhere, at education conferences, in policy meetings, and in the local and national news. We have seen astounding growth in practice, research, community-based efforts, and policy. To witness how the media literacy community has grown in number and in force is truly amazing.

However, despite the obvious progress, we find ourselves still struggling to enact media literacy education on a national and global level. While our grassroots efforts are impactful, we are still a long way from a systemic change in education, a change that prioritizes the importance of media literacy skill-building across discipline and age groups.

The most important question of all:

how do we ensure media literacy education is an essential part of our world? How do we as a community level up and make change?

For some, this will look like fine-tuning your teaching practice, for others, it might be sharing your latest research or learning about policy efforts in your state. Each one of us has an important role to play as educators, scholars, and advocates. It is time we come together to discuss and strategize how to scale our efforts and move forward to make media literacy education a priority for all.

Strategies for Exploring Authenticity in Media

Messages:

   I will introduce ideas and best practices educators can use to inspire creative, young storytellers. This includes a deep dive into different types of media - from e-books to augmented reality - and a look at real-world success stories from inside and outside of the classroom.

My teachers learn how to support your students' safety and privacy online so they can get started making media. Understand what online safety and privacy looks like as both a media consumer and media producer. This professional learning series is for anyone who works with young children at home, in a center, or in a school-based learning setting.

Media literacy isn’t just one skill. It’s a collection of skills, including critical thinking, information literacy, technology literacy, and a variety of other 21st Century skills. Essentially, you’re teaching students how to be critical — but critical within reason.

By the time you’re done teaching media literacy, your students should be able to identify harmful fake news and propaganda on sight. When they can, they’ll be much safer from the dangers of an ever-evolving Internet that’s become a spawning ground of misinformation. So how can you actually teach your students this complex concept?

By the end of the course, learners become able to:

1-Explore fake things and give attitudes.

2-Distinguishing between good and fake

advertisements

3-Interact with real situations.

4-Use collaboration , communication and give

opinions.

5-Relate oral words to actual actions.

6-Value their natural, social and cultural

environments.

7-Connecting students to the community and engages them

in the design of collaborative solutions to existing regional

problems.

Evaluating words often requires evaluating numbers too. Say you

come across an article that claims “Students perform better in school

when they get at least eight hours of sleep” and share it on Facebook,

but when you take a closer look at the cited study, you find that it was

only performed at one school, in one class, on six students. It’s crucial

that we learn to judge the math behind the message.

Use info-graphics to illustrate how numbers can trick the mind into

buying the whole message, even if those numbers are skewed. Have

students create infographics and teach them to catch misleading facts

and figures. Then, hold a discussion on how false figures influence our

perception and lead us to believe some messages over others.

5. Understanding Images and the Brain

Visual media has an especially large impact on consumers. This is because there’s a huge part of the brain devoted to visual processing. It’s called the visual cortex, and it affects our attention, motivation, and even our emotions. Students need to understand just how powerful images can be in the media.

Today’s images should be read on at least two levels, says J. Francis Davis, an adult educator and media education specialist: first, the immediate emotional level on which we react in a way that “taps our inner emotions or stories”; second, as products meant to influence us that way. Once you develop a knack for recognizing the latter, you can more easily control whether they influence you or not.

And it’s important to do so. In her book Rise of the Image Culture, Elizabeth Thoman points out that images of perfect people leading perfect lives have “become a substitute for the search for meaning which other generations sought in more expansive and significant ways.” Let’s teach students to think for themselves again.

Have students create “powerful” but misleading messages on posters with mismatched images and text. See how many students believe the text, or buy the visual product, and discuss similar examples they may have seen online, on TV, in print, or on advertisements around town.

06. Developing Multimedia Skills

One important part of being media-savvy in the 21st century is knowing how to use different types of tools, both separately and together. We now have text, audio, video, augmented reality, and 3D printing. We have social media and interactive media.

We have books, newspapers, film, and TV. We have blogs and vlogs. Today’s students need to be well versed in all of these in order to navigate the world ahead.

Considering the rapid pace of 21st century technology, we especially need to prepare students for types of media that don’t exist yet. This means helping them become as comfortable as possible with the kinds of media that currently exist, since future technologies will be built off of them.

With Canva, students can effectively create their own websites with a unique URL. Have them practice putting presentations together and sharing them on social media channels. They can also embed videos and links to other web pages in their presentations.

07. Recognizing Bias

Teach students to recognize which channels might highlight which kinds of facts, emphasize certain kinds of contexts or angles, and use different tones. At the same time, teach them to recognize their own biases, which can influence their perceptions of the media as well. It goes both ways.

Biases can be political as well as personal. In an episode of National Public Radio’s Fresh Air, journalist, fake news expert, and Buzzfeed media editor Chris Silverman reveals that the kind of news which performed best on Facebook during the Clinton-Trump election was fake news that confirmed biases viewers already had.

In other words, if someone posted a false news story smearing Hillary, it would be believed and shared most by viewers who already held negative perceptions of her.

Ask students to evaluate a few sources that exemplify these types of bias, then have them write a report on how to recognize bias in the media. Possible sources might include articles, blog posts, excerpts from books, speeches, podcasts, radio or TV programs, posters, ads and commercials, academic papers, YouTube videos, or short films.

08. Shaping the Media Ourselves

A free, open media is essential to a democratic society. Media education ensures that future generations will be able to think for themselves and not just be shaped by what they see and hear.

In a truly democratic society, people are going to butt heads and disagree, but these differences are honored by a “majority rules” mentality. On some level, this means that if the media is truly representative of the people it serves, then it should highlight the controversy, conflicts, and questions raised by its citizens. In this way, people can and should help shape the media.

For an assignment, have students create an entirely new set of laws around media use in society. Break everyone into groups and have them present their ideas to the rest of the class.

Method key questions:

• Who created this? Was it a company? Was it an individual? (If so, who?) Was it a comedian? Was it an artist? Was it an anonymous source? Why do you think that?

• Why did they make it? Was it to inform you of something that happened in the world (for example, a news story)? Was it to change your mind or behavior (an opinion essay or a how-to)? Was it to make you laugh (a funny meme)? Was it to get you to buy something (an ad)? Why do you think that?

• Who is the message for? Is it for kids? Grown-ups? Girls? Boys? People who share a particular interest? Why do you think that?

• What techniques are being used to make this message credible or believable? Does it have statistics from a reputable source? Does it contain quotes from a subject expert? Does it have an authoritative-sounding voice-over? Is there direct evidence of the assertions its making? Why do you think that?

• What details were left out, and why? Is the information balanced with different views -- or does it present only one side? Do you need more information to fully understand the message? Why do you think that?

• How did the message make you feel? Do you think others might feel the same way? Would everyone feel the same, or would certain people disagree with you? Why do you think that?
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• As kids become more aware of and exposed to news and current events, you can apply media-literacy steps to radio, TV, and online information.

6-Curriculum Course Content

1. Logos

1-Teach students  brand logos with this simple,

discussion-driven exercise.

Asking your students to share logos that pop into their heads, such as Long Live Egypt with the flag colors of Egypt. The next day, print and bring in the logos. Gather the class in a circle, holding each logo up one at a time. Ask open questions as you do so.

“How did you know this logo is "Long Live Egypt ?” “Would you still

recognize it if the colours were green, blue and purple instead of red,

white and black?” “How important is using the same colors?” You can

ask follow-up questions based on answers.

You may be surprised to see which logos resonate most with your

students.

Age: 1st to 3rd Grade

2. Describing Characters

Use visual media — such as a movie or television show — to help

young students learn about character traits.

A lesson you can use in language arts classes, tell each student to pay attention to a particular character before playing the show or movie. After it’s done, pair students who focused on different characters together, Instruct each partner to describe three traits that his or her character demonstrated.

The other partner should ask “why?” if the description was vague, prompting an example that supports the characteristics. For example, if a student says “I think Jenny is smart,” the partner should encourage more detail.

After, the class can work together to thoroughly describe each character.

Age: 2nd to 3rd Grade

3. Building a Cereal Brand

Bring in different cereal boxes to launch an activity that spans

across classes.

It starts by putting students into small groups, giving each its own cereal box. Group members must analyze it, noting attributes such as font size, style and placement as well as elements such as mascot use and facial expression. To smoothen this process, provide a sheet of questions to consider.

This initial exercise opens the door to range of activities. For example, students could watch a commercial for the cereal, analyzing it in a similar way. They could then script their own ad, recording it using school or personal devices.

Student creativity will shine, so don’t be surprised if they ask to make ads in other classes.

Age: 3rd to 5th Grade

4. Dissecting Logos, Part II

Expand the first exercise on this list for older students by analyzing

logos more thoroughly.

A basic homework task launches this activity: Get students to identify and bring up to four pictures of logos to class. Start the lesson by having them identify each other’s logos, starting a discussion about how a company would benefit from being easily-recognizable. You can even ask if they’ve ever bought something just because they knew the logo.

Allow students to find as many logos as they can across the classroom — including on apparel they’re wearing. Then, work to make a chart that visualizes the popularity of the different logos.

Who knew a company’s trademark picture makes for good lesson material?

Age: 3rd to 5th Grade

7-Media Literacy Activities

9-Evaluating Media Literacy Work

Within four areas, create questions based on the key concepts:

1-Media are constructions:

Does the student show an understanding of how the media product was created? (Few media products are made by a single author.

What were the different contributions of different creators to the final product?)

2-Audiences negotiate meaning:

Does the student show an understanding of this concept, and of what

elements in a medium or a particular product would be relevant to it?

Can the student identify the intended audience of a media product,

as well as which other possible audiences might view it differently?

How well does the student identify and analyze the ways that

different audiences might view the media product differently?

3-Media have commercial implications:

Does the student show a knowledge and understanding

of the commercial factors influencing the creation of this

media product?

Does the student show a knowledge and understanding of

how the media product was financed and who owns it?

How well does the student analyze how the content of the media product was influenced either by commercial factors or by who

created and/or owned it?

4-Media have social and political implications:

Does the student show an understanding of this key concept? Does the student show a knowledge and understanding of how this medium communicates ideas and values? (For example, what kinds of characters are present and which kinds are absent? Who is shown in a positive light, and who is shown in a negative light? Who is shown as having control over their lives, and who is not?

How well does the student analyze the significance of the conscious or unconscious, explicit or implicit messages identified in a media product?

10-Learning Outcomes / Competencies:

( Output stage)

Learners achieved:

1-Perfect accessing to the short films, texts or scripts and doing

analysis, evaluation, creation, reflection and acting

2-Gaining Knowledge about advertisements, posters, investing

projects and reliable texts, scripts and commercial short films .

3-Excellent practice for reasoning, analyzing and evaluating.

4-Achieving Reflection, Self-expression, curiosity, share,exploration,

avoiding  commercial fake media either on TV, Radio, internet, printed

books , social media, magazines, posters or commercial banking offers

or the offers of the candidates  during elections.