Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

The New Curricula: Propelling The Growth Of Media Literacy Education, Tessa Jolls

Journal of Media Literacy Education

As new online and cellular technologies advance, the implications for the traditional textbook model of curricular instruction are profound. The ability to construct, share, collaborate on and publish new instructional materials marks the beginning of a global revolution in curricula development. Research-based media literacy frameworks can be applied to all subjects, and they enable teachers to have confidence that, in employing the frameworks to address academic subjects, themes or projects, students will gain content knowledge. Teaching through media literacy education strategies provides the opportunity to make media literacy central to teaching and learning, since media literacy process skills enable students …

Collaboration, Pedagogy, And Media: Short-Term Summer Program Emphasizes Project Based And Social-Emotional Learning., William R. Bowden

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article purports the idea that summer programs that experiment with media literacy and social-emotional learning could potentially affect students’ academic performance. Based on a six-week program, working with rising eighth grade students in a low-income school district, this program allowed students to work on media projects while trying to develop stronger capacities of self-awareness, positive decision-making, and stronger relationship development. The article intends to offer practitioners in media studies and pedagogy, insight of how to implement social and emotional learning into media classrooms.

Book Review: Amazing Ourselves To Death: Neil Postman’S Brave New World Revisited, Lance E. Mason

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Children, Film And Literacy, Yonty Friesem

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Digital Youth Network: Cultivating Digital Media Citizenship In Urban Communities, Patrick Johnson

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Media Literacy In Teacher Education: A Good Fit Across The Curriculum, Jessica Meehan, Brandi Ray, Sunny Wells, Amanda Walker, Gretchen Schwarz

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Abstract

Current preoccupations in teacher education reform include data gathering, teaching technique, and preparing PK-12 students for standardized tests. The purpose of American education has been reduced to economic benefit. Concerns with ethical behavior, the good life, and democratic citizenship have fallen by the wayside except perhaps in a single social foundations course. Media literacy education infused in the teacher education curriculum offers one way to restore purpose to teacher education, encouraging both pre-service teachers and their students to think critically about their media-dominated society.

Media, Culture, And Education: One Teacher’S Journey Through The Mediated Intersections, Crystal L. Beach

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Today’s classrooms often have a plethora of new ways of reading and writing entering the room, but too often these new ways of “doing” are disregarded and checked at the door. For this reason, one educator shares her journey through the mediated intersections of media, culture, and education. In this piece, she explores how literacy transformations are impacting her classroom and her students’ lives, how she tries to make connections for her students, as well as noting what these mediated intersections might mean for the future of education.

The Role Of Collaboration And Feedback In Advancing Student Learning In Media Literacy And Video Production, Carl M. Casinghino

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Educators can learn many lessons as they implement collaborative project strategies, manage appropriate feedback, and measure communicative skill development in the media literacy classroom. This article examines case studies and learning outcomes in a high school digital production classroom taught by a veteran media literacy educator.

Critical Media Literacy And Gender: Teaching Middle School Students About Gender Stereotypes And Occupations, Laurel Puchner, Linda Markowitz, Mark Hedley

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study examined the effectiveness of the implementation of a small-scale critical media literacy curriculum unit focused on gender stereotypes, especially as they pertain to occupations. The research question was whether students exposed to the critical media literacy (CML) curriculum were more likely than students not exposed to believe: that women experience discrimination in the workplace; that the media constructs stereotypical messages about women and men, especially regarding occupations; and that the media influences people’s thinking. Participants were students in 5 seventh grade classes, who were exposed to a 4-workshop curriculum, and students in 5 eighth grades classes, who were …

The Learning Landscape: An Assessment Of State Science Standards And Application In A Uri Outreach Center Youth Education Program, Sarah A. Robinson

Senior Honors Projects

Rhode Island state education standards provide educators with curriculum guidance and achievement goals for each grade level. In this case study, I examined the RI state standards and expectations for science education. I undertook this investigation in support of the URI Outreach Center and their elementary education program, Learning Landscape Field Trips. Learning Landscape provides Rhode Island teachers with an opportunity to meet state science standards through the medium of hands-on environmental education programs. Through my investigation, I became fluent in the Learning Landscape curriculum, teaching in more than 20 two-hour sessions. As well, I became familiar with the current …

The Major Dilemma, Erin Bohan

Senior Honors Projects

The variety of academic majors offered by universities seems to become more eclectic each year. From public relations to environmental economics to 3D graphics, the coursework and journeys taken by students across the country are exceptionally diverse. The University of Rhode Island offers over 100 majors, making it undeniable that some disciplines are disparate. My project calls attention to similarities in an area where the focus is customarily on the contrary. Before students were categorized, they all faced the same question – “What should my major be?”

At an age where we search for ways to identify ourselves, we often …

Experts As Teachers: Can We Abate The Disconnect Between Expert And Student?, Bailey Mallon

Senior Honors Projects

Studies have found that experts often fail as good teachers, mainly because there is a lack of communication within their specific area (Feldon, 2007). Experts may routinely underestimate how difficult a task can be for a newcomer (Hinds, 1999) and even when attempting to make a task easier, they omit information a novice would find valuable (Hinds, Patterson, & Pfeffer, 2001) because they unintentionally assume that non-experts are aware of and possess knowledge that only those already familiar in the field might have, and would thus know what they are talking about. Furthermore, there are factors controllable by the professor, …

Digital Media Literacy In A Sports, Popular Culture, And Literature Course, Carolyn Fortuna

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Abstract: This article considers how media sports culture is an apt space for digital media literacy instruction. Describing a senior year high school English course that requires students to deconstruct and compose with sports media texts, the author outlines how learning modules, analysis of curated collections of texts through heuristics, and mentor texts help students achieve higher literacy levels. The author argues that sports media literacy, due to its authenticity and relevance, can be a model for traditional literacy classrooms as ways to infuse multimodal texts and help students to gain both enhanced communication skills and critical distance from media …

Connecting, Creating, And Composing: A Shared Multimodal Journey, Margaret B. Krause

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Given the dynamic nature of our society, literacy conceptualizations are constantly being redefined. While print literacy continues to be the primary literacy within elementary classroom, the growing nature of technological capabilities, social networking, and multimodal affordances require educators to delve into explorations of how children can be successful in negotiating meaning in our world. As an elementary educator, university instructor, and mother of three children, the author explores personal views of literacy through a shared multimodal journal experience with her children. This article highlights the experiences of her son through the journaling process and how he selects material for a …

Developing Media Literacy: Managing Fear And Moving Beyond, Katherine G. Fry

Journal of Media Literacy Education

One way to view the development of the media literacy movement is through the various different ways in which strains of media literacy education have been called on to allay fears that accompanying new media technologies. This article focuses on how one media literacy organization,The LAMP, deals with two very different arenas —the internet safety arena and the news literacy arena--where fear of digital media has created narrow pockets of concern seeking narrow solutions. As media literacy grows and develops the hope is that these fears subside, a perception of separateness dissolves, and a broader media literacy vision advances.

Puppets On A String? How Young Adolescents Explore Gender And Health In Advertising, Deborah L. Begoray, Elizabeth M. Banister, Joan Wharf Higgins, Robin Wilmot

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article presents qualitative research on young adolescents’ abilities in communicating and evaluating health messages in advertising especially how they understand and create gendered identities. A group of grade 6-8 students learned about media techniques and movie making. In groups divided by gender, they created iMovie advertisements for health activities in their school. They represented themselves in these advertisements by creating stick puppets. Observations during lessons, examination of movies and puppets, and interviews with students and their teacher revealed that young adolescents were neither completely manipulated by media nor were they completely in charge of their responses to media’s messages …

Dusty But Mighty: Using Radio In The Critical Media Literacy Classroom, Miglena S. Todorova

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In a culture dominated by images, what is the capacity of radio-making to enact the ideals and meet the objectives of critical medial literacy education that empowers learners and expands democracy? This article conceptualizes a radio-based critical media literacy approach drawing upon a course project called “Borderless Radio,” where fifty-two students in a large urban Canadian university produced short radio programs narrating how they view and experience “multiculturalism.” Radio making in the classroom is soundscaping that politicizes intimacy, disrupts hegemonic discourses, and allows for teaching and learning to transgress; yet it also illuminates the ways in which self-positionality poses limitations …

Measuring News Media Literacy, Adam Maksl, Seth Ashley, Stephanie Craft

Journal of Media Literacy Education

News media literacy refers to the knowledge and motivations needed to identify and engage with journalism. This study measured levels of news media literacy among 500 teenagers using a new scale measure based on Potter’s model of media literacy and adapted to news media specifically. The adapted model posits that news media literate individuals think deeply about media experiences, believe they are in control of media’s influence, and have high levels of basic knowledge about media content, industries and effects. Based on measures developed to assess news media literacy, highly news literate teens were found to be more intrinsically motivated …

Guiding Digital And Media Literacy Development In Arab Curricula Through Understanding Media Uses Of Arab Youth, Jad P. Melki

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The role of new media in the Arab uprisings and the news of widespread surveillance of digital and mobile media have triggered a renewed interest in Arab audiences research, particularly as it pertains to these audiences’ critical abilities and digital media literacy competencies. Taken for granted have been Arab youth’s widespread use of social media for activism and political expression and their suspicion of government monitoring and privacy threats. This study questions these assumptions and attempts to provide a more accurate picture of Arab youth’s media uses, with the goal of informing the development of digital and media literacy curricula …

Review Of “The Teacher’S Guide To Media Literacy: Critical Thinking In A Multimedia World” By Cyndy Scheibe And Faith Rogow, Julie Smith

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article reviews “The Teacher’s Guide to Media Literacy: Critical Thinking in a Multimedia World” by Cyndy Scheibe and Faith Rogow

The Hyperreality Of Daniel Boorstin, Stephanie L. Viens

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Early media theorists can help us to link the past and present of media literacy to pose new questions and gain new knowledge. Historian, author and Librarian on Congress Daniel Boorstin (1914 – 2004) played an important role in increasing public awareness of the constructed nature of media representations. Connections are explored between constructed reality, technological advances, media literacy education, and the current work of media scholar Douglas Rushkoff on presentist society. Daniel Boorstin helped recognize the changing nature of knowledge in an image-saturated environment and influenced a new generation of theorists, scholars and educators who have advanced the …

Federal Agency Efforts To Advance Media Literacy In Substance Abuse Prevention, Alan M. Levitt, Robert W. Denniston

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article describes and reflects upon efforts to generate greater support for media literacy and critical thinking within the strategies and programs of the Federal government, primarily in agencies with an interest in youth substance abuse prevention. Additionally, some of the inherent challenges and obstacles that impacted the ability to expand these efforts are discussed.

The Core Concepts: Fundamental To Media Literacy Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow, Tessa Jolls, Carolyn Wilson

Journal of Media Literacy Education

“New media” does not change the essence of what media literacy is, nor does it affect its ongoing importance in society. Len Masterman, a UK-based professor, published his ground-breaking books in the 1980’s and laid the foundation for media literacy to be taught to elementary and secondary students in a systematic way that is consistent, replicable, measurable and scalable on a global basis – and thus, timeless. Masterman’s key insight was that the central unifying concept of media education is that of representation: media are symbolic sign systems that must be decoded. This paper explores the development and the application …

Teaching About Propaganda: An Examination Of The Historical Roots Of Media Literacy, Renee Hobbs, Sandra Mcgee

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Contemporary propaganda is ubiquitous in our culture today as public relations and marketing efforts have become core dimensions of the contemporary communication system, affecting all forms of personal, social and public expression. To examine the origins of teaching and learning about propaganda, we examine some instructional materials produced in the 1930s by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), which popularized an early form of media literacy that promoted critical analysis in responding to propaganda in mass communication, including in radio, film and newspapers. They developed study guides and distributed them widely, popularizing concepts from classical rhetoric and expressing them in …

Media Now: A Historical Review Of A Media Literacy Curriculum, Yonty Friesem, Diane Quaglia Beltran, Ed Crane

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The Elizabeth Thoman Archive at the Harrington School of Communication and Media, University of Rhode Island, has the last complete kit of one of the milestones in the early chronology of media literacy, the 1972 Media Now curriculum. This curriculum was the first of its kind, using self-contained lesson modules that were part of a larger series of kits, text references, and accompanying workbook. Its self-directed learning model gave students the opportunity to learn about the media, by doing, responding to, and reflecting on core concepts of media production. Using physical artifacts from the Media Now kit, historical documents, promotional …

Cinekyd: Exploring The Origins Of Youth Media Production, Renee Hobbs, David Cooper Moore

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Media Literacy History, Sarah Bordac

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Why is it important for us to consider the history of media literacy? Beyond forging connections of the past to the present, exploring the history of the field can deepen intellectual curiosity and understanding for those who work in media literacy education, ignite interest in others, and drive investigation into understanding the relationships of the facets and fundamentals of media literacy from past to present and into the future. The theme of leadership emerges from questions such as: How do people build programs? How does information get disseminated? What were the challenges? Who were the learners? Who were the teachers? …

Why History Matters For Media Literacy Education, Michael Robbgrieco

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The ways people have publicly discussed and written about media literacy in the past have great bearing on how citizens, educators and learners are able to think about and practice their own media literacy. Our concepts of media literacy have evolved over time in response to changing contexts of media studies and educational discourses as well as changes in communication technologies, media industries, politics, and popular culture. My research on the history of Media&Values magazine 1977-1993, made possible by the Elizabeth Thoman Media Literacy Archive, illustrates how tracing developments of media literacy concepts over time can give us much needed …

Creating Critical Viewers, Renee Cherow-O'Leary

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This essay is a personal reflection on the implementation of Creating Critical Viewers, a national media literacy program sponsored by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), an industry association, in 1995. The television industry’s decision to develop a media literacy curriculum in the 1990s was a powerful statement by certain broadcasters to take seriously the ethical and social questions being raised about the impact of their work and to learn how to address those questions through education.

Review: The Media Ecosystem: What Ecology Can Teach Us About Responsible Media Practice, Ju-Pong Lin

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.