Being media literate can open up a whole new world to students–nothing proved that more so than this piece on medialit.org. It was insightful, offered useful suggestions, lesson plans, and teaching tips, and most importantly, reinforced the importance of a collaborative learning environment rather than simply keeping the classroom a one way street. Students are active participants in their Internet explorations, so incorporating that into their learning experiences can really help them fixate on things that interest them and can be translated into the curriculum.

There was one quote (among many) that really struck me: “Students must learn how to find what they need to know when they need to know it.” By helping and encouraging our students to become media literate, we are handing them the tools they will need to find and/or discern accurate information quickly. This new system of education is really one of the only ways that we can keep up with our students, learning-wise. They have the capacity to learn so much more and so much faster by depending on the Web that continuing to use our old system would honestly just be foolish of us. Every single day, our society gets “saturated by media,” and being able to sort through it and decipher the messages is a really important skill. By helping our students become truly media literate, we’re making them saavier and smarter for life. Adults that grew up in a not so media driven environment may disagree with all of this, but they are going to have to un-learn and re-learn how to read in order to keep up with what is driving our society and interprete the multitude of messages that are being flung at us and our students hourly.

Media literacy is going to be a huge part of our classrooms and our lives. I’m glad that I have reference to this article because it really gives some great insight into classroom approaches.