This article focused on a number of issues but I believe that boils down to that multimedia; “paves the way to mastering the skills required for lifelong learning in a constantly changing world” (6). The idea that media and its uses are always changing and evolving is something that we need to conform too. The key is though, how to use it to our advantage. By teaching students how to read images and sounds just like printed communication is one of the key elements to medialit. Also understanding the definition of text is important. Text now is any message form not just printed messages. In doing this we have to be careful though and teach ourselves and our students what makes media legitimate and another a hoax.
In order to teach medialit we have to understand that different people experience the same media message differently. Discovering the many levels of meaning and the many ways a media message can be interpreted is why this education can be so intriguing to kids. Throughout the reading we are given different chart to help with key questions and concepts. By using these as guide we can help students understand and analysis different media and help them understand what they are looking at and looking for. When analysis is combined with creative uses, this allows students to express the learning and it becomes a natural process. This also helps in todays classroom because as teachers we are supposed to teach to different types of learning. By incorporating medialit into the classroom we would be teaching to multiple intelligences.
Another important point the reading made was the idea that media does not influence our culture, it is our culture. With this in mind medialit is about helping students become, “competent, critical and literate in all media forms.” By doing this students can control what and how they interpret media that they come in contact with. As for the classroom it is important to know what medialit is not. As in the article says, “bringing videos, the internet or other mediated content into the classroom is not media literacy.” Understanding that it is how the media is presented and interpreted is what makes it medialit useable in the classroom. Letting students explore, question and analysis media is what is important not necessarily the media itself. As teachers, parents and adults we have to realize that we do not have control over the message of media but we do have control over the meaning we get and extend from the media. Allowing students to participate with media in the classroom, allows them to learn how to become responsible for questioning the content of the media.
Comprehensive post that nicely summarizes the main concepts of these materials…I agree with you (obviously) on its relevance to our jobs as ELA teachers.