Skip to main content

Thoughts on "Can Media Literacy Increase Digital Engagement in Politics?"

 I found this article to be the most intriguing of this week's reading. Working with middle schoolers, we are always looking for ways to engage them in the political process, especially in the 7th grade when they take Civics. Unfortunately, Civics is a really dense course and they have to tackle an insane amount of content to prepare for the end-of-course exam they take at the conclusion of the year. This is a very high stakes test and factors into their graduation requirements as well as the school's overall grade. 

Due to the stress of prepping for this test, I have noticed many civics teachers going through the motions: delivering content via lecture, notes, and PowerPoint presentations to ensure the students get the info they need. Unfortunately, this makes for less than engaging lessons for the students. I think incorporating lessons based on media literacy could serve as an opportunity to make Civics more engaging overall. I think it would also provide opportunities for enrichment outside of the classroom, which is important for a subject like Civics. 

I think it is also worth noting that subjects like Language Arts and writing based subjects could support this initiative. These skills can be easily supported and translated across subjects. 

Something of note I found in this article was the idea that a "news critic literary approach" can sometimes plant a seed of skepticism, and lead to less sharing in terms of politics overall. The article framed this in a negative light, but personally, I do not feel that it is a bad thing for young people to be skeptical and think critically about the information before they share it on social media. Social media is a place for rampant misinformation spread, and a little skepticism could help to curb this. It is also worth mentioning that just because they are not sharing, that does not mean they are not engaging and participating. Just seeing political articles and politician contributions on social media can encourage them to think critically about these positions. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts on the Education of Digital Natives

  Thoughts on the Education of Digital Natives   As M ay comes to a close, I am finishing my 8 th year as an educator in the public education system. I have worked as an ELA teacher for grades 6-12, taught Creative Writing and Journalism, and am finishing my second year as a media specialist in a middle school. I consider myself to be a digital native- we got our first computer when I was around 7 or 8 years old. However, I do think my experience with technology has been very different from my students because I have lived through the hyper-speed evolution of technology. Computers look very different now from when we got our first fa mily computer in the early 2000s, but the biggest difference is that most of my students do not start their technology journey with a computer, but with a cell phone.   One of the biggest gaps in digital education I see at the secondary level is a lac k of direct instruction on how to use technology effectively. I think that because our ...
2 comments
Read more

Thoughts from Middle Schoolers

  How do middle school students see technology as affecting their education and lives?  This week I decided to sit down and have some conversations with my students before releasing them for the summer. I asked them specifically how they felt technology had influenced their education and social lives. These were some of the responses I got, paraphrased from the general Gen Z vernacular: "I think that technology can be cool, but it can also be repetitive. Some teachers do the same things over and over, which gets old."  'I wish I could only be on my Chromebook all the time. It's more fun than anything else in class."  "I don't want technology to take over my life. I think the 90s were cool, people talked to each other more." "Okay, but I talk to people all the time, just on my phone."  "My chromebook helps me learn, I don't like doing book work because it is boring,"  "I like book work, I can understand it better."  ...
2 comments
Read more

Interactions with Social Media Pre-EME6414

  Interactions with Social Media Pre-EME6414 For my first post, it felt appropriate to think about the ways I already utilize social media. Currently, I have accounts on the following platforms: Instagram (since high school) Facebook (since high school) Threads (for about a year) BeReal (about two years) Snapchat (since high school)  Pinterest (since high school) Reddit (since high school) Logically, I know social media can be used professionally. It is a great way to form larger and more diverse learning communities for a variety of skills. Social media is a huge part of advertising and influencer as a career is at an all-time high. This is even reflected in our other cultural media. For example, the reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives exists because a group of women made a career out of TikTok, referring to it as "MomTok." However, I have very mixed feelings about the use of social media and do not use it to the extent that many people do. For me, doom scrolling o...
2 comments
Read more