Media Literacy Education for All Students
In the wake of the Covid pandemic and a revamped Alberta curriculum, elementary teachers are using technology and educational platforms as the foundation for learning in the classroom. But are we as an education system recognizing the inequities that have been created by this shift in teaching approach?
Media and technology have become the new foundation of learning and teaching in Alberta. Students no longer use textbooks and library references but rather, online educational platforms and google searches as a basis for their learning. And while our students are prolific users of media and technology, many educators recognize that most of our students lack the skills to critically analyze and vet what they view. Further, many of our students lack even basic skills because of socio-economic, cultural, and geographical differences among our student population.
In Canada, our student population has become much more diverse in recent years. In some households, technology is outdated and in limited supply while in other households, each child has their own new device at their disposal. Some students have parental supervision in the use of technology while other students have no guidance. Some students are taught very specific technological skills as well as digital safety while others have no access and certainly, no conversation around how to use a computer or media safely.
As stated by Renee Hobbs and David Cooper Moore in their book, Discovering Media Literacy: Teaching Digital Media and Popular Culture in Elementary School, "The current approach to the use of digital media and technology in education may inadvertently widen the inequality gap in our society." I believe we are seeing this in our elementary classrooms right now. We have students with a lot of digital and media awareness who can log on and apply their functional literacy to use the computer and internet to complete their work. But we also have other students who need help to log on because they have hardly used a computer before and have no idea how to navigate the internet and other platforms to advance their learning.
In his article, Insisting on Digital Equity: Reframing the Dominant Discourse on Multicultural Education and Technology (2008), Paul G Gorski asks the following questions:
- Who has the easiest, most consistent access to resources (technology, internet access, and educational support)?
- How are educators using technology differently with different populations of students?
I would add a few of my own
Are teachers recognizing the inequities in access to technology and media literacy in their own classrooms? Do they see that some students are not completing their homework because they couldn't use a device at home or the device was not working or they don't have the skills to complete their work this way? By "technologizing" our schools, are we setting these students up for failure?
So how do we address this inequity?
We make it part of our daily, weekly, monthly, yearly practice to teach media literacy skills to all of our students so that they move forward on their educational journey on equal footing with their peers. "Digital literacy should positioned as an entitlement for (all) students". (California Technology Assistance Project, 2008).
Digital and media literacy education is as important, if not more so, as learning to read and write. How do we make it happen in the Alberta Elementary Classroom?
References
Gorski, P. C. (2009). Insisting on Digital Equity: Reframing the Dominant Discourse on Multicultural Education and Technology. Urban Education, 44(3), 348-364. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085908318712
Hobbs, R., & Moore, D. C. (2013). Discovering media literacy: teaching digital media and popular culture in elementary school. Thousand Oaks, California, Corwin, a Sage Company.
Spires, H. A. (2019). Critical perspectives on digital literacies: Creating a path forward. Media and Communication, 7(2), 1-3.