Week 8~ Are you Hip to This?

This article describes some of the issues with teaching media literacy in schools. It begins by demonstrating examples of how some teachers have tried to integrate media literacy into their classrooms. The different grade levels were able to pick out different ideas that were important to the commercials. These ideas were different for everyone involved thus showing the complexity of media literacy. I found one of the most interesting thoughts within the article had nothing to do with the way media literacy is used in the classroom but instead, how it is intended to be used and not carried through that way. “It's not surprising that in an educational environment which values product over process, media production classes (in both print and video) become playgrounds for creative grownups who make all the really important decisions about the construction of the school newspaper or class video project, then set young people on the task of finishing the scut work.” This quote demonstrates how sometimes teachers have control issues when it comes to creativity. Media is a creative process from the very beginning and students should be encouraged to tap into their own creativity to make the finished product. A rubric or guideline is a must for media projects that outline the do’s and don’ts for each project. Being a teacher I can see how it is hard to “let go” and “let them be” but if we want to see a project from our students we must relax and let them do the project. I could not find a quote per say that would back up my theory to let the students experiment and be creative but I found the youthmediaproject.org site that provides an entire website to showcase student/ youth work. This website is entirely donated to the presentation of student work, written by students and produced by the students.