Traditional Media and New Media

When I read the background and rationale of Module 6: New and Traditional Media from Media and Information Literacy the first thing that came to my mind was "out with the old, in with the new". Traditional media has been around forever; newspaper, television and radio have been part of us, our parents and grandparents lives. It has been the way all of us have heard or found out of something important. We have been addicted to one of them at least, and know, in a sudden wink, everything changed. For older generations, it has been a huge challenge to update their knowledge and change their ways from their usual traditional media to new media. Some people decide to stick to the old and easy but others have no choice. For me, it has been a must. As a teacher, new media provides amazing tools to teach children everything, from letters and colors to current world events and social skills. The challenge for me as a teacher,  with this constant change, has been preparing myself, learning how to use and apply new media to my teaching, my daily tasks and over all, my lifestyle. I teach kindergarten so its the best moment for me to introduce to this new generation many skills that will eventually allow them to have the abilities to be global citizens as well as to be information and visual literate people. 

All of this might seem overwhelming, as I have mentioned on each of my posts before, but when done slowly and thoroughly, changes like browsing the web for world news instead of reading a newspaper, feel good. We need to be also aware that we cannot participate in all of mass media changes. We need to understand that not all of what it is produce its intended for us, for the children in our classrooms. We still need to campare and contrast information available to select what we truly need. Not all of the apps available simplify our lives. Not all the information and news out there are true. I believe that sometimes going back to basics its not so bad, but I also know sometimes leaving a comfort zone can take you to incredible places and can help you make the best out of you, so, HELLO NEW!!!

Innovation through Technology

Cheryl Lemkes  21^st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn, chapter 11, Innovation through Technology  has really had an effect on my way of thinking about technology. Even as I began taking several courses on technology, I was still not very convinced on how much should we expose children to social media. I was reluctant to so much change and information, mostly because it was overwhelming to me to digest so much. As I read, it came to me that its true how important it is to prepare children not only to use technology wisely but to understand the importance that it has in their lives and how threatening it can be when not used correctly. Just reading the statistics on pg.. 243, it was mind blowing.
So what is left to teach in schools if everything can be found on the web?? How can you engage children inside the classrooms without losing them to their mobile devices? It has become a mayor challenge due to the rapid pace of technology and it has left teachers wondering what to do to engages students in school. 

I completely agree with Cheryl when she cites Richard Meyer on "people learn better by combining visuals with text and sound". As a kindergarten teacher I get to see how children that are exposed to this in class response much better than just being expose to one practice. As teachers, we need to be careful at this age because children are just like sponges and any misleading information can harm their learning. Its a challenge to lead a healthy learning environment in class and having them understand, at a very early age, the importance of being critical thinkers, able to discriminate useful information from just nonsense. 

Visual Literacy in our lives...

learntecnology.com/blooms-taxonomy-mashups.html

After reading Hattwig et al.s article, ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards For Higher Education , I was not sure if visual literacy was now clear to me or if I was a bit more confuse. To be honest, I have always considered myself visual in many ways. I am good at remembering faces, but sometimes I forget names. I am terrible at remembering songs, but if a see the lyrics its easier for me to learn them. When given an instruction on how to do something, if I see how it is done I can do exactly the same as if the instructions are written or said it is difficult for me to accomplish the task. But is this ability of mine considered being visual literate? Hattwig defines visual literacy as “a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media”, and as I read this definition over and over again it makes me believe that I lack some skills. I know that maybe, as a kindergarten teacher, I try to find many images and visual aids that will help me support a topic I am teaching, but do I do this effectively??? I think not anymore. I believe sometimes, because we are use to having no time for things, we use what we first see and convinces our eye, instead of taking the time to see if the image we have will reproduce the idea we intend to teach.

A few years back, I remember watching a movie called “What the bleep do we know” released on 2004, and it mentions how there is a moment in our lives that we are so saturated with all the information (ads) we see on TV, billboards, flyers, newspapers, magazines and internet, that instead of having a personal point of view of things we have a manipulated opinion, the same as everyone else. This stuck to me all of this years because its true, I sometimes believe in things I see without taking my time to interpret the information or take the time to investigate its purpose.

I believe that almost every individual has been exposed to visual media, in many ways, and it is not how much we see but how it affects our lives, our learning, our behavior and our knowledge. Younger generations are exposed to this in a much greater way than my generation did 30 years ago but I do believe, that born into a digital era, I was definitely taught certain skills in interpreting visual media.

At the ECC, kindergarten teachers constantly expose children to visual media; posters everywhere, pictures and drawings, and now that some schools have integrated mobile devices, this opens a whole new world of possibilities. Our role as teachers is not to expose them to even more media but to teach them how to develop skills that will help them interpret the information, to use it correctly and also to be able to create their own. Lets not forget that visual literacy "is a collaborative endeavor, involving faculty, librarians, visual resources professionals, and learning technologies."

Is a common curriculum possible in any country?

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Yong Zhaos chapter , The Wrong Bet, Why Common Curriculum Standars Won't Help from his book "World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Learners" tells us how there is two educational systems in the world. One where the government is in charge of deciding what students should be learning and another where there is no control of what students are learning mostly because that education is decided by the state or even the school.  Every child is different as every country is different. I understand the importance to set common standards because it is important for all children to be prepared for a competitive world but world wide standards are impossible when its almost impossible to set them in a same country, even the same city. We need to respect students styles of learning, the way they process information and the environment where they are growing up in. Government needs to understand that education in not only teaching math and spelling and maybe science. Educating a child is teaching them skills that will help them solve problems, be critical thinkers and also global citizens. Every child that we teach will develop a style, a need and a belief of what the world is and how they want to form part of it.

Working for an international school in Mexico City has also taught me the importance of giving children tools to enhance their learning experience. Unfortunately in Mexico, education, good education, costs, and even if Mexico has common curriculum standards for primary years in school (Secretaria de Educacion Publica), not every child has the opportunity to go to school and learn. In Mexico, most children will grow, abandon school, find a job that pays them little and live day by day.

As for me, the challenge I face in my class is to teach my children to be global citizens. To be humble enough to help others. To teach them values that will help them be prepared for a competitive world.