UNIT 3: The Way We Teach

Return To: Alyssa Staino Mini-Course | Integrating Digital Media

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Overview

As educators, we have a duty to prepare our students with the opportunities to become effective communicators and critical thinkers for real world application. Using digital media and media literacy strategies together is about equipping our students with the ability to communicate using text, audio, and image, and enabling them to appropriately choose which method is best based on specific criteria. In this unit, we explore the ideas surrounding how we teach compared to what we teach.

Unit Objective: Participant will reflect upon current teaching practices, examine critical skills of student expression and strategies that facilitate learning with digital media.

Reminder
Please open up your Google document, and access UNIT 3: The Way We Teach

Key Terms

Media: form of communication through visuals, language, and/or sound where the producers are not in the same physical space as the receiver(s) of those messages.

Digital Media: audio, video, and photo content that has been encoded

Media Literacy: the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms, and includes capabilities such as comprehension, collaboration, reflection, and social action.

The Nitty Gritty

1. Before beginning this unit, I want you to reflect upon the following: What makes a good teacher, great? How do you relate to this question...based on your definition; do you believe you are a good teacher, or a great teacher?

2. Watch the following video: http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Future-focused-learning/Teaching-for-21st-century-learners and reflect upon the following:

• How has teaching and learning evolved from concrete to abstract thought?

3. Read the pdf article titled “Toward Critical Media Literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy”.
File:Kellner Critical Media Literacy Concepts.pdf

• Describe what resonated with you the most in the article.
• Which Core Concepts do you believe are most relevant to you and your classroom?

4. Choose 2 Core Concepts and suggest how you might teach to them using a digital media platform. Consider how the NAMLE questions could be utilized to challenge your students’ thinking.
File:NAMLE Key Questions to Ask When Analyzing Media Messages (Teachers & Students).pdf

5. Spend a few minutes and explore the International Society for Technology Education Standards: https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

• Identify below which standards you think, you might be able to incorporate into your classroom.

Synthesis

Key ideas to remember…

• Teachers need to be open to the use of technology
• Teachers must explore and learn WITH their students
• Without inquiry in lessons, students will gain an appreciation for concepts, but we need to shift our focus to teaching students to gain insight about HOW the topics affect or are affected by society rather than WHAT the topics are (emphasis on the ‘So What?’