Media Literacy and it's Importance.

Writing # 4

I know I have seen at least two of the few people I see in my classrooms, where note-taking on your laptop is permissible, “listening” to the teacher and playing on Myspace or watching you-tube videos. Speaking of you-tube, there was a video posted of a class from Kansas State University where students held up a piece of paper with a few words expressing themselves, and among a couple of these expressive placards were, “I facebook through most of my classes” and “I bring my laptop to class but I’m not working on class stuff.” Professor Michael Wesch of Kansas State University, responsible for the you-tube video, gave a speech on different ways to teach and understanding that with time comes changes and learning to understand the different multiliteracies out there plays a significant part in how the new generations should be educated.
I would like to think I am not alone but when it comes to writing a piece for a class or whether a good story flashes within my head and I want to preserve that thought, it is very challenging for me to transfer information from my brain to a sheet of paper using a pen or pencil (depending on preference at the time) and make sense of it. Typing on a keyboard, allowing me to freely rearrange sentences and locations of paragraphs without arrows and squiggly lines, is a much easier way for me to create a writing. I’ve noticed the quality of the flow and meaning of my words is better when I’ve typed a piece rather than writing it by hand. When Michael Wesch asked his students during one of his lectures, “How many students do not like school?” around half, give or take a few, raised their hands. Following that question was, “How many students do not like learning?” The results yielded zero hands in the air. If we really think about this, since all the students in that class liked to learn but half did not like school, does that mean that half of the students just do not like the environment in which they are learning? Sounds like to me it’s the classroom, not the criteria. That is why some students Myspace, Facebook, You-Tube,… during class.
What is a good way to get the internet junkie to want to do their homework? Put it on the internet, maybe? That is one good point Professor Wesch was trying to make in his video on ’Media Literacy.’ According to the students’ self report, they admitted to only reading, on average, approximately 49% of their assigned readings while finding only about 26% of them seemed relevant to their life. He mentioned how we perceive information on paper as a thing and a thing cannot be in more than one place at a time while Hyper-linking, on the other hand, proves this wrong. Information can not only be in many places at once, it can actually come to us rather than having to be searched for. It is amazing how times have changed and I agree with Professor Wesch when he proclaimed that learning to read the media and understand how it all works is very important, especially with the technology that is already here and soon to come.
Professor Wesch asked, isn’t saying “I’m just not cut our for school” the same thing as saying “I’m just not cut out for learning?” I do not agree with this statement although Professor Michael Wesch does. I do understand that school’s purpose is to teach students and maybe it is not the criteria being taught but how and where it is being taught. The ways in which the criteria is being taught might not work for some students. Some people just cannot learn in a classroom setting where they feel confined by the walls surrounding them. Wesch stated, “To learn is to create significance and meaningful connections.” and some students cannot do this within the walls of a classroom.
Kevin Kelly put it best when he said, “Nobody is as smart as everybody.” and with the use of media (internet) knowledge can be combined to find the most advanced information on any subject (when you can decipher between sources and reliable sources.) Students can also put personality into their work by using visual and audio aid rather than just words. I would have to agree with Professor Wesch that media literacy is becoming more important than ever and it is important for teachers and professors to incorporate media literacy into their methods of teaching.