Information is easily attainable for everyone these days. No longer does one need to wait for the newspaper to be delivered to read about “yesterday’s news.” Nor do we need to wait for the morning and evening news channels to provide breaking news, weather and traffic reports, or global news. People can now receive this information online, from anywhere at any time. We can instantly watch the news as it is happening and be alerted or notified if something of interest has been posted.
A similar thing is happening with the resources used for education. No longer is it necessary to physically go to the library and search for books to use for a research report. Learners are now turning to the many avenues of information available through the Web. Information on the Web can be found through online blogs, Wikipedia, new articles, scholarly journals, informal and formal reports, videos, images, electronic books, etc. In terms of media literacy, the internet and its resources for many become the central library of information that is now available. However, unlike a traditional library, it does not come easily organized due to the limitless access it offers and the open source, creative production of media content that has allowed “fake news” and sites that use cookies or search trend algorithms as ways to lure the users into misguided or potential misinformation as discussed in the articles by Danah Boyd and Carole Cadwalladr. Even more so we are finding that the Web does not just provide one with access to endless information, but it provides them with various functional tools and services that are altering the learning experience more often in the informal settings outside of school. In effect, this has changed the interest and engagement in the classroom for students that are being raised in today’s high-tech world.
In Domonoske’s article, Students Have ‘Dismaying’ Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds, several studies have shown the growing concerns of media literacy in students. Students failed to evaluate credible sources, real versus fake news, and even ads versus articles. Adapting media literacy to today’s ever-growing tech world will require basic structures in education that help control content that can be posed as a risk, but also requires educators to be open to teach methods that help learners properly evaluate and navigate the real versus the fake or biased. We cannot completely restrict the resources that the students have access to if we want them as well as the educators to be able to explore and understand how to link information together.
To this point, in David Buckingham’s article, Media education goes digital: an introduction, he states, “There will be a continuing need for media educators to insist on some fundamental, well-established critical principles. Yet we cannot afford simply to carry on business as usual.” It in part becomes a matter of understanding how to use the internet through terminology and understanding, to then how to piece together information that is found. We cannot just expect a student to know how to use the internet and the many resources that we ask them to use to complete assignments. One way to help influence this could be to bring forward issues that articles such as Carole Cadwalladr and Camila Domonoske discuss with Googles Search algorithms and students’ inabilities to understand and determine fake news and media. By bringing this forward to the classroom, we are admitting to the reality of what we need to change together as educators and students. Educators could then provide a structure around how-to’s that explain deepening and advancing the searches through browsers and search engines, investigating and locating textual evidence across multiple sites, linking content origination to reliable sources, avoiding potentially risky sites, and copyright versus creative license. This can help create learning environments that allow for safe searching and collaboration to occur. Collaboration could also occur in the form of a class discussion board around specific topics that are being discussed and even through web technologies that offer gamification into the learning experience. The learners can share their findings and discover what others have found or experienced. Instructions and guides should also be provided with any introduction of a new application that allows users a footprint of what they can expect.
I think it is important to have an understanding of terminology, rights of use (copyright, privacy, etc.), and basics for any application or resource. This includes how to search on the Web. While access to the internet has greatly improved, there are still inequalities in the experience’s students have outside of school that make it difficult for some to effectively explore and know what risks may be out there in terms of credible resources. As discussed in David Buckingham’s article, “we need to equip students to understand and to critique these media: we cannot regard them simply as neutral means of delivering information, and we should not use them in a merely functional or instrumental way.” We cannot simply just hand them resources and allow them to assume everything they find is credible. Additionally, Buckingham’s article discusses that it does not just become about learning “how to operate the hardware or software.” We need to go further.
In my own professional context, I am typically the one that is providing the guides and instructions on the uses of new tools and applications for business use. With this, I provide introductions on how to navigate through the tools for information that is relevant for each user. I often explain the basics and show simple ways to link information across systems to help users. Often times a user that is left on their own does not realize the time they can save. This is why I do find instruction and guides important in media literacy. What I also enjoy is the creative license that comes with exploring. While we can be “guided,” we should also be able to explore. We often improve on our tools through feedback, lessons learned, and self-exploration. This type of collaboration allows the creators and users to work together to enhance the tools used. I think this could potentially be taken to the classroom as a way to look to the future of integrating the Web and technology into the classrooms for the benefit of the teachers and the students. It could also be another step taken to improve upon digital media literacy in education.