Week #2 – Blog Post: Media Literacy

21^st Century media literacy just might be harkening back to the precious days of childhood, when play, discovery, creativity, pretending, and copying others was child’s play. We could ”tinker” and never get stressed out because we had choices and didn’t know any better. We woke up each day with enthusiasm for what we were going to build from the scraps in the deserted lot, rules we would invent for the neighborhood pick up game, or stuff we might find in our dad’s junk filled garage. Those times are celebrated today as “the good old days” but I think maybe we are experiencing a Renaissance of sorts in this new digital age, finally allowing ourselves the luxury to learn again through trial and error. Failure is okay?

We didn’t mind the diversity of the kids on the block back then, instead finding them interesting and valuable to the neighborhood environment. Our independence from our families was nurtured by the collective intelligence of the neighborhood kids and we used them as our network. Our judgment was based on what we learned from each other, judging the reliability or value of information based on the norms of the families we grew up around. Literacy was simply learning to read and write so we could understand.

There is probably a lot that we can learn from our own literacy experiences and the changes that have happened to media in our lifetimes, much of it experienced through what might now be considered old fashioned sources like cinema, best selling books, and music lyrics.

Take a 20^th Century movie like “Stand By Me”, trailer at IMDb, http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3398631705/

Written by Stephen King (novel) and directed by Rob Reiner, this 1986 adventure drama where a writer recounts his coming of age story is typical of how we would experience media, but the story is also about literacy. Set in 1959 (before my time, lol), its content is understood through the screenplay, music and lyrics. The story is not meant to be interactive. The viewer empathizes with the author as he tells his story through his boyish self. Although I am sure I discussed the movie with those around me the first time I saw it, the experience was not an interactive, collaborative one like it might be now. I couldn’t “tweet” about it or make comments on my Facebook about memories that it brought back. I couldn’t instantly share old family photos online with my mom after seeing the movie, or text my son back about a story idea he had after seeing the movie. My experience was static and linear at best and not at all interactive or critical in scope.

Now, the media sources are vastly different and vastly superior. Media literacy serves some of the same, if not higher purposes through its interactive, collaborative qualities but adds an expanded conceptualization. So, why be afraid? Why not embrace? Why judge? Why not encourage? Why not demystify these wondrous new literacy tools as educators and enjoy the Renaissance of childhood discovery once again through a new, improved form of media literacy? Why not allow room for trail and error? Simulation here we come!

In reading an article published this summer online called “Technology as a Fence and a Bridge”, http://www.essentialschools.org/cs/resources/view/ces_res/615 educator Bryan Wehrli reports on teacher’s attitudes towards technology and his observations about media literacy and its new challenges. He acknowledges the points of view of both teachers and students as they struggle with the best educational path for the new digital tools. Wehrli tries to clarify the media literacy issue for us as a problem that can be understood and solved. In his observations I can hear his voice as it might be heard in the “Stand By Me” story of today. Those boys in the movie would totally “get” 21^st Century social networking. They would be instant messaging, texting and tweeting their way through the drama of their lives just like we do now if they had the opportunity. It would be the same story – just better and on MySpace.