Real or Fake… you choose

A study was done by Stanford about how students do not know how to find credible sources stating “over 30 percent of students argued that the fake account was more trustworthy because of some key graphic elements that it included” (Donald 2016). Showing that being able to critically think about digital media is very important for students and how they consider something credible. Digital media is an important tool for students to use to learn how to critically think. This helps students come to their own conclusions and become in control of their learning. I believe that adolescents should critically use digital media to learn what is true and false from investigating digital media. I also believe that thinking critically and being literate overlap and need one another to be critical literate, which is the basis for critically using digital media. In math education, I believe that math students should also use digital media to help with the critically way we think of math in the classroom and see how they are similar. Overall, I think that how we use digital media to think critically stems from the meaning of critical literacy.

Critical literacy in my definition is to look beyond the basis of the text or media and be able to ask questions and analyze further. The image below displays the meaning of critical literacy and helps fully understand the importance.

In the readings from class, it displays critical literacy as four different components, including; representation, language, production, and audience.

The representation component states that, “this means addressing questions about authority, reliability, and bias, and it also necessarily invokes broader questions about whose voices are heard and whose viewpoints are represented” (Buckingham, p.48). Meaning that when students are looking at digital media, they must critically look at what bias they see and who is speaking and who is unheard. The language component is not just using language; it is being able to know how the language an article title is working to get a different meaning from how the grammar is. Then, production which the reading states, “In the context of digital media, young people need to be aware of the growing importance of commercial influences — particularly as these are often invisible to the user” (Buckingham, p.48). This is important when the students’ need to see if a source is reliable for a project. Lastly, the audience, this meaning how you read something as a reader or knowing how digital media targets audiences and they respond. Looking for these four categories is how you can be fully critically literate.

The main point to get from critical literacy is that it is not a topic to be learned, it should be a way of learning for students and how they look at different issues within the assignments they receive.

The graph above is a way that math students can think critically while using digital media. The graph is talking about Bush tax cuts and using a bar graph to picture the data. In the first bar that is title NOW, it is 35% and the second bar is 39.6%. This is misleading because most student will think that the second bar is larger than the first bar, but the difference is only 4.6%. This is why it is important for students to be able to think critically and figure out their own interpretation of the data.

In the speech on This is Water by David Foster Wallace, the main focus was blind certainties. One of the main point that he said the caught my attention was “We choose to look differently at the world” (Wallace 2013). I think this embodies the purpose of critically thinking through digital media because it shows how we as individuals look at different situations critically.

This ted talk really helps fully understand how adolescents should critically use digital media. It also helps explain how critical thinking through media is how you find the untold stories and that media can be decoded.

To finish up I found this quote that really helps think about critical literacy and digital media and how as teachers we can help our students learn how to critically think on their own and reach an education that is powerful and meaningful. “Critical literacy is about imagining thoughtful ways of thinking about reconstructing and redesigning texts, images, and practices to convey different and more socially just and equitable messages and ways of being that have real-life effects and real-world impact” (Vasquez 2017)

Resources:

In-class sources-

Buckingham, D. (2007). Digital Media Literacies: Rethinking Media Education in the Age of the Internet. Research in Comparative and International Education,2(1), 43–55.

J. (2013, May 19). This Is Water — Full version-David Foster Wallace Commencement Speech. Retrieved October 16, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI

Other sources-

Donald, B. (2016, December 15). Stanford researchers find students have trouble judging the credibility of information online. Retrieved October 16, 2018, from https://ed.stanford.edu/news/stanford-researchers-find-students-have-trouble-judging-credibility-information-online

G. (2013, August 18). Critical Literacy. Retrieved October 16, 2018, from https://georgialoone.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/critical-literacy/

S. (2014, January 24). Misleading Graphs: Real Life Examples. Retrieved from https://www.statisticshowto.datasciencecentral.com/misleading-graphs/

T. (2013, February 19). Creating critical thinkers through media literacy: Andrea Quijada at TEDxABQED. Retrieved October 16, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHAApvHZ6XE

Vasquez, V. M. (2018, September 18). Critical Literacy. Retrieved October 16, 2018, from http://education.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-20