Seeing is Believing, right?
“Seeing isn’t believing, believing is seeing”- Elf Judy from The Santa Clause. In today’s society we live in a digital media world, where information can be found in less than a second. The adolescents in this generation see so much information through innovative technologies and social platforms that they are having this influx of information that they are taking at face value. Hence, teens should be critically using digital media, not only to expand their knowledge and social circles, but to be investigating all this information and becoming more self-aware of their views of the world.
By growing up in this age of digital media, students already know and/or learn quickly how to navigate or around existing and/or new digital media technologies. Thus, we don’t need to prepare our students for the physical skills of living in a digital media world, we need to have them be able to evaluate, and use the information found, critically, to then turn it into knowledge. “This means asking questions about the sources of that information, the interests of its producers, and the ways in which it represents the world, and understanding how technological developments and possibilities are related to broader social and economic forces”(Buckingham, 2007, pg. 46). Students need to understand that there isn’t just one side to every story, and not everything that is being said on social media and online is not necessarily true. Allan Luke Luke talks a bit more about this concept in the video below(0–2min).
Expanding on his ideas, as teachers we know that our students will be learning a lot of information. However, not all that information comes from our classes and resources we give them. Students do their own research and have their own online presence, but understanding that investigating all this information is needed in order to really know what is going on today or what has gone on in the past.
A way for students to investigate sources and articles can be by putting posters put in class and using them as a reference when talking about research and different text being used in class.
Having posters and activities that are put into the curriculum, will help students be able to learn some strategies on how and why to investigate the information that they come across. Plus, “Through engaging with and critically exploring texts from multiple perspectives, readers are challenged to move beyond the literary text…”(Wilhelm, Appleman, Beach, and others, 2011, pg. 87). Students are able to learn so much more when they go beyond just what the text says. However, not all students do this or know how to do it. This is why having adolescents investigate sources and authors to question why those people are telling that information that way it is to help create the foundation that they need in order to be critically literate and have the ability to use digital media.
Thus by instilling our students with the ability to be critically literate, not only in school or work, but in their everyday lives, students should be able to take this information and internalize it in order to become more self-aware about their views of the world as well. Much of the information we see is because we want to see it. David Wallace gave a commencement speech about just that. He mentions that we all see ourselves as the center of the universe and so the world that we are experiencing is all about ourselves(Wallace, 2013, Video) Which means no matter how self-centered that may seem, we take all that information that is surrounding us everyday and choose to see how it affects us, rather than think about the other people in the situation. As Wallace said, “Be free of the lens of self”(Wallace, 2013, video). As society grows and continues to rely on social media and other online sources, our students need to realize that they constantly see all this information and judge it based on how they see the world and what that information means. Hopefully, by having our students be more socially conscious through tasks like investigating sources and bias in the classroom as well as being investigating all types of information that is presented, we will help a generation come to realize world doesn’t revolve around their point of view.
Outside Sources:
Luke, A. (2015, March 31). Allen Luke — Critical Literacy. Retrieved October 19, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnWdARykdcw
Common Sense Education. (2018, September 27). Classroom Posters. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/posters
Wilhelm, J., Beach, R., Appleman, D., Fecho, B., & Simon, R. (2011). Teaching literature to adolescents. Routledge.
Course Resources:
J. (2013, May 19). This Is Water — Full version-David Foster Wallace Commencement Speech. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=8CrOL-ydFMI
Buckingham, D. “Digital Media Literacies: rethinking media education in the age of the Internet” Research in Comparative and International Education. 2:1. 2007.
