Capstone (EDT 520)

Description

In this full-day workshop, teachers will have the opportunity to explore how media and information literacy may be integrated across the curriculum and enhance existing learning activities. Teachers will develop a stronger understanding of the needs and definitions of media and information literacy and practice the analysis and application of decoding frameworks. By the end of this workshop, teachers will have specific resources and strategies for integrating media and information literacy into their curriculum and have the opportunity to develop a plan and receive feedback from colleagues.

Context

Topic	Media Literacy
Audience	Classroom teachers of any subject and grade level.
Need	Comprehensive, integrated instruction in digital skills and media and information literacy across grade levels and content areas. Read more >>
Guiding Question	How might we integrate digital, media and information literacy skills necessary to be clear and effective communicators and self-directed and lifelong learners across the curriculum?
ISTE Standards	2.3.b Evaluate Resources for Credibility: Establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of online resources, and fosters digital literacy and media fluency.
Goals	By the end of this course, participants will be able to: Define media and information literacy. Apply frameworks for decoding media messages. Develop strategies for integrating media literacy into selected content areas.

Resources

Media & Information Literacy subject guide >>

Content Area Resources

View content area resources >>

Recommended Supplemental Reading

• Visual Intelligence: Perception, Image, and Manipulation in Visual Communication by Ann Marie Barry (State University of New York Press, 1997)
• Educating Media Literacy: The Need for Critical Media Literacy in Teacher Education by Allison T. Butler (Brill, 2019)
• The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture by Randy Duncan and Matthew J. Smith (Continuum, 2009)
• What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
• The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education by Nolan Higdon (University of California Press, 2020)
• United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And What We Can Do About It) by Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff (City Lights Books, 2019)
• Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson (Riverhead Books, 2014)
• Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud (Harper Perennial, 1993)
• Believing Is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography by Errol Morris (Penguin, 2014)

Digital Citizenship

For this session, we will focus on Digital Communication and Digital Literacy. The sets of skills associated with digital communication and digital literacy complement media and information literacy very well. For my Digital Citizenship handout, I have defined Digital Communication according to Mike Ribble, “the electronic exchange of information,” and I am framing this as multimodal communication. Digital Literacy has a few more components, and I have again used Ribble’s definition of Digital Literacy as “process of understanding technology and its use.” In order to illustrate Digital Literacy as a set of processes and skills, I have drawn from the Principles of Digital Media Literacy infographic from MediaSmarts.ca and a short “listicle” that outlined the kinds of Digital Literacy skills that are valuable in the workforce. My hope is that these frameworks will allow participants to have a more contextual and concrete understanding of Digital Communication and Digital Literacy as they relate to Media and Information Literacy.

Session Design and Delivery

This session has been designed as a full day “summit,” inspired by a similar professional learning event organized by a colleague of mine around the topic of social and emotional learning. Teachers will be invited to register in advance, and before the session, participants will be asked to complete a “pre-assessment” survey. The session aims to ensure that participants are fully engaged in their learning, collaborating with colleagues, and by the end of the day, participants will leave with specific ideas, resources, and strategies for integrating media and information literacy into their teaching.

In teaching teachers, I have a few core principles I aim to adhere to:

Practical Application: The learning should be immediately and easily applicable to teachers’ classroom practice. I have designed this session to include resources that have been used across grade levels and specific connections to different subject areas to ensure that participants can find a learning path relevant to their practice.

Collaboration: Learning with and from colleagues enriches both the learning experience and the products. This session is designed to encourage conversation and collaboration. Ideally our instructional coaches and librarians would also attend to support their colleagues.

Grown-Ups Don’t Like Being Lectured Either: There are occasions for direct instruction and sharing information, but for meaningful, engaged learning, learners need to have a sense of ownership and responsibility for their learning. This session will include some direct instruction, but the bulk of the time will be dedicated to discussion and collaborative work.

Instructional Map

Guiding Question

ISTE Standards for Learners

2.3.b Evaluate Resources for Credibility: Establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of online resources, and fosters digital literacy and media fluency.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Define media and information literacy.
• Apply frameworks for decoding media messages.
• Develop strategies for integrating media literacy into selected content area.

Learning Outline

Time	Learning Outcomes	Activities
9 to 9:15 a.m.		Welcome & introduction Seven Norms for Collaborative Work
9:15 to 10 a.m.	Apply frameworks for decoding media messages.	Brainstorm: Brainstorm: What is “media”? Brainstorm: What are our learning goals for students? Direct Instruction: Needs and definitions
10 to 10:30 a.m.	Apply frameworks for decoding media messages.	Group Discussion: Frameworks and Codes & Conventions
10:30 to 11 a.m.	Apply frameworks for decoding media messages.	Independent Practice: Frameworks and Codes & Conventions
11 to 11:45 a.m.	Develop strategies for integrating media literacy into selected content area.	Group Discussion: Multiliteracies
11:45 to 12	Develop strategies for integrating media literacy into selected content area.	Brainstorm: Content area ideas & break-out groups
12 to 12:30	Lunch
12:30 to 1 p.m.	Develop strategies for integrating media literacy into selected content area.	Small Group Work: Participants will break into content-alike groups (determined before lunch) to discuss, share ideas, and brainstorm strategies and learning activities.
1 to 2 p.m.	Develop strategies for integrating media literacy into selected content area.	Independent Work with Support: Participants will have time to develop and plan learning activities to integrate media and information literacy into their teaching. Instructional coaches and librarians will be available for support.
2 to 2:30 p.m.	Develop strategies for integrating media literacy into selected content area.	Feedback: Participants will rotate and view each other’s plans and provide suggested resources, ideas, and other productive feedback.
2:30 to 3 p.m.	All	Share learning and next steps.
3 to 3:30 p.m.	All	Session evaluation Appreciation Wrap up and close

Lesson Materials

• Pre-Assessment Survey (Form)
• Media & Information Literacy Quick Reference (Handout)
• Recommended Reading (Handout)
• Media Literacy: Needs & Definitions (Slides)
• Codes & Conventions (Slides)
• Digital Citizenship (Handout)
• Media Literacy by Content Area (Website)
• Exit Ticket (Form)

Assessment

Assessment for this workshop will be designed to evaluate both the session itself and assess learning of participants. Participants will be asked to complete a simple exit ticket evaluating the session and asking participants to share what they learned and next steps. Participants will also be asked to share their learning, work, and next steps near the end of the session.

Bibliography

• Aldunate, N., Villena-González, M., Rojas-Thomas, F., López, V., & Bosman, C. A. (2018). Mood Detection in Ambiguous Messages: The Interaction Between Text and Emoticons. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 423. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00423
• Arceneaux, N. (2014). Small, Cheap, and Out Of Control: Reflections on the Transistor Radio. In G. Goggin & L. Hjorth (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media (0 ed., pp. 582–592). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203434833
• Barry, A. M. (1997). Visual intelligence: perception, image, and manipulation in visual communication. State University of New York Press.
• Bellows, L., & Moore, R. (2013). Nutrition Misinformation: How to Identify Fraud and Misleading Claims - 9.350. Colorado State University. https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/nutrition-misinformation-how-to-identify-fraud-and-misleading-claims-9-350/
• Bogost, I. (2010). Persuasive games: the expressive power of videogames (1. MIT Press paperback ed). MIT Press.
• Butler, A. (2020). Educating media literacy: the need for critical media literacy in teacher education. Brill Sense.
• Chart of key concepts. (n.d.). TKI Te Kete Ipurangi. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from https://media-studies.tki.org.nz/Teaching-media-studies/Media-concepts/Chart-of-key-concepts
• CML’s Five Key Questions and Core Concepts (Q/Tips) for Consumers and Producers. (2009). Center for Media Literacy. https://www.medialit.org/sites/default/files/QTIPS%20CHART_0.pdf
• Cope, B., Kalantzis, M., & New London Group (Eds.). (2000). Multiliteracies: literacy learning and the design of social futures. Routledge.
• Digital Literacy. (n.d.). ALA Literacy Clearinghouse. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from https://literacy.ala.org/digital-literacy/
• Digital Media Literacy Core Competencies. (n.d.). MediaSmarts. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from https://mediasmarts.ca/
• Five Laws of Media and Information Literacy. (2023, November 17). UNESCO. https://www.unesco.org/en/media-information-literacy/five-laws
• Flavin, B. (2021, September 20). What Is Digital Literacy? 5 Skills That Will Serve You Well. Rasmussen University. https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/college-life/what-is-digital-literacy/
• Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy (Rev. and updated ed). Palgrave Macmillan.
• Higdon, N., & Huff, M. (2019). United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And What We Can Do About It). City Lights.
• Hull, G. A., & Nelson, M. E. (2005). Locating the Semiotic Power of Multimodality. Written Communication, 22(2), 224–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088304274170
• Infographic: Finding Reliable Healthcare Information Online. (n.d.). Right at Home. Retrieved November 29, 2023, from https://www.rightathome.net/blog/finding-reliable-healthcare-information-online
• Information Literacy. (n.d.). ALA Literacy Clearinghouse. Retrieved November 29, 2023, from https://literacy.ala.org/information-literacy/
• Johnson, S. (2006). Everything bad is good for you: how today’s popular culture is actually making us smarter (1st Riverhead trade pbk. ed). Riverhead Books.
• Jurgenson, N. (2019). The Social Photo: On Photography and Social Media. Verso.
• Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (n.d.). Visual Overview: Multiliteracies in Infographics. New Learning Online. Retrieved November 27, 2023, from https://newlearningonline.com/multiliteracies/visual-overview
• Lévy, P. (1998). Becoming virtual: reality in the Digital Age. Plenum Trade.
• Lister, M., Dovey, J., Giddings, S., Grant, I., & Kelly, K. (2008). New Media: A Critical Introduction (0 ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203884829
• MacKenzie, A. H. (2020). Scientific Media Literacy. The Science Teacher, 87(5). https://www.nsta.org/science-teacher/science-teacher-january-2020/scientific-media-literacy
• McCloud, S. (2017). Understanding comics (Reprint). William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers.
• McCulloch, G. (2018, July 14). Emoji Are Gesture. EmojiCon BK 2018, Brooklyn, NY.
• McCulloch, G., & Gawne, L. (2018). Emoji Grammar as Beat Gestures. In S. Wijeratne (Ed.), International Workshop on Emoji Understanding and Applications in Social Media. CEUR-WS.org.
• McLuhan, M., & Fiore, Q. (1967). The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. Gingko Press.
• Media Education in English Language Arts. (2022, April 9). National Council of Teachers of English. https://ncte.org/statement/media_education/
• Media Literacy. (2022, June). National Council for the Social Studies. https://www.socialstudies.org/position-statements/media-literacy
• Media Literacy: A Definition and More. (n.d.). Center for Media Literacy. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from https://www.medialit.org/media-literacy-definition-and-more
• Media Literacy Defined. (n.d.). NAMLE. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from https://namle.net/resources/media-literacy-defined/
• MIL as Composite Concept. (2017). United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://webarchive.unesco.org/web/20181201005618/http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/media-development/media-literacy/mil-as-composite-concept/
• Mitchell, W. J. T., & Hansen, M. B. N. (Eds.). (2010). Critical terms for media studies. The University of Chicago Press.
• Morris, E. (2014). Believing is seeing: observations on the mysteries of photography (Paperback ed.). Penguin Books.
• Ribble, M. (n.d.). Nine Elements: Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship. Digital Citizenship. Retrieved November 27, 2023, from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html
• Shifman, L. (2014). Memes in digital culture. The MIT Press.
• The New London Group. (1996). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–93. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u
• Van Dijck, J. (2013). The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199970773.001.0001
• What is Digital Citizenship? (n.d.). MediaSmarts. Retrieved November 27, 2023, from https://mediasmarts.ca/
• Wiggins, B. E. (2020). The discursive power of memes in digital culture: ideology, semiotics, and intertextuality. Routledge.

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