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Teachers offer expertise about understanding the world. However, today’s students often bring into the classroom powerfully different experience in using media and technology. As an educator, you compete with popular media for kids’ attention and your lessons compete with well-funded campaigns to sell products, images, ideas, and lifestyles. You can take back their attention and use your classroom to help students develop the skills they need to approach media as smart and critical consumers. You might want to begin by reading Understanding Media. Studies suggest that average American kids spend over six hours a day tuned into media, more time than they spend in school. As a teacher, you can help your students become media literate by empowering them to understand and critique media messages, including those designed to exploit them. Teaching young people to apply critical thinking skills, something that you already foster in your students, represents a necessary tool for them to protect themselves from negative effects of popular media. The founders of America created the public education system because they believed that democracy required literate citizens. In the U.S. today, we obtain over 90% of our information from non-print sources for which we lack literacy training. Once kids understand how media work, they can not only read (deconstruct) but also write (create) non-print media. Encouraging them to create their own media messages can give them a deeper understanding of the unique properties of different media. When young people learn to control media messages, they reduce their risk of media messages controlling them. Many opportunities exist for integrating media literacy lessons into your curriculum. Advertisements reach all children, regardless of their age. For young children, you might bring in a photo of popular product and discuss the ways that advertisers make it look better and different. Older children bring more sophisticated understanding about popular media and you can discuss examples of stereotypes from magazines or television programs. Children do not like being manipulated, and showing them how media try to make them think a certain way can effectively motivate them to become more media literate. As an educator, you also recognize the opportunities for using media to enhance learning. Media serve as powerful teachers - use them as resources. You can count on children and adolescents feeling very strongly about media, and they often become very motivated learners about a topic of such great interest to them. Media may offer positive benefits in education, but they may also come with risks (link to 2.1.3). Educational media can help customize learning experiences for students. For example, visual learners may find that computer learning enhances their ability to retain information, and students who prefer a non-linear learning approach may benefit from the Internet with its links and interactivity. However, electronic media may also contribute to attention problems and other learning difficulties. Effective teachers must stay as informed as possible about both the risks and benefits of media. Create age-appropriate exercises that get students thinking about and using media in critical ways. CMCH now offers a one hour body image presentation to communities in Massachusetts! See the brochure for Mastering Media Messages: Health Bodies, Positive Minds
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 Cell Phones  "Lazy kids watch TV": Children's perceptions of media and non-media activities |
