Media education almost always results in more enthusiasm for learning because it gives students more control over their information searches and their ways of demonstrating what they ve learned. Learning today isn t just listening, reading and writing. It s gathering information from a variety of sources and presenting findings using a variety of media. Children love demonstrating what they ve learned using electronically produced newsletters or posters, Web sites, video productions or multimedia presentations. Our neighboring elementary school has third-graders locating, interpreting and applying information on the Internet that they then present to their classmates.
Children often know more about technology than their parents or teachers.
What they need to learn is how to interpret media messages. For example, they need to learn that media aren t a window on the world, but that media messages are carefully crafted representations of reality that contain underlying ideologies and values. They should know that the media are businesses and that their first consideration is ratings and revenue. They should understand that no matter how skilled the creators of media messages are, it s the individual in the audience who determines the meaning of the message and has the power to accept or reject it. Fran Trampiets teaches graduate courses in media education at the University of Dayton's School of Education.