It is learning that speaks to the social contexts of literacy and encourages a range of discourse. It holds the promise of an expansive, diverse, and efficient education. Media education is intended as a strategy to accommodate a world marked by both the challenges and the promise of technology. In her expanded view of literacy, Tyner sees librarians as the natural partners of teachers in the integration of technology into the classroom. Although they have traditionally focused more on the dissemination of information, they are beginning to also explore ways to facilitate the creation of information by students.
Librarians are teachers first.
Like their colleagues in the classroom, they understand that the power of information cannot be fully tapped without a human interface. However, to create those future lifelong learners requires a similar concept of media education for college students as well. But I am cautious about promoting my graduate school over another because the issue is not yet settled and media education in the U.S., as Tyner's book illustrates, moves in fits and starts. According to Elizabeth Thoman, founder and president of the Center for Media Literacy, media education has reached only about five percent of U.S. classrooms, but even that is an improvement when you stop to consider that ten years ago the phrase media literacy drew only blank stares. Tyner's book will give media education and media literacy a powerful push into the 21 st century.