Technology Integration: A Lesson in Media Literacy

What follows is a rough outline for a lesson entitled "Media Literacy and Alcohol Advertising," intended for Grade 6-8 Social Studies students.

In class, students are shown, via LCD projector, examples of alcohol advertisements. White (2004) offers a good selection of video advertisements online, while Sells & Gonzalez (2002) have provided a fair selection of applicable print advertisements. (Of course, the teacher must first screen the advertisements to ensure that they are appropriate for the students to view.) The teacher then leads a class discussion centering around the ads and commercials, with a focus on the following questions: What are alcohol companies trying to accomplish and why? What techniques are they using to accomplish their goals? Who are they targeting with their advertisements? Why might their methods be effective (or ineffective)? Following the discussion, students must use computers (either at home or at school) to access The Target is You!: Alcohol Advertising Quiz (Media Awareness Network, 2007) and complete the quiz online. Finally, they must post, on the class blog or discussion board, a minimum 100-word response to the videos, the discussion, and the quiz, including mention of at least one thing they learned during the quiz.


This is, as noted, a Social Studies lesson, and it is designed to develop the requisite Communication Skills (particularly Media Literacy), as defined in the Alberta Education Social Studies Program of Studies. More specifically, it is geared towards the following Skills and Processes, as outlined in the aforementioned Program of Studies: detection of bias on issues presented in the media (6.S.9, 7.S.9); examination of techniques used to enhance the authority and authenticity of media messages (7.S.9, 8.S.9); examination of the values, lifestyles, and points of view represented in a media message (7.S.9; 8.S.9).

At the same time, the lesson provides students with an opportunity to meet the following ICT Outcomes: access and retrieve appropriate information from the internet by using a specific search path or from given URLs (C.1.2.1); discuss how technology can be used to create special effects and/or to manipulate intent through the use of images and sound (F.4.2.3); understand the nature of various media and how they are consciously used to influence an audience (F.4.3.2); identify specific techniques used by the media to elicit particular responses from an audience (F.4.3.3); recognize that the ability of technology to manipulate images and sound can alter the meaning of a communication (F.4.3.4).

This is a fairly modest application of technology. Standard technology (in this case, an LCD projector connected to an internet-enabled computer) allows the teacher to share with his or her class a number of different media messages, both in video and print formats. This provides students with an opportunity to subject media messages to serious scrutiny in an open class discussion. Without the integration of this simple technology, such a discussion would not be possible (or, at the very least, it would be much less focused). The online quiz is simply an interesting and engaging way (complete with upbeat music and sharp graphics) of presenting a wealth of information about alcohol advertisements to the students, with a specific focus on Canadian youth. The blog (or discussion board) posts provide students with an opportunity to extend their discussion beyond the classroom, or at least an opportunity to read and consider their classmates’ thoughts on the subject. This further sharpens their critical thinking skills, without consuming any more class time.

References

Media Awareness Network (2007). The target is you!: Alcohol advertising quiz. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/alcohol_quiz/.

White, A. M. (2004). College drinking. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://www.duke.edu/~amwhite/College/college6.htm.

Sells, P., and Gonzalez, S. (2002). The language of advertising. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/advertisements/alcohol%20ads/index.htm.

Technology Integration: The Good, the Bad, and the Obstacles

This post is in part a response to Feldman, Coulter, and Konold's (2001) article entitled "Linking Technology, Learning, and School Change" (Learning & Leading with Technology 28(4), 42-47. Retrieved September 17, 2007, from http://neirtec.terc.edu/template/resources/pdf/LTLSC.pdf). To briefly summarize, the article details the process by which one (fictitious) teacher successfully integrates technology into his classroom in a way that enhances his students' learning.


First, it is worth noting that the article presents a very convincing case for technology integration as a means of expanding and deepening the learning that takes place in classrooms. In particular, the authors draw attention to the ability of technology to appeal to visual learners (e.g., with maps and graphs). It is quite evident that this advantage of technology integration can be applied to a wide variety of subjects, including science (as in the authors' case study), mathematics, and social studies. For instance, students may have an easier time understanding the details of the fur trade if they have access to interactive and/or animated maps detailing major transportation routes and First Nations' territorial boundaries. This would be one way of--pardon the cliché--"bringing history to life" for those students best suited to visual learning. Thus, it would serve as an example of good technology integration.

Of course, technology integration is a double-edged sword, and readily lends itself to misuse. Consider the example given in the aforementioned article, wherein a teacher is looking to expand his students' understanding of ecology beyond the schoolyard. He could have attempted to make connections between their schoolyard's ecology and that of the African Savannah (for example), by showing them videos of lions, elephants, and giraffes. While interesting, such videos, particularly in the absence of the teacher's carefully-chosen commentaries, probably would have done little to expand the students' understanding of ecology. Thus, this would not be good technology integration.

Finally, successful technology integration is not quite as simple as Feldman et al. (2001), and my response to them, have made it out to be. There are numerous obstacles to be overcome before technology can enhance student learning, perhaps the most important of which is school or school district support. The fictitious teacher in the article was able to integrate technology into his teaching in large part because of the support structure put in place by his school. In reality, due to a lack of funding, a lack of progressive thinking, or some other factor, these support structures are not always present. And even the most creative teacher will find it difficult to integrate technology when he or she has access to little more than a decades-old VCR and an overhead projector.

The Potential of Educational Blogging

Now that I have created a blog and posted an entry (see Introduction, below), I am considering the extent to which a tech-savvy teacher might use blogging in an educational capacity. Blogging certainly has some positive potential for classroom application (using the term "classroom" rather loosely, of course), but I find myself viewing it with some skepticism. It seems to me that blogging comes with a multitude of risks, and I fear that it might have an adverse impact on the social element of schooling.

With respect to the risks, I fear that the privacy issues associated with blogging my be too senstive to be placed in the hands of young people. They may lack the maturity or capacity to fully understand the intricacies of freedom of expression, and the potential for breaches of privacy in the public domain is considerable. Indeed, I, a cautious individual by nature, had a difficult time writing my previous blog entry without including personal information that might identify myself or others. For the sake of brevity, I will not elaborate further on this point.

Another concern I have is one related to sociability. While I understand that online interaction is itself a form of sociability, I think that increased student-student or student-teacher interaction via blogging will come at the expense of face-to-face interaction. That is, students uncomfortable with face-to-face social interaction may choose to participate in class discussions and projects online instead of in the classroom. This, in turn, will stunt the development of those students' social and communication skills, which remain important even in our technology-friendly world.

Of course, I could be wrong about all of this, or the benefits of educational blogging may simply outweigh these potential costs (or there may be ways of avoiding these problems altogether, such as security measures for privacy protection). For the time being, however, I am approaching the subject of blogging with some reservation.

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my (very first) blog! Here I will be discussing, and experimenting with, technology in the context of teaching and learning. But first, it might be prudent to say a few things about myself, by way of introduction. If you already know me, then by all means, skip this entry; if you do not already know me, then I am pleased to make your acquaintance.

My name is Grant B., and I am a prospective Social Studies teacher. I recently graduated from University with Bachelor's Degrees in History and Philosophy. Aside from my interest in history and teaching, I enjoy sports and music. When it comes to sports, my favorite one is hockey, and my favorite team is the Edmonton Oilers. As for music, I am a big fan of rock (e.g., Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, Rush, etc.), and I used to play the drums from time to time. As I mentioned, though, those things are not what I am truly passionate about; my passion--or my mission, as I like to think of it--is to teach young people about the world in which we live, with the hope that these young people can help improve our world in some measure.

So there. Now you know me. If you are so inclined, I would like to hear a thing or two about you (or you can just post a link to your own blog, I suppose)...