Brainstorming My Media Literacy Autobiography

My earliest memories of different forms of media are from around the time I was three years old. For TV I remember sitting at home and watching Thomas the Tank Engine in our living room. I don’t have a memory of what my first movie was, but for listening to the radio I do remember driving down the road as it was raining, the sun began shinning during the rain, which was the first time I had saw that. During that moment CCR’s song “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” came on. It was a strange moment that I still remember to this day. For advertisements the one that stands out the most in my mind is one from when I was around 10 to 11 years old. I believe it was some kind of gushers commercial that when the people ate the gushers their heads turned into fruit. It was very odd, and I actually never ate gushers because of it. So I guess it had the opposite effect of what was intended.

As for digital media literacy I do consider myself to be digitally literate. Being able to shift through media and recognize that something isn’t what it may seem is something I have always done. I don’t think that there was a specific moment. I’ve always have been very interested in learning. I learned very early on in my life that not everything you read, or that someone says, is true, but I guess it started with reading magazine covers in line at the stores. Their ridiculous headlines gave me that first lesson.

As for the digital media I am consuming in my life now I am obsessed with watching news and informational videos on YouTube. I like political commentaries such as The Young Turks, to channels that make you think about strange and odd things, like Vsause. I also love watching TedTalks videos, as well as channels that explain global issues, such as DNews, and Seeker Daily. All of these videos range from short 2-3 minute videos, to lasting over an hour.

As for teaching and incorporating digital media into the classroom I am more excited now that I have ever been. Now knowing all the resources that are out there and all the things you can do with digital media I am less afraid of going out into the teaching community, and I’m feel much more prepared to go out and teach children music.

My Digital Story

I decided to tell this digital story because it caused me to reevaluate many aspects of my life. I had gone out to enjoy the fireworks on the 4^th of July, and during my time outside I had a very long introspective moment where I examined different aspects of my life. I ended up making decisions to improve my life for the better. I think that my digital story would be good to build self-esteem because it deals with changing your life around for the better. It shows that even though life may not be going the way you would want or hope, you have the ability to make it my life better. I think that listening to different digital stories is a great way for students to learn digital media literacy. It allows the students to see what can be tools can be used in order to tell a more complete digital story, by experiencing what others have done with their own digital story. 

The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling

"You Are Your Future"

Element #1: Point of View

The point of view is that of Vincentsia Kelveh-Sonaths.

Vincentsia Kelveh-Sonaths

Element #2: Dramatic Question

The dramatic question is when did the narrator take the first step into making decisions for herself?

Element #3: Emotional Content

This story is very emotional for the narrator, because she was so young and she thought that she was in love. The hormones that teenagers are subject to can make subjects like relationships and sex very emotional.

Element #4: Your Voice

The use of her voice as opposed to just text on a screen is that it gives the listener a much more emotional story. You are able to hear the happiness, pain, and every other emotion in the narrator’s voice during the video.

Element #5: Sound Track

The story had n music in it, which made the narrators voice that much more important to the story, as it had to convey all the emotion itself.

Element #6: Economy

The narrator has a very good since of timing and transitions, and you are never left lost or confused during the story. She uses a variety of pictures as well as video camera footage that goes along with the subject of the story.

Element #7: Pacing

The narrator has very good pacing. She speaks slowly and clearly (although in a different language. Subtitles are included) She includes pauses in all the right places, and the story is just under four minutes. 

Everyone Around You Has A Story The World Needs To Hear

In my opinion StoryCorps is a great program. Giving people a way to have a meaningful discussion or interview with either a loved one, or complete stranger, is a powerful thing. It gives people a platform to say something they might otherwise have said, or tell a story for the last time. Having it recorded gives it the extra benefit of being passed down from generation to generation. To me the most powerful story presented was the one with Oshea and Mary, which was a very emotionally charged story, and really shows the goodness that people are capable of. All it takes is to sit down and talk. 

Infusing Digital and Media Literacy Across the Curriculum.

“When Jessica Brown, principal of the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush High School in Philadelphia got the opportunity to write a mission statement for her school, she knew it was important to connect the fine and performing arts and literacy, so she prioritized a focus on visual and media literacy skills for the whole school.”

Focusing on the fine and performing arts and connecting them to literacy is special to me being a music educator. Studies show that students who participate in the fine arts excel in language development, spatial-temporal skills, and gain an increase in IQ. Connecting the fine arts and literacy, which priorities in visual and media literacy will give students the ability to process and better understand information in the digital age.

“In collaboration with students, parents, faculty, and school leaders, each school and community needs to develop an effective policy for acceptable use of technology that works for the needs of their students. Too many schools and educators are fighting a losing battle with cells phones, iPods, social media, and other technology devices. After all, when you have a computer in your pocket, you’re going to want to use it.”

I agree with this statement 100%. Like the book states, educators are fighting a losing when it comes to personal technology in classrooms. That battle was even recently in the public eye when a school officer was recorded throwing a student out of their chair, allegedly because the student was using their phone in class. While this unfortunate situation escalated from there, it could have easily been a nonissue if the teacher, and the school, had better policy on technology, and its use and incorporation in the classroom.

“Use collaborative multimedia composition to produce authentic communication. Learners work together to compose new messages using media genres and forms that are appropriately challenging and meaningful for them to share their ideas with real audience.”

This is a good rule, because when the students go out in the real world careers having the ability to collaborate with their colleagues will be a valuable skill. Having students compose new challenging media messages together will allow them to see multiple sides to the same story, which will allow them to tell a more complete story.

Teaching With Current Events

What I really took away from the text reading, the video Journalism Revived, as well as the articles on Authentic Learning, and Place-Based Education is that it is incredibly important that students gain real world experience and knowledge, and that they gain the critical thinking skills and motivation needed to shift through the fast array of information available in the digital age.

Students how have the ability to look up information on any subject at any time with modern technology. This however comes with a price. Misinformation is abundant on the internet, and being able to connect information is key for our students to determine what is newsworthy, and how to understand it better.

In the Journalism Revived video Sarah Stuteville talked about how her and her friends went out and traveled the world to hear and tell these stories, and then they brought all the experience and knowledge back with them and put it into the community with their students program that teaches students to create digital media messages, and tell their own personal stories.

Authentic learning ties into Stutesville’s students learning program because that’s exactly what the students do. The students use the hands on skills they learn in this program and us them to tell high quality, personal digital stories, be it on a local level, national, or a global event. Place based education ties in with all of this because it gives students real world skills and experience within their own community.

My Digital Story