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.