So I want to pick up on the idea that realizing Lessig’s definition of media literacy in students will also require a type of Internet literacy that deals specifically with the publishing piece of the process. And, it will require this literacy in teachers as well as students. Again, these are probably not new ideas; I just need to articulate them in ways that make sense for me. Comments welcomed as always.
Obviously, this is a literacy of the tools that I’m talking about. How do we effectively use Weblogs, wikis, syndication and bookmarking technologies et. al. in ways that can facilitate the constructivist learning that is becoming more available to students? But more, how can we teach
Transparency, editors, contributing to the body of knowledge, constructive learning,
Now that we can have a read-write relationship with the Internet, and if we believe that two way ability has postive implications for education, we need to add a new layer of literacy, one that not only facilitates the use of the tools (Weblogs, wikis, etc.) but that also teaches the editing function. That’s what I want to say. That it’s one thing to be literate in a passive sense, in the deconstructive sense, but it’s another to be literate in the constructive sense. And it’s more than just ripping, mixing and burning the media. It’s synthesis, it’s editing, it’s taking on a higher responsibility somehow with what you construct, cause you’re not just dealing with the what does the teacher want stuff. Your dealing with a whole bunch of other editors who are trying to get to create and understand their own truths as well.
Blogging the verb is in there somewhere.
Implications for teaching and assessment.
Telling students to write according to the logic of print (whether the writing is on paper or not – I am talking about the logic not the medium) is to force students to reject the communicative practices around them: IM, the Web, Film, TV, music, etc.
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