week 5 discussion

Many educators believe that with the growth of media and information technology, media literacy is just as important as – or even more important than – print literacy (that is, learning to read and write).

What is your position on the relative importance of the two “literacies”?

First, I want to start by saying that I think media literacy is very important. Now more than ever, technology is be implemented into pretty much anything. You go to a sporting event, you don’t see them writing the score on paper and showing it to the crowd. You see technicians in putting the score on an electronic device that is able to output the score on a screen for the crowd to see. There are many other examples for technology and its uses. The point I’m making is that most or all occupations will involve using or at least having to read technology at some point. But what gets me is that educators think that it is more important than print literacy. I believe that print literacy is the foundation for all literacies including media literacy. Without this basic fundamental skill, we wouldn’t be able to read media literacy or comprehend it because we wouldn’t have the skills to do so. Chapter 8 discusses how technology isn’t perfect. It breaks down, needs repairs, upgrades, and gets infected with all kinds of viruses. There will be a time when we are going to have to shy away from technology and do things the old fashioned way for a day or two. Not knowing print literacy would handicap us all. So if I’m still unclear, I think both literacies are equally important.

James

week 3 discussion

James Ibarra
EDED 4310 Tues
9-9-09

Here is my response to the discussion for this week.

1. Is this woman crazy? Her plan is definitely not a good one. First, students need to be supervised in the computer lab at all times. Being able to trust them is fine if you need to step out in the hallway or something to speak with another teacher, but going back to the room and leaving them in there unattended is out of the question. I wouldn’t worry about my students leaving the lab without permission. I would be more worried about them getting off task and going to inappropriate sites. Kids will be kids.

2. This email thing is also not a good idea. Neither the students nor the teacher know who these experts are. They only know of them. Students should never give out their names to anybody they don’t know. I’m shocked to see that they are giving them personal information such as their address and personal emails and obviously I don’t agree with it.

3. I understand that the teacher wants them to use technology so maybe she could still have them contact the person by web mail but through a secure site. Then, rather than give personal information to a stranger, the students could have the experts respond to them by sending a letter of the description to the school address. This is something that I would try.