Kathleen Tyner:
Strategies For Media Literacy
Ms. Kathleen Tyner's research
and development activities include technology planning, evaluation,
product development, and professional development projects. In addition
to her production credits in news and public affairs, Kathleen Tyner
is coauthor of Media & You: An Elementary Media Literacy Curriculum.
She is contributing editor to Telemedium: The Journal of Media Literacy.
Her most recent book, Literacy
in a Digital World: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Information,
has beenreleased by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Ms. Tyner also writes,
directs, and produces print, video, and interactive media for a wide
variety of audiences.
The Media Literacy Online
Project is pleased to archive articles from Ms. Tyner's Strategies For
Media Literacy project.
Article Index
Access
in A Digital Age. Access to media is not at all powerful if
audiences cannot make sense of the information they receive. As the
world moves from analog to digital, it becomes increasingly apparent
that access to information -- and to the channels that control its flow
-- is only the first plateau of human communication.
The
Appalshop School Initiative: A Report on An Experiment in Classroom
Research. AppalShop is a media arts center nestled in the Appalachian
hills of the Eastern Kentucky coal fields in the Lecher County seat
of Whitesburg, population 1,200. Originally created to counter the kind
of Tobacco Road stereotypes seen in countless media renditions of "hillbillies"
from Appalachia, AppalShop creates, preserves, documents and presents
Appalachian art and culture from the perspective of its residents
Can
Your Students Read TV. Plato disliked the printed word. He was
afraid that reading and writing would destroy oral culture and memory.
It wasn't until at least two centuries after the invention of the printing
press that ordinary people began to make sense of the printed page.
This awareness of print caused tremendous social, economic and cultural
upheaval. We are currently in a similar communication revolution so
far - reaching that we have yet to fully understand its significance.
We still read books, but information bombards us from films, television,
radio and advertising, too.
Effective
Communication: A Label-less Program. Patricia Lawrie is on a
mission. A speech communications specialist in the Chaffey School District
in Southern California, she designed a program which expands her role
beyond working with a few "special" students to one which stresses effective
communication in a cooperative, mainstreamed environment for all students.
The key to the programs success has been innovative use of video as
a communication medium.
Guide:
Print and Video Resources for Teaching About Media in the K-12 Classroom.
Tyner has compiled an extensive list of resources for educators
including online articles and informational sites.
Implementation:
The Next Step. The minimum steps toward implementing media education
discussed here grow out of Canada's hard-won experiences and can be
applied to media literacy implementation in the United States. The goals,
objectives and pedagogical issues which are the underpinnings of media
education come from work done in Europe and Australia. Finally, some
of the thinking about implementing media literacy across the curriculum
has a peculiar U.S. spin. We can implement media literacy by using American
fascination with technology to its best advantage in the current climate
of reform.
The
Media Education Elephant. Media educators in the United States
are a fractious bunch. One teacher's definition of media education is
another's heresy. Like the blind men and the elephant, teachers often
practice one small aspect of media education and conclude that they
have the whole picture.
Scanning
Television: A Review of a Media Education Resource. This is
one of those classroom resources that forces me to re-examine my bias
against educational "kits". With a few exceptions, I look at kits as
a gross violation of resource-based education principles. While it is
nice for beginning teachers to have some materials to "work" in the
classroom, most kits, put together by those far away from the classroom,
are quickly outdated and, worst of all, violate constructivist principles
that beg for more local context, authentic approaches, and inquiry-based
strategies. In fact, most of the kits I review are not much different
in concept from the textbooks they purport to replace. Scanning Television
is a big exception.
Taking
Back The Citadel: Managing Nintendo Use at Home. Some basic
tips for parents who fear that their children will be sucked off into
the Nintendo universe never to return in human form.
What
Parents Can Do. An eleven point list of things parents can do
to make more effective use of TV in the home.