Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

As the world careens from one crisis to another—as COVID-19 brings us closed schools and massive unemployment, as horrific videos of police brutality spark more than a week of nationwide protests—one thing has been constant and concerning: We are devouring digital media, seeking out information and scrolling for solace.

And, let’s face it, we’re seeking and scrolling in the dark. We’re doing this literally, as we sit up at 2 a.m. in our bedrooms, scrolling and clicking and unable to sleep. And figuratively, clicking through mazes of media messages on social media, pushing through brush to find a trail. Most of us have had no guides to orient us in this streaming and screaming digital world.

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Do your students love to take and edit photos to post on Instagram? Are they obsessed with watching (or maybe even becoming!) YouTube celebs? Do you want to help your students learn how to spot a stereotype on a TV show? Or how to identify bias in a news article? If you answered yes to any of these questions, consider integrating media literacy education into your lessons..

Thanks to Esther Grassian for highlighting Media Literacy Resources: A collection of resources to support media literacy in the classroom which "was compiled in conjunction with the California School Library Association (CSLA) and KQED in fulfillment of the requirements set forth in Senate Bill 830: to ensure that young adults are prepared with media literacy skills necessary to safely, responsibly, and critically consume and use social media and other forms of media.

Media and Information Literacy is important for the time we are living in and leading to for the reason of its existence in abundance and use of the same in many ways.

Integration of media in education has exposed students to a lot of material and so the providers of this media happen to take over web in uncountable numbers. However, reliability of these resources is questionable. For effective and efficient usage of media and information for any purpose, it is essential to use the resources that are right and accountable to extract the information or media.