The concept of media literacy education, its necessity in today’s classroom, and its application in the second language classroom and teacher education. Media literacy is a critical teaching tool at the foundation of the 21st century literacies that is especially relevant in the second language classroom due to the common use of visual texts and multimedia to bridge the language gap and provide students access to the target language. This media rich environment is the ideal place for teachers and students to use critical medial literacy as a context for exploring language and culture in a way that encourages breaking stereotypes and challenges the mainstream media messages of cultural representation. In the context of learning language, students also learn critical thinking skills and gain the tools to explore social and political issues in society. Media literacy training is vital to pre-service teacher education programs, if it is to reach our students. Teachers are the gatekeepers for the information that enters the classroom; a media literate teacher critically engages with media texts used in and outside of the classroom and is able to use and create media with the students so that they move from passive receptors to active participant. (Catron Allred, 2008:91) |
According to Leffa (2009) the idea that learning occurs by the mediation of instruments is one of the basic principles of Activity Theory. The student learns as he dominates the learning instrument, whether it is the book or the computer. Problems arise when we start to reflect on what exactly mediate these instruments: are they between the subject and object of learning? Would they be between the subject and the other members of the learning community? And many other questions. The interaction is not only between teacher and student or between student and student, but also between students and other resources.
I believe my curriculum can provide so much tech-richness as I develop my autonomy as a teacher in context-mediated technology, resulting in the association of the theoretical basis about the technological tools with my practice in the classroom and seeking guidance for reflection and a critical attitude in promoting mediation in asynchronous environments and development of the autonomy of teachers and students.
I intend to learn how to use the WWW to mediate the independent learning of my students, as well as in the video. The learners nowadays do not need the information supply, but learn to learn, analyze and learn how to think.
We turn our classrooms into the 21st century learning engines making the students aware of themselves, as a learner, as well as the growing willingness and abilities to manage the own learning. It involves accepting responsibility for the own learning and willingness to take a pro-active role in the process.
I try to engage my students in developing a work that they are agents of their own learning. I do not master the technological tools yet, as they do, but I am researching and trying to learn how to do so.
Perhaps my main barriers to incorporating technology into my classroom is the uncertainty about the creation of communicative activities that explores resources of interactivity and means of interaction offered by the Web in the classroom and lack of infrastructure of the school. Working with Web Tools is still a challenge from which I do not give up!
“ Netiquette” is network etiquette, the do's and don'ts of online communication. Netiquettecovers both common courtesy online and the informal “rules of the road” of cyberspace. (Márcia Rejani, 2003)
I love this text about “ Netiquette” of the book Learning English Through Texts. Here are some tips on how to behave in the virtual landscape:
Rule 1: Remember the human
When you're holding a conversation online – whether it's an e-mail exchange or a response to a discussion group posting – it's easy to misinterpret your correspondent's meaning. And it's frighteningly easy to forget that your correspondent is a person with feelings more or less like your own.
Rule 2: Adhere to same Standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
People sometimes forget that there's a human being on the other side of the computer and sometimes some people think that a lower standard of ethics or personal behavior is acceptable in cyberspace.
Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace
Netiquette varies from domain to domain. When you enter a domain of cyberspace that's new to you, take a look around. Spend a while listening to the chat or reading the archives. Get a sense of how the people who are already there act. Then go ahead and participate.
Rule 4: Respect the other people's time and bandwidth
When you send e-mail or post to a discussion group, you're taking up other people's time (or hoping to). It's your responsibility to ensure that the time they spend reading your posting isn't wasted. When you accidentally post the same note to the same newsgroup five times, you are wasting both time (of the people who check all five copies of the posting) and bandwidth (by sending repetitive information over the wires and requiring it to be stored somewhere).
Rule 5: Make yourself look good online
Take advantage of your anonymity. As in the world at large, most people who communicate online just want to be liked. Networks – particularly discussion groups – let you reach out to people you'd otherwise never meet. And none of them can see you. You won't be judged by the color of your skin, eyes, or hair, your weight, your age, or your clothing.
Rule 6: Share expert knowledge
The strength of cyberspace is in its numbers. The reason asking questions online works is that a lot of knowledgeable people are reading the questions. And if even a few of them offer intelligent answers, the sum total of world knowledge increases. The Internet itself was founded and grew because scientists wanted to share information. Gradually, the rest of us got in on the act. So do your part. You do have something to offer. Don't be afraid to share what you know.
Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control
“Flaming” is what people do when they express a strongly held opinion without holding back any emotion. It's the kind of message that makes people respond, “Oh come on, tell us how you really feel.” Tact is not its objective.
Does Netiquette forbid flaming? Not at all. Flaming is a long-standing network tradition (and Netiquette never messes with tradition). Flames can be lots of fun, both to write and to read. And the recipients of flames sometimes deserve the heat.
Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy
Of course, you'd never dream of going through your colleagues' desk drawers. So naturally you wouldn't read their e-mail either. Unfortunately, a lot of people would. Failing to respect other people's privacy is not just bad Netiquette. It could also cost you your job.
Rule 9: Don't abuse your power
Some people in cyberspace have more power than others. There are wizards in MUDs (multi-user dungeons), experts in every office, and system administrators in every system. Knowing more than others, or having more power than they do, does not give you the right to take advantage of them.
Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes
When someone makes a mistake – whether it's a spelling error or a spelling flame, a stupid question or an unnecessarily long answer – be kind about it. If it's a minor error, you may not need to say anything. Even if you feel strongly about it, think twice before reacting. Having good manners yourself doesn't give you license to correct everyone else.
(from www.albion.com/netiquette.>)
And you? Tell us if you agree or disagree with the “Netiquette” rules.
