Media With A Purpose

At first glance I read these chapters that I thought were really great, and came out with some great ideas about how to integrate different types of media into my classroom. I read about the warnings of using media in an ineffective way (as the “babysitter” discussed by Lindsey) and as the throw away assignment teachers give to substitutes. I read about how the teacher utilized MTV to draw parallels between the drama of these reality shows, and the drama/dramatizations of The Crucible. But what does this have to do with access? I found myself wondering that question. I get that I should pick contemporary media kids will be interested in that I can draw parallels to. From there I can even get them to write research papers that they’re excited about. But what does this have to do with access?

I flipped back to the definition to remind myself. Part of it is that there are different access points for each type of media. You need to know the format, or genre, of blogs to be able to access and use them. If you don’t understand how computers work then you can’t access them. Things like that. But most importantly, I loved the definition that said that access was “finding and sharing appropriate and relevant information and using media texts and technology tools well” (12). Amen to that. I thought about the educational description of reading a book and watching the movie. The author remarked that during this kids are often bored, with fall asleep with their heads on their desks. At first I thought to myself, “Well that’s not true at all! I loved watching movies in high school.” And then I remembered that that was because it meant no work. Often we watched historical movies, or movies made after books (ahem, Of Mice and Men) that I found terribly boring. This is a great example of busy work.

Are you showing this movie for a purpose? Or just for the heck of it?

But then I thought of very rich movie experiences that we had in high school. They were not movies that we watched because we had read the book, they were movies that allowed us to discuss post-modernism or social issues. They were movies that brought an emotional reaction, and prompted us to engage in highly emotional and controversial debates. The themes of the movies mirrored the themes of what we were learning about. I think the teacher in the book did just this. He had an advantage of having a teenaged daughter because that exposed him to a show (and network) that he was otherwise completely unfamiliar with. At least in the contemporary form. However, like the book mentioned, there are television shows and movies that both teachers and students enjoy. We should take advantage of this as we carefully choose these technology tools and media texts to share that appropriate and relevant information that ties to the curriculum and themes we’re teaching. I think a challenge to accessing media is just not knowing those new forms of media that kids will be interested in. If this man hadn’t had a teenage daughter he would have never known about 16 and Pregnant and would have never had this idea. Does he already know about Twitter? Instagram? I think somewhere there comes a line where you just don’t have access to the new things kids are watching/doing unless you have that insider access. I think that will be the biggest challenge of meaningful access, but it’s not impossible. We just have to use media as a tool to drive home important themes and conventions. Once we use it as a means to fill time it becomes useless. If you want to use the film to discuss how it captured important themes the book couldn’t (or vice versa) then that’s great. But if there’s no educational purpose it should just be left on the shelf.