Media Producers and Consumers in the Web 2.0 Classroom

By Tom Banaszewski

techszewski@gmail.com
http://del.icio.us/techszewski
skype: techszewski

What are the media literacy challenges and new engaging opportunities that teachers face in the Web 2.0
era? Students and teachers now enjoy even easier access to tools that produce and share engaging
multimedia pieces. Whether or not they are effective in communicating their message can often get lost in
the process. With a focus on wikis, this session will examine how students and teachers can practice
essential media literacy skills while incorporating pre-existing digital stories, podcasts, and blogs into their
curriculum via a wiki. Before stepping into the role of producing media to be shared on the web, students
need practice in the role of informed consumers of media.


Web 2.0 enables:

• Increased participation of student voices
• Original thought
• Digital Socratic circle
• Easy access to student-produced media samples for deconstruction
  

and presents these challenges:

• Tool literacy (Photoshop expert) vs. media and visual literacy (effective communicator with multimedia)
  
• Requires you to have defined "effective communication" as it relates to your digital media product
  
• Assessment
• Accountability
• Developmentally Appropriate Expectations
  

Why the wiki?

• Collaborative media analysis
• Media viewed as just another resource to learn from