To Recommend or Not to Recommend? WWGD?

In preparation for a Critical Media masters course that I will be completing the beginning of July, we had to read "What Would Google Do?" and blog with fellow classmates about our reasons for recommending the book or not recommending it.

First, I’ll just give a brief summary of what the book was about, for those who have not read it.

Jarvis uses "Google" in the title to lure people into thinking the book is going to be about the ever popular search engine "Google". But it is not really about Google at all. It's more of an analysis of how the internet has changed our lives and our culture. He focuses on how Web 2.0 has influenced business, and makes suggestions about what the future may look like using several industries as examples in the second half of the book. Jarvis describes principles and rules for businesses to abide by if they are to succeed in this new 2.0 world.

Overall his principles could be applied to many facets of life, including education. Several major themes found throughout the book were: collaboration, trust, choice, quality, access, honesty, open minded, helpful. Who wouldn't want all these things in our relationships with others? I don't think it matters if you are a teacher or a business person.

The first half of the book was quite thought provoking and I found myself underlining many inspirational ideas as I read. I was able to make connections with how we could change our education system to incorporate some of Jarvis' rules and principles to enhance learning for both students and teachers.

The second half of the book was quite boring. Jarvis' attempted to relate the rules and principles of his business model to various industries. He includes a small section on reforming education, but I was a little disappointed with his ideas. This could have partly been because this topic was not covered specifically until the end of the book, and by that time my eyes were starting to glaze over. I had to force myself to finish the book, and I did so only because I had to- in case I was questioned on it in my upcoming course. I found his ideas to be very repetitive and I kept asking myself if there was something new in what I just read, or if it was more of the same. I concluded that it was more of the same.

As far as recommending this book to educators, I would not. I think there are far better books out there to emphasise how education should be more student directed and teacher facilitated- a student-inquiry approach to learning. Not all teachers will be able, or willing, to make connections to education based on Jarvis' business model. If we want to make a change in education, I think we should be encouraging teachers to read literature that is more specific to our field, with practical examples of what change looks like in our classrooms. As a teacher, I would rate this book a 5 out of 10. If I had read this book prior to completing my first year of a master’s course I would have rated it lower.

However, I would recommend the book to business minded people (as I have done already- I am passing the book on to a friend when I have the course completed). I think the information in the book warrants something to think about with regards to future transactions and business opportunities (I still think the reading the second section of the book would be boring for even people in this field). Overall, I would rate this book 7 out of 10 for business people.

Although this book offers a great insight into how we, everyday people, can make a difference in the world using platforms such as Facebook and Blogger, I don't think many people would read beyond the first few chapters. If they even got that far, if might not even be necessary to read the rest, as it is more of the same (missing except for a few name droppings along the way). Reading from the perspective of this group of people, I would rate the book 4 out of 10. I think they could go to his blog page and read just what interested them, instead of reading all that didn't.

Agree or disagree?? I would love to hear from other people about their opinions on this book.

Critical View of the World

The more I learn about critical literacy in terms of how I can integrate it into my grade one classroom the more I am realizing that I have taken so many things for granted. I think over the years I have almost become desensitized toward all the advertising and subliminal messages that bombard me everyday. Since I have been incorporating critical media literacy into my classroom, I am becoming much more aware of the commercials, posters, news broadcasts, etc. and how they are trying to make me believe certain things and think a certain way.

I realize that I need to be more critical myself in terms of what the media is trying to do to me before I can teach my students. How can I teach what I do not know or understand myself? Through professional learning and personal reflection I have gained a better understanding of what critical media literacy really means. It is important to understand the pedagogy behind such an approach to learning.

I now feel that my literacy program is complete with the incorporation of media literacy. It includes each of the Four Resources that are described by Luke and Freebody. The media literacy component would fall under the Text Analysis resource. Click on the link http://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?pid=36570 to find out more about their model. This model has changed my approach to teaching literacy in my classroom. I now find that I refer to the model frequently to ensure that I am offering a rich, inclusive literacy program to my grade one children.

Critical Media Site

Media Awareness website: http://media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/index.cfm

A colleague put me on to this website regarding the media and internet education. It has some excellent resources for teaching critical media literacy in the classroom. I especially liked the game young children could play where they design a cereal box using "5 gimmicks". The game is called "Co-Co's AdverSmarts" and can be found under the Educational Games tab on the left hand side of the page. The game is designed to recognize the marketing techniques used on commercial Web sites that target young children.

A follow up lesson to the game could be to have the children bring in cereal boxes from home and identify the gimmicks used on the boxes. They could then redesign the boxes in ways that promote nutrition instead of gimmicks, which could also be part of a health lesson as well as art and language arts.

Another great feature of the site is found when you click on "For Teachers" at the top of the page. It gives you links to other great resources and you can do a search for lessons by curriculum outcomes for your province.

Other Ideas?

Does anyone have any other ideas on how to incorporate critical literacy into the everyday activities of the primary classroom?

Critical literacy in a grade one classroom

What happens when grade one children are afforded opportunities in critical literacy activities and use technology to represent their learning in multimodal ways?

I am currently involved in a Teachers as Researchers project with the Department of Education of Newfoundland, the Eastern School District and Memorial University of Newfoundland. This is my second year participating in such a project, but my first year focusing on literacy. The first Teachers as Researchers project involved teaching mathematics in the grade one classroom. For those wanting to read the research results, you may indicate in your posting that you wish to receive a copy and I will send one to your inbox.

For the project this year I am focusing on critical literacy, and using technology to represent student's learning, as the heading suggests. Critical literacy is not a new concept, but addressing it in the form of "new literacies" is somewhat recent. In today's society, children are bombarded with multimedia and multimodal images. Do they understand what these images are about and how it is positioning them in society? Are they aware of the influences these images may have on their interactions with each other?
I am hoping to provide opportunities in my classroom for children to examine various forms of multimedia and multimodal text, as well as using a critical approach to examine everyday situations.

The first activity I hope to do is an assessment of the children's internet experiences as I am not even sure who has a computer in my class.
Another activity will consist of examining several children's websites in a critical manner by asking questions such as:

• Who wrote this text?
• Where did the text come from?
• What is the author's intent?
• Who is represented?
• Who is missing?
• What is the text trying to do to me?
• Is the text from a reliable source?

(These questions came from Dr. Allan Luke: The New Literacies Podcast)

To view this podcast, click on the link below:

http://www.curriculum.org/secretariat/may31.shtml