Visual Literacy

Our digital age makes it so easy to manipulate photos and make it look like something happened that didn't.

Take this quiz:

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/tests/hoaxphototest.html

What can be done to find out the accuracy of pictures?

Media Literacy

Media Lit Kit
http://www.medialit.org/bp_mlk.html

1. All media messages are constructed. They need to learn how media is put together and what was left out.
2. Media messages are constructed with a language that has its own rules (scary music, big headlines, camera close ups)
3. Different people explain the same media message differently.
4. Media are primarily businesses driven by profit motives. The commercials are planned first then TV shows are designed so that they put people in the mood for the commercials!

Questions to ask about any media message:

1. Who created this message and why are you sending it?
2. What techniques are used to attract my attention?
3. What lifestyles, values and points of view are expressed in the message?
4. How might different people understand the message differently than me?
5. What is omitted from this message?

Use the questions above to review these sites:
http://www.edreform.com/ParentPower/index.cfm?fuseAction=library
(What is the Center for School Reform really interested in?)

Video is becoming more pervasive and is extremely entertaining and engaging. Try sometime counting how long it is between different shots or camera angles when you watch TV. You will find that it is rare to look at the same thing for more than 3 seconds.

Pepsi Commercial
http://nmc.siu.edu/%7Epepsi/Pepsi_Medium.html

Cat Herding movie
Also Running with Squirrels and Building airplanes in the air.
http://iamwill.com/movies/index.php?category_id=3&movie_id=7

When I become a teacher
http://homepage.mac.com/lesleyu/iMovieTheater.html

Students will be bombarded with messages and need to have the tools to analyze them. The best way for them to do this is to make their own videos. When they understand some of the effects that they are seeing on television and in movies they will not be so gullible.

Apple iLife
http://www.apple.com/education/ilifeawards/

Honorable Mention
http://www.apple.com/education/ilifeawards/honorablemention.html

A Free (not part of the presentation!) Tip:

United Streaming Free Trial http://www.unitedstreaming.com/createyourowndemouser.cfm