The classroom today is a place where active production in all media is a natural way to learn. It is a place where children solve problems in the arts and sciences, not only through reading and writing, but also through producing radio and television shows, making films, taking photographs, and creating numerous real world artifacts (Schlick). Listed below are 7 things that are beneficial to students when having them produce media to show learning.
1- Involving students in creating media encourages collaboration, accountability, creativity, and mastery of ideas and concepts. Nowadays, there’s no need for expensive equipment or fancy studios to create media that is entertaining, informative, or educational. When students create media, they learn by doing and by dealing with things as they happen. Students discover things as they become important at the time with the help of their peers and the facilitation of their teacher.
2- Creating media isn’t only an effective process for teaching and learning but also for inspiring social change. Students can create documentaries “about the social issues and injustices that impact on their everyday lives.” (Buckingham, blog) According to David Buckingham this means engaging students in collaborative, open-ended social inquiries, in a process of exploration and self-expression. Students use their prior knowledge and experiences while being encouraged to take risks and investigate new things.
Student-centered inquiry based learning are effective regardless of students’ socio-economic background:
If students are from affluent school districts, less time will be spent on helping them research or write the material, because they have a tendency of being strong in those areas. More time will be spent on helping them reflect on their implicit bias and stereotypes and their representation of media.
If students are from poor districts, then they may have been affected by problems like poor housing, health, drugs and violence, the trauma of migration and family separation, racism, sexism, and homophobia. These may lead to educational under-achievement, so these students are encouraged to research in order to develop an understanding of the forces that have created these circumstances. Once they understand them, they can challenge the authorities through media.
3- Students need structure and practice in giving and receiving detailed constructive criticism, and being self reflective about their own creative process. When they work collaboratively with their peers while creating media, they give and receive feedback and improve their work. Teachers should help students create media with content that is meaningful for the intended audience.
4- When a picture is paired with written text “it becomes truly valuable for information and learning” (Hobbs, pg 149) so students should be encouraged to add pictures to their projects. According to Renee Hobbs “even without technical training, you can take great photographs when you capitalize on your individual perspective and imagination” (Hobbs, pg 143). When students take pictures to add to their projects, they are able to better express their message.
5- When students demonstrate learning by making media, it aids on student retention of knowledge because they are creating something new, from scratch. It also motivates interest in the subject matter, and it illustrates the relevance of concepts by having them showcase their project.
6- When students create media for course assignments, it helps increase their digital literacy skills both technological skills to come up with the content and also the composition skills of designing media for specific audiences. These are valuable skills in the 21st century.
7- When students create media, they improve their writing skills because they must for example, compose a script for a video or write a blog. They also improve their oral skills because they must for example, narrate videos or podcasts. The final product could be only a reflection of what they have learned, but it could also be something they want to say, and teach others about.
In conclusion Media Literacy nowadays “provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and participate with messages in a variety of forms - from print to video to the internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy” (Schlick). By having our students engage in these activities on a regular basis, we are ensuring they will become successful in the 21st century.
Buckingham, D. (2018). The challenge of youthmedia. Blog.
Hobbs (2017), Create to Learn Chapter 9 (pp. 139 – 153).
Schlick, C. E. EdD. (2017). Center for media literacy. We Learn by Doing: Making Media in the Classroom. http://www.medialit.org