The document discusses the importance of media literacy and how it can be taught in elementary school classrooms, defining media literacy as an expanded conceptualization of literacy that helps students access, analyze, create, and reflect on media messages. Research shows that teaching media literacy skills improves learning, inspires leadership, and increases civic engagement as students learn to think critically about the media they consume and create.

1. Digital &
Media Literacy:
Connecting Classroom
and Community
Renee Hobbs
MEDIA LITERACY FOR ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL TEACHERS (ML4T)
University of Zagreb, Croatia
May 11, 2015

2. Harrington School of Communication and Media
University of Rhode Island USA

5. www.mediaeducationlab.com

6. www.mediaeducationlab.com

7. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
Questions for Today
What is media literacy and why is it important?
How is media literacy relevant to the elementary curriculum?
What does media literacy look like in the classroom?
What do students actually learn when they learn media
literacy?
How can teachers play a role in advancing media literacy?

8. Media literacy is a response to the
contemporary cultural
environment

9. How Many Do You Recognize?

13. Stakeholders in
Digital & Media Literacy
MEDIA&TECHACTIVIST
GOVERNMENTLIBRARY
EDUCATIONCREATIVE

14. Empowerment

15. How do Media Influence Us?
Family
Peers
Community

16. Nutrition Substance Abuse Stereotypes
Media Affects Attitudes & Behaviors

17. Sexuality Aggression
Online Social
Responsibility
Media Affects Attitudes & Behaviors

18. Protection

19. Productive Tension between
Empowerment & Protective Approaches

20. LOVE HATE
PRINT VISUAL SOUND DIGITAL
What is your own love-hate relationship with media, technology
and popular culture?

21. Media literacy is an expanded
conceptualization of literacy

22. Literacy
is the
sharing of meaning
in symbolic form

23. expanding the concept of text
What forms of media texts did you use
before coming to this program today?

24. Rhetoric
Print Literacy
Visual Literacy
Information Literacy
Media Literacy
Computer Literacy
Critical Literacy
News Literacy
Digital Literacy
Historical Context

25. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
Communication & Education. Institutions of education, communication
practices & democratic values are interconnected.
Inquiry Learning. People learn best from experiences that are carefully
supported or scaffolded to meet the needs of the learner.
Critical Pedagogy. Awareness, analysis, and reflection enable people to
take action to make society more just and equitable.
Medium Theory. Media & technology are immersive cultural
environments; media structures re-shape human perception & values.
Active Audience Theory. Audiences are active; meaning-making is
variable; lived experience & social context are key dimensions of
interpretation.
Theoretical Framework

26. Media literacy enables people to
be lifelong learners

27. Children Interpret
Media Messages Differently

28. We are socialized to be
active or passive
consumers of media

29. Media Literacy is a Lifelong Process

30. Media Literacy is a Lifelong Process

31. Media Literacy is a Lifelong Process
What media content do you use now that you did not use when you were growing up?
What media content did you use long ago that is not so important to you now?

32. Media literacy educators use a
wide variety of instructional
practices to advance core
competencies

33. Accessing the Internet

34. ACCESS
 Keyboard and mouse skills
 Be familiar with hardware, storage and file
management practices
 Understand hyperlinking & digital space
 Gain competence with software applications
 Use social media, mobile, peripheral & cloud
computing tools
 Identify information needs
 Use effective search and find strategies
 Troubleshoot and problem-solve
 Learn how to learn
 Listening skills
 Reading comprehension
Defining Digital & Media Literacy Competencies

36. Analyze &
Evaluate
 Understand how symbols work: the
concept of representation
 Identify the author, genre, purpose and
point of view of a message
 Compare and contrast sources
 Evaluate credibility and quality
 Understand one’s own biases
and world view
 Recognize power relationships that shape
how information and ideas circulate in
culture
 Understand the economic context of
information and entertainment production
 Examine the political and social
ramifications of inequalities in information
flows
Defining Digital & Media Literacy Competencies

39. Create &
Collaborate
 Recognize the need for communication and
self-expression
 Identify your own purpose, target
audience, medium & genre
 Brainstorm and generate ideas
 Compose creatively
 Play and interact
 Edit and revise
 Use appropriate distribution, promotion &
marketing channels
 Receive audience feedback
 Work collaboratively
 Comment, curate and remix
Defining Digital & Media Literacy Competencies

40. Reflect
 Recognize how entertainment media
communicate values & ideology
 Understand how differences in values and
life experience shape people’s media use
and message interpretation
 Appreciate risks and potential harms of
digital media
 Apply ethical judgment and
social responsibility to
communication situations
 Understand how concepts of ‘private’ and
‘public’ are reshaped by digital media
 Appreciate and respect legal rights and
responsibilities (copyright, intellectual
freedom, etc)
Defining Digital & Media Literacy Competencies

41. What values are depicted in this episode of
children’s entertainment media ?

42. Take Action
 Acknowledge the power of
communication to maintain the status
quo or change the world
 Participate in communities of shared
interest to advance an issue
 Be a change agent in the family &
workplace
 Participate in democratic self-
governance
 Speak up when you
encounter injustice
 Respect the law and work to change
unjust laws
 Use the power of communication and
information to make a difference in the
world
Defining Digital & Media Literacy Competencies

43. Creating a
Public Service Announcement

44. ACCESS
expanding the concept of literacy

45. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
When students can access, the power of choice activates intellectual
curiosity
When students can analyze, they have critical autonomy – control over
their interpretations
When students compose media, the discover the power of collaboration
as a key dimension of human creativity
When students reflect, they consider the impact of their communication
on themselves and others and develop a sense of social responsibility
When students act, they use of the power of information and
communication to make a difference in the world
Learning Outcomes

46. Media literacy educators are
passionate about its
transformative value and research
is demonstrating its effectiveness

47. Teacher Leadership is at the Heart of
Media Literacy Education
• Book Clubs
• Tech Tuesday Sessions
• Teachers Teaching Teachers
• After-School & Summer
Programs
• Graduate Programs
• Curriculum Development
• Participatory Action Research
• Sharing and Discussion of
Student Work
• Advocacy and community
building
• University-school partnerships

50. What happens when children and
teens learn to critically analyze and
create media?

51. Improves learning
across the curriculum
ResearchEvidence

52. How Do How Attitudes towards News Media,
Media Literacy and Video Production
Contribute to Adolescent Civic Engagement?
Inspires leadership &
entrepreneurial thinking
ResearchEvidence

53. AUTHORSHIP
Creative sills
Collaboration skills
Technical skills
MEDIA ANALYSIS
SKILLS
Comprehension
Identify Purpose
Recognize
Point of View
ATTITUDES
Giving & Receiving
Feedback
Intellectual
Curiosity
CIVIC
ENGAGEMENT
Sign an online
petition
Express an
opinion to news
media
Blog about an
issue
Write an opinion
letter
QUALITY OF
MEDIA CHOICES
Increases civic engagement

54. Inspires confidence to ask
questions
ResearchEvidence

55. Promotes collaboration
and creativity
ResearchEvidence

56. Increases motivation &
engagement
ResearchEvidence

57. Promotes reflective thinking about
communication ethics
ResearchEvidence

58. Connects classroom and community
ResearchEvidence

59. Prepares learners for an
unknowable future

60. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
Conclusion
Media literacy is a response to the contemporary cultural
environment
Media literacy enables people to be lifelong learners
Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy
Media literacy educators use a wide variety of instructional
practices to advance five core competencies
Media literacy educators are passionate about its
transformative value and research is demonstrating its
effectiveness

61. www.mediaeducationlab.com

62.  Martens, H. & Hobbs, R. (2015, April). How media literacy supports civic engagement in a digital age.
Atlantic Journal of Communication 23(2), 120 – 137. DOI:10.1080/15456870.2014.96163
 Hobbs, R., He, H. & RobbGreico, M. (2014) Seeing, Believing and Learning to be Skeptical: Supporting
Language Learning through Advertising Analysis Activities. TESOL Journal.
 Hobbs, R., Donnelly, K., Friesem, J. & Moen, M. (2013). Learning to engage: How positive attitudes about
the news, media literacy and video production contribute to adolescent civic engagement. Educational
Media International 50(4), 231 – 246.
 Hobbs, R. (2013). Improvization and strategic risk taking in informal learning with digital media literacy.
Learning, Media and Technology, 38(2), 182-197.
 Hobbs, R., Yoon, J., Al-Humaidan, R., Ebrahimi, A. & Cabral, N. (2011). Online digital media in elementary
school. Journal of Middle East Media 7(1), 1 – 23.
 Hobbs, R., Ebrahimi, A., Cabral, N., Yoon, J., & Al-Humaidan, R. (2011). Field-based teacher education in
elementary media literacy as a means to promote global understanding. Action for Teacher Education 33,
144 – 156.
 Hobbs, R., Cohn-Geltner, H. & Landis, J. (2011). Views on the news: Media literacy empowerment
competencies in the elementary grades. In C. Von Feilitzen, U. Carlsson & C. Bucht (Eds.). New questions,
new insights, new approaches. The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media.
NORDICOM. University of Gothenburg, Sweden (pp. 43 – 56).
 Hobbs, R., Cohn-Geltner, H. & Landis, J. (2011). Views on the news: Media literacy empowerment
competencies in the elementary grades. In C. Von Feilitzen, U. Carlsson & C. Bucht (Eds.). New questions,
new insights, new approaches. The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media.
NORDICOM. University of Gothenburg, Sweden (pp. 43 – 56).
 Hobbs, R. and RobbGrieco, M. (2010). Passive dupes, code breakers, or savvy users: Theorizing media
literacy education in English language arts. In D. Lapp and D. Fisher (Eds.), Handbook of research on
teaching the English language arts. Third edition. New York: Routledge (pp. 283 – 289).
www.mediaeducationlab.com

63. Renee Hobbs
Professor of Communication Studies
Director, Media Education Lab
Harrington School of Communication
and Media
University of Rhode Island USA
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
Twitter: @reneehobbs
WEB: www.mediaeducationlab.com