Media Literacy

Today’s students will be expected to participate in a collaborative online culture and to possess collaboration and communication skills. They will be expected to collaborate and fit into various social roles via new media. New media allows people to role play and experience situations from a variety of perspectives. Now more than ever our students need to be taught media literacy skills, including how to get along well with others when collaborating. As a teacher I teach social skills to my students with behavior disorders and anger management issues. Media literacy should definitely include an online social skills component. It is imperative that these students learn to interact effectively in online environments, just as they must learn to use appropriate social skills and conflict resolution skills to cope in the physical world.

Too often the focus on adolescent use of social networking sites is negative. I see social networking sites as an opportunity to add a new dimension and tool to teaching social skills. We often hear about bullied students committing suicide because of nasty posts on social networking sites and ostracism at school. But what if these tortured students had learned to connect with other people like themselves on a social networking site? Would this have made a difference? Could they have made a friend, or created a virtual support group so that they would not have felt so alone? Many students lacking in social skills enjoy using technology. Teaching them about cyber terrorism, respecting the rights of others, and finding others with similar interests are wonderful social skills lessons that can be applied to online environments, but will also have an effect on student behavior in the physical world.