The media landscape into which our children are being brought up is vastly different from any other generation of children, even including my own generation (which was only 20 years ago). Is our education system reforming quick enough prepare our children for where they are going?
Throughout the ages, we’ve stressed the importance of education to the point that now in the modern, developed world, all children are given ample opportunities to read, write, and do arithmetic. We enrich their educations with lessons in art, music, and physical activities. But one of the most important areas that our children need to be educated in, even as early as 9 or 10 years old, is in media production.
They will need to be educated in both in how to create and how to consume the best in entertainment. It ought to become a more integral part of our elementary school curriculum to teach students to become active, not passive consumers of the media, if we want to arm them with the ability to effectively digest media in a world that is already overflowing with information.
2 Responses
Brent Leavitt
After writing this post I came across this resource:
http://blogwalker.edublogs.org/2009/07/23/a-case-for-filmmaking-in-the-classroom/
Brian Griggs
I think that you’ll be happy to see that we use resources like the standards for 21st Century Skills(PDF).
The other exciting development is that we’re moving towards using the Common Core Standards(PDF) in Arizona for Math and English. In the standards for English, check out this paragraph:
“Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing,
speaking, listening, and language use. They tailor their searches online to
acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using
technology with what they learn offline. They are familiar with the strengths and
limitations of various technological tools and mediums and can select and use
those best suited to their communication goals.”
That last sentence is what you’re looking for.