Thus the media literacy kit’s #1 core principal: “All media messages are constructed.” This notion, as “duh” as it may seem at first, is the key, I think, to media literacy. Not to get too dorky, but it’s kind of like the The Matrix: our media-created culture is the matrix, and getting out requires you to, in the words of Morpheus and the ML kit, “Free Your Mind.”

O.K. That’s seriously the nerdiest reference I’ve made in a while, but I thought it was apt.

Two elements of the ML kit I really liked were 1) it’s emphasis on letting students make their own anlysis of media messages, rather than telling them what this or that means. Media Literacy must be about training them to be critical media consumers outside the classroom. And 2) the kit distinguishes between cynicism toward media and taking them in with a critical eye. We shouldn’t teach students to avoid these messages — as if it were possible — or to consider them all evil. We should teach how to be smarter media readers, which translates to being smarter consumers, voters, and citizens.

"Free Your Mind."

First of all, Wikipedia’s entry is organized in a more useful way. It tells me, up front, some basics about what adherents of this ancient religion believe:

Jainism (pronounced /ˈdʒaɪnɪzəm/)is an ancient Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence for all forms of living beings in this world. Its philosophy and practice relies mainly on self effort in progressing the soul on the spiritual ladder to God consciousness. Any soul which has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state of supreme being is called jina (Conqueror or Victor). Jainism is the path to achieve this state.

If I’m researching a religion, first things first, I want to know what it’s all about.

Oldmanpedia begins by telling me Jainism is “an ancient monastic religion of India,” the follows with

It is a heterodox religion in denying the validity of the Vedic (ancient Hindu) scriptures, pantheon, and ritual and the authorityof the Brahman priesthood (667)

Wikipedia wins.

Up-to-dateness is an obvious advantage for Wikipedia. The dead-tree version states that Jainism has 2 million followers. Remember, this was printed 10 years ago. Wikipedia says 4 million people practice in India alone, and it references and links to the Indian government census.

These are just a couple of reasons to chuck the old tome out the window in favor of Wikipedia. I’d write more but the class is moving on to something else and I don’t want to get left behind.

As a wiki layman, this chapter really got me thinking about the potential of wikis in the classroom. The bit about the Georgia students who collaborated with kids in Bangladesh was really cool — so cool I immediately went to the livingroom to tell my wife (a second-grade teacher) about it. It was an example of how wikis, blogs and other internet tools can shrink the world for our students, helping them develop global perspectives on what they learn. As an English teacher, I get excited thinking about the opportunities wikis present to give students hands-on experience in producing and evaluating writing for public consumption — essentially experience as writers and editors.

Saw this in Topics in Literature last semester. If that doesn’t get you pumped about being a teacher, check your pulse.