Every year there is a specialized week called “Media Literacy Week.” Every year there is a new topic which we try to educate others about.
This year’s theme is “What’s Being Sold: Helping Kids Make Sense of Marketing & Consumerism Messages.”
What they mean is that students do not understand ads properly. Kids do not know if they actually need the product being sold or not. Often in ads, advertisers have special people who have the item, like a star or an athlete, so students think the items are amazing because a famous person is using it. But - in reality they might not.
In commercials the consumerism part is getting people to get interested and the marketing part is selling the product. Sometimes, students get confused, but all they need to do is to capture the message and look at what is being asked of them. There's a lot of media in front of people without them even noticing. Media is an amazing thing because it communicates to kids in different ways. If you watch television, there is an advertisement, but kids don’t always think about what they're seeing.
What we did at Golf Road to celebrate Media Literacy Week is to teach students. We made announcements, posters, and talked to students about how media comes in their daily lives and we helped students understand media. Also during the weekly ICT classes ran by Mr. J. Romano, we also talked about media, different types of media and how it works! According to a student named Veeththakan, the way Golf Road teaches media is an awesome way - we use media to teach media.
Also to teach students advertising tricks at this school, teachers create Project Based Learning projects. For example in the school year 2012/2013 the Gr 5/6 B class teacher made an environmental project and the teacher wanted us to promote the idea using different types of media. One group used Digital Media, Social Media, and Print Media. These are the ways Golf Road teaches students.
Veeththakan and Ajikash are grade 6 students at Golf Road Public School in the Toronto District School Board.
Their teacher, Joseph Romano (OCT, MEd, BEd, BFA) is the ICT Lead Teacher and Junior Division Position of Responsibility (POR) at Golf Road Junior Public School in the Toronto District School Board, and is a researcher of Virtual World Pedagogy. Joseph is also the Founder and Virtual Education Strategist at Classpace, and contributes as an Educational Technology Advisor at MaRS Discovery District.
Follow Golf Road on Twitter: @GolfRoadJPS & @GolfRoadICT
Special thanks to Neel and Surabie for their work in creating posters and announcements in support of Media Literacy Week at Golf Road Junior Public School.