Media Literacy Week starts today, promotes inclusion and diversity online

OTTAWA – Media Literacy Week kicks off today and runs until Friday, raising awareness about the need to create inclusive digital communities.

That's Not Cool: Healthy and Respectful Relationships Online

In this lesson, students begin by considering one of five scenarios that illustrate unhealthy relationship behaviours relating to digital media: pressuring others to share private content, cyberstalking, harassment and abuse of trust. Students then relate the scenarios to their own experience by brainstorming other examples of these behaviours and voting on which they feel are most relevant to their lives. The teacher then leads a guided discussion on the reasons why unhealthy behaviours may be more common when we communicate through digital media and ways in which they can be avoided or mitigated. Finally, students act out their own scenario in which they portray young people successfully dealing with one of the unhealthy relationship behaviours.

Career Connected Learning

In the High School Block, Career Connected Learning is divided into three subtopics: Career and Occupational Learning, Digital and Information Technology, and Skilled Trades. Connections to digital media literacy are found in the first two of those subtopics, particularly Digital and Information Technology.

DigitalSmarts

Digital literacy is a vital tool for education, employment and economic participation, civic engagement, and even health and wellness. It reinforces existing inequalities based on socioeconomic status, ethnicity, education, immigration status and gender. Given the importance of digital literacy skills to under-represented populations, MediaSmarts and YWCA Canada have partnered to develop and deliver DigitalSmarts, a digital literacy skills program.

Diversity and Inclusion Online, Media Literacy Week 2017

Cyberbullying tweets from the President of the United States. Sexism in Silicon Valley. Fake news from social media feeds fuelling online hate.

It’s been a rough year so far on the digital media landscape.

Outcome Chart - British Columbia - English Language Arts - New Media 10

New Media 10 is a program of studies designed to reflect the changing role of technology in today’s society and the increasing importance of digital media in communicating and exchanging ideas. This course is intended to allow students and educators the flexibility to develop a program of study centred on students’ interests, needs, and abilities, while at the same time allowing for a range of local delivery methods. New Media 10 recognizes that digital literacy is an essential characteristic of the educated citizen.

Citizenship 9

Engaged Citizenship

Overall Expectations:

Learners will construct a collaboratively-designed service learning project which addresses a need in the school or larger community.

Specific Expectations:

Ontario - Computer Studies 10 ICD2O

Strand A: Computational Thinking and Making Connections

Outcome Chart - British Columbia - Applied Design, Skills and Technologies 9

This outcome chart contains media-related learning outcomes from the BC Applied Design, Skills and Technologies 9 curriculum, with links to supporting resources on the MediaSmarts site.

Representation of Diversity in Media – Overview

What we see – and don’t see – in media affects how we view reality. Media works can be imagined either as mirrors that reflect an audience’s own experience, windows that give them access to experiences they otherwise wouldn’t have known, or in some cases both.