As I was reading the book, Teaching Visual Literacy: Using Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Anime,
Cartoons, and More to Develop Comprehension and Thinking Skills, for my glog, I came across a section that shocked me. James Bucky Carter states:
"In my opinion, to choose not to recognize the importance of visual literacy and students' visual cultures and to not make efforts to incorporate these elements into the classroom, for any reason, makes a very powerful political statement. The statement reads: 'I support racist, elitist, and classist notions and policies of literature and education.' It is a strong assertion, but racism, elitism, and classism have had a strong presence in the American classroom for generations" (54).
Carter goes on to explain that these "isms" are "dysconscious"--in other words, we are unaware that we are supporting these notions and policies, and we may even think that we are promoting equality when we are actually perpetuating inequality.
One of the biggest topics in class thus far is the idea that our schools, by and large, do not support media and visual literacy. If Carter is correct, and our school systems are unconsciously promoting racism, classism, and elitism, we have a considerable problem on our hands.
I am curious to see what you opinions are. Do you agree or disagree with Carter's assertion?
I’m not one to jump to conclusions and shout “fire” when I only think I see smoke. Like everything in this world, there are positives and negatives to social media. I think electronic communication generally has benefitted young students, however, I also think language arts teachers should talk to their students about how to effectively communicate through things like email and social media because they’re becoming the most dominant rhetorical devices available.
ReplyDeleteI think teachers can also use social media creatively to teach certain curricular materials. For instance, social media could help students better understand the idea of author’s purpose/bias. English teachers are constantly trying to get their students to think critically and ask questions about the text. Why is the author saying what he/she is saying? What has the author not said and why? Can the reader even trust this author? Facebook is a wonderful tool for helping students ask some of these difficult and abstract questions. In a sense, we, as Facebook members, are both authors and readers. As authors, we deliberately choose things from our lives to show the world while withholding other less flattering things, and as readers, we experience other people’s “stories.” The problem occurs when people start believing that what they see on Facebook is reality. Like literature, social media is simply a filtered view of the world, and we, as the users of social media, must interact critically with this simulation. I definitely think young minds have trouble distinguishing the difference between the electronic world of social media and the “real” world outside. Language arts teachers can use social media as a tool to facilitate the study of literature (I could see it being used to teach anything from inference to researching skills), which can indirectly help the students better interact with the complex world of electronic media, thus becoming critical consumers as opposed to passive observers.