Lights! Camera! Literacy!

Bridging the gap for 21st Century students

Susan K. S. Grigsby and Lisa Harton

Agenda

• Media Centers in crisis• Literacy defined• Inquiry Based and Brain Based

principles• Bridging the gap• Designing partnerships• Video on a budget

Just the facts…

• College media centers in the U.S. seem to be taking a disproportionate share of budget cuts

• Why?– Inability of media directors to function

effectively at the strategic level; Inappropriate reporting relationships; Inadequate response to technological change

• M. Albright - International Journal of Instructional Media

Just the facts…

• Georgia Public Schools have been working with a 50% budget cut for 2 years with no end in sight

• Georgia Public School Libraries are among the lowest funded in the United States

If they only knew . . .

Recent findings of three statewide studies found that a strong media program helped students learn more and score higher on standardized tests than their peers in library-impoverished schools.

“Dick and Jane go to the Head of the Class”

School Library Journal

What is “literacy”

• Get together with your table mates and come up with a definition that all agree upon. Choose a spokesperson to share with the group.

Literacy defined

• The ability to read and writeTeale and Sulzby, 1986

• Literacy involves communicating through technology

Thornberg, 1992

• The use of language, art, music, movement, drama and mathematics to explore and expand our world.

Short, Harste and Burke, 1994

Literacy

• Literacy is the ability to communicate in real world situations which involves the abilities of individuals to read, write, speak, listen, view and think

Cooper, 2000

Information Literate People• Formulate and analyze information needs• select & find resources for information

needs• identify & appraise the value of resources• evaluate the search process• interpret, analyze, synthesize, & evaluate

collected informationCarol Kuhlthau

http://wally.rit.edu/information/CUNY2000/sld003.htm

Information Power Standards• Standard 1: The student who is information

literate accesses information efficiently and effectively– Indicator 4: Identifies a variety of potential

sources of information

Information Power Standards• Standard 2: The student who is information

literate evaluates information critically and competently– Indicator 1: Determines accuracy, relevance, and

comprehensiveness– Indicator 2: Distinguishes among fact, point of

view, and opinion– Indicator 3: Identifies inaccurate and misleading

information

Information Power Standards• Standard 3: The student who is information

literate uses information accurately and creatively– Indicator 1: Organizes information for practical

application– Indicator 4: Produces and communicates

information and ideas in appropriate formats.

Information Power Standards• Standard 4: The student who is an

independent learner is information literate and pursues information related to personal interests– Indicator 2: Designs, develops, and evaluates

information products and solutions related to personal interests.

Information Power Standards• Standard 5: The student who is an

independent learner is information literate and appreciates literature and other creative expressions of information– Indicator 3: Develops creative products in a

variety of formats

Information Power Standards• Standard 9: The student who contributes

positively to the learning community & to society is information literate and participates effectively in groups to pursue & generate information.– Indicator 4: Collaborates with others, both in

person and through technologies, to design, develop, and evaluate information products and solutions.

Inquiry Based Learning

• An approach that centers on the research process

• Begins by engaging questions about the subject

• Calls for guiding the students in thinking and reflecting in the process of information seeking & use that leads to understanding, learning, & to transferable information literacy.

Kuhlthau, 2003

Brain-Based Learning

• A framework for learning and teaching

• An atmosphere that is consistently and predominantly “low threat” and “high challenge”

• 12 basic principlesCaine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning

• The brain is a parallel processor.– The brain is always doing many things at

one time.– Thoughts, emotions, imagination, and

predispositions operate simultaneously

• Educational implications– No one method or technique can

encompass the variations of the human brain.

Caine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• Learning engages the entire physiology.

– Stress and threat affect the brain differently than peace or challenge or boredom.

• Educational implications– Everything that affects our physiological

functioning affects our capacity to learn– Expecting equal achievement on the basis of

chronological age is inappropriate.Caine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• The search for meaning is innate

– The brain needs and automatically registers the familiar while simultaneously searching for and responding to novel stimuli

• Educational implications– Learning environment needs to provide

stability and familiarity– Provisions must also be made for novelty,

discovery, and challengeCaine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• The search for meaning occurs through

patterning– The brain is both artist & scientist and

attempts to discern/understand patterns as they occur and giving expression to unique & creative patters of its own.

• Educational implications– Whole-language, thematic units, curriculum

integration, life-relevant approachesCaine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• Emotions are critical to patterning

– Emotions and cognition cannot be separated

– Emotions crucial to memory by facilitating storage & recall

• Educational implications– School & classroom climate must be

monitored to ensure support, mutual respect, and acceptance

Caine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• The brain processes parts & whole

simultaneously– One hemisphere reduces information to

parts while the other perceives it in wholes or series of wholes.

• Educational implications– Build understanding and skills over time

because learning is both cumulative and developmental.

Caine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• Learning involves both focused

attention and peripheral perception– Brain absorbs information of which it is directly

aware as well as information/signals that lie beyond the field of attention

• Educational implications– Peripherals should include charts, illustrations,

set designs, art, and other classroom decorations that influence a natural acquisition of information

Caine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• Learning always involves conscious and

unconscious processes– We become our experiences and remember

what we experience, not just what we are told.

• Educational implications– Creative elaboration of procedures and theories by

exploring metaphors/analogies to help in the reorganization of material in a way that makes it personally meaningful and valuable.

Caine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• We have both spatial memory and a

system for rote learning– One remembers our experiences in ordinary 3-

dimensional space– Facts and skills in isolation are organized differently

by the brain & need practice/rehearsal

• Educational implications– Sometimes memorization is important & useful– Teaching DEVOTED to memorization does not

facilitate the transfer of learningCaine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• We understand & remember best when

facts & skills are embedded in natural, spatial memory– Language acquired this way– Single most important element that brain-based

theories have in common

• Educational implications– Spatial memory best invoked through experiential

learning (projects, field trips, performances)Caine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• Learning is enhanced by challenge

and inhibited by threat– Brain downshifts under perceived threat and

learns optimally when appropriately challenged

• Educational implications– Teachers/administrators need to create a state

of relaxed alertness in students - an environment low in threat and high in challenge

Caine and Caine

Making Connections

Brain-Based Learning• Each Brain is Unique

– We all have the same set of systems– Systems integrated differently in each

brain

• Educational implications– Teaching should be multi-faceted to

allow for visual, tactile, emotional, and auditory experience.

Caine and Caine

Making Connections

Where does video fit in?

Learning should drive the technology, not vice

versa.

Wepner, Valmont & Thurlow

Here’s where it begins . . .

Integrating video with instruction

• Helps foster intrinsic motivationLiu and Rutledge

• Conducive to Cooperative Learning

Slavin, Kagen, and Johnson

• Supports better acquisition and retention of content

Lehrer

Video clip #1

As you observe the video of the students, think about the curriculum objectives that have been included and how does the process of video production effect the learning?

Think about whether the students still remember the video and its process.

“Once the brain of a child cracks the visual/spatial code, it is prepared to crack the verbal/linguistic code.”

Dr. Susan Rich Seridan,Drawing/Writing and the New LiteracyWhere Verbal Meets Visual

The writing process

• Brainstorming• Drafting• Revising• Editing• Publishing

The video production process• Brainstorming• Planning• Implementation• Evaluation• Performance

Designing a partnership

• How could current units benefit from video production?

• Be proactive• Begin with the end in mind• Plan, plan, plan and then plan

some more!

"What I've Learned from Making Video" — A Student Speaks

"Not only have we learned how to use the equipment, how to work together, and how to create something worthwhile for television, we've

learned how to put it all together, too. We've learned how to watch television as well. We're paying more attention now to what we see. We

know what to look for, because we have inside information. We're thinking more about what's on television, and making more intelligent decisions about what we want to spend our time watching. Most of all, after doing

this kind of work ourselves, we have a lot more respect for what we view, and for the people who do it professionally. We understand what goes into

every minute we see on television. Knowing what happens behind the scenes doesn't diminish the magic of television, however; if anything, it

increases the wonder of what we see."

— Steve Dast, Advanced Media Class, West High School, Madison, WI

http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article560.html

Video on a Budget

• Using old equipment in new ways• Beg, borrow, and finagle• Be creative!

Lights, Camera, Literacy!

• Video production can build bridges• Video production addresses several

areas of brain-based learning principles• Video production is an example of

inquiry-based instruction/learning• Video production is a natural extension

of the reading and writing process