Week 9: Reflection on Mcluran videos and Jenkins quote

Jenkins (2010) states that for the past several decades media literacy advocates have called on schools to, "foster a critical understanding of media as one of the most powerful social, economic, political, and cultural institutions of our era" (p. 31).

This is an is is ainteresting quote on many levels.  In this course we are practicing the principals touted by Jenkins in this quote.  Among the readings for this week were the multimedia videos: Marshal Mcluran – an introduction by Tom Wolfe and The message is the massage, by Marshal Mcluran.  Among the media literacy advocates who have called on schools to use new media for learning includes the subject of these films, Marshal Mcluran.  Although these videos are many years old, they are a time capsule of a man who envisioned the possibilities and effects the internet would have on human civilization.  It is interesting to note that Mcluran states that the artists are usually ahead of academia in defining an era.  In this case, Mcluran is an academic who was ahead of his time.  He predicted many of the issues and significances of the internet age.

Mcluran was speaking mostly about television and movies which were the new media of his time.  It is interesting to note that Mcluran was not interested in television for his own interests, according to the Tom Wolfe video.  He was interested in watching his 6 children watch TV and use other new technologies at the time.  He observed the children watching TV, listening to the radio and doing their homework at the same time.  His conclusion was that education must be changed.  New media must be implemented into modern educational systems.  As stated in the opening quote, Mcluran was one of the leading advocates of learning and emerging technologies for decades.  He saw the educational potential of new media even before the advent of the internet.

Mcluran noted that the educational system was more relevant to 19^th century reality.  There was a connection from what you were learning in school and real life outside of the classroom.  The advent of new media has changed reality. This new reality is very different from traditional classroom learning.  As noted before, many of Mcluran’s theories were written before the internet.  Now with the reality of social networks, communities and cultures supported by the World Wide Web, new media must be implemented into education.

Mcluran’s advocacy of new literacy and new media fits into Green’s model: operational, critical and cultural.  In the operational component, users are easily able to participate in participatory culture.  All that is needed is an internet connection and a media device.  Schools and libraries usually offer this connection for free.  Because it is so easy to get involved through the operational component, new media should be implemented into classrooms.  In the critical dimension, more multimedia and media rich text is being generated and used.  Instruction in the critical dimension must be provided to help guide the students through the research process.  The cultural dimension is multi layered in the World Wide Web.  New cultures are being generated online as I write this.  Because each information consumer can also be a creator of new internet content, instruction and guidance is needed in the cultural realm.