New Media Literacy

                New Media Literacy to me is skills needed to work with the new and upcoming technology in today’s society.  They are skills that allow you to work and play around with new technology.  These skills I feel are not taught to us….instead we pick them up as we go.  As we play around with technology we discover new skills on how to operate the technology we are using.  It seems that the “digital natives” (those born in a completely digital world) are the ones who can easily pick up on the new skills whereas the “digital immigrants” (those who are not familiar with technology) are being taught how to use such technology.  I have taught my parents how to operate a computer and if there is ever an issue I get a call to come and help fix it for them.  Just recently I purchased an iPod for my mom for mother’s day.  I took me well over an hour to teacher her and my father how to use it when they are out walking.  The technology is new to them and it’s not their fault that they are not used to an iPod or some other new technologies, it was just the era they grew up in.

                Media Literacy does fit into my content area.  I can use these skills in my computer class on a daily basis.  I know that once I teach the younger students how to use software correctly they pick it up easily.  I know for a fact that some of my students know more than I do about computers and that does not bother me, actually I am hoping this student can teach me a few things along the way.  Using media literacy will help all my students become better learners because they are finding new ways to problem solve by using the skills that they did or did not they had.  Some of these skills students do not know they have because they are just so used to the motions they think nothing of it.  We have skills that we did not know we had such as fixing a problem with your computer or iPhone.  You did not know that you could fix it but by playing around and using certain skills you were able to fix the issue that you had.  These skills can be used in all classrooms.  It is just a different way of using those skills without the use of technology.  Students need to branch out and find ways to solve the same problems without technology.  I feel since our lives now revolve around technology that we rely on it too much.  We are getting away from using our minds in critical ways.  We are too dependent on the technology that surrounds us and we start to forget how to do things that should be natural to us.  That is not the fault of anyone it is just how our culture is now and it will only continue to grow.  New Media Literacy and the skills that come with it will only become more and more useful as technology continues to grow.