Justifying A Media Literacy Curriculum

I support using media in the English Language Arts curriculum. Besides the obvious reason that today’s youth expect media in the classroom, I believe that technology, if chosen and employed carefully, can enhance students’ literacy. While a convincing case came be made that modern technology can alienate us from others, staring into a computer screen illuminating social networking sites certainly loses some of the advantages of face-to-face discourse, it can also help us to connect with others and places that wouldn’t necessarily be possible without technology. For instance, during a unit on African American fiction I can allow my students listen to some of folk songs Zora Hurston collected and recorded in journeys through the South or I can have my students watch a recording Maya Angelo read her own poem, “Phenomenal Women,” which is greatly enhanced when heard from the soft, powerful voice of the author. I can teach my student about the new genres and forms that are emerging—text messages, blogs, wikis, digital storytelling, photo essays, and e-portfolios—and address their place in our society and the literary cannon. I believe that media ought to be used in the classroom to augment the study of literature and to prepare the rising generation for adulthood in a technology-centered world.