What Is M I L and Why is it Important? M I L in the Classroom
MIL stands for Media and Information Literacy, and this topic is important because media surrounds our everyday lives. Student’s need to be informed about the different types of media, how they can be incredible resources to our learning, but also harmful threats to our society when used in the wrong way. Students are MI-literate when they are given resources to explore and use to develop and grow intellectually. Students living in the United States should be MI- literate to be successful in the future. Our world revolves around technology, students developing a healthy relationship with technology will create a beneficial future. Providing opportunities for students to interact with media will create critical thinking adults in the future who will be able to develop their own judgements and opinions about the information they see on a daily basis.
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I plan to implement MIL in many different ways. I want to show students different forms of media, for example, videos, pictures, power points, news articles, interactive maps, twitter feeds, Facebook posts, etc. Sometimes I will provide different media examples for one topic so that children can compare and contrast what they see. Other times we will focus on one type of topic and use the same resource for the entire lesson. I will be flexible to all my students, and if one resource works better for my students I will try to include that type of media more than others, while still challenging my students at certain times. I will use media to promote different types of conversations, and encourage students to think critically about the information they are given. I plan to help my students notice all of the different types of media and how each are being used differently, to guide the idea “where is this all coming from.”
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Parents should talk about media and their opinions with their children. Keep children involved with what is going on in the world. Promote media positively. Show children how media is important to our world, including talking about politics, world problems, what is happening in the community, etc. Also it is very important to talk about how to use media in a beneficial way, talk to children about cyberbullying, and how easy it is to get caught up in cyberbullying without realizing. Parents can set up controls on their TV’s and Smart Phones. They can use settings to control apps that are being downloaded. Parents can disable location settings, set up passwords, and download age appropriate apps. Most importantly talk to your children and keep them engaged, they look up to you as role models and trust you the most.
Pohoto Credit: https://buickdriveforyourstudents.com/portals/10/LS_ExcitedStudents.jpg