Electronic literacy and its implementation

Samuelson, Gerald Keith (1983) Electronic literacy and its implementation. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (18MB) [English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. (Original Version)

Abstract

"Communication" is the primary concern of the writers of curriculum guides. English courses are said to contain a dimension of media awareness: it is claimed that English education helps students examine the media critically as conveyors of information and help develop standards for judging and responding. This statement assumes that the present English curriculum enables a literate person to respond to the electronic media and print with equal understanding. -- Current text books for English teachers call for a "new focus on literacy" which would enable students to respond critically to the mass media. Unfortunately, the only methodology suggested seems to include no more than vague references to talking about television programs in class. -- The educational community must take television more seriously. It is the most profoundly important advance in communications and a primary source of ideas and information for students. Young people should be taught "how" to analyze what they see and hear on television. Teachers ought to help passive, indiscriminate, purposeless viewers become active, discriminating, purposeful viewers. Teaching the ability to discriminate among the messages produced by television in a manner that parallels those of print is no trivial matter. An effective methodology has to be implemented if students are to achieve electronic literacy as an educational objective. -- Besides a knowledge of the nature of the medium, electronic literacy involves correct reading of the picture on the screen, evaluation of the technical methods by which the pictures were obtained, knowledge of the organization for which the author is working, knowledge of the personalities which express themselves, and aesthetic appraisal of the value of the broadcast. In order to teach this, some definite guidelines are required. -- If the concept of literacy is not modernized, distinctive features of popular media may cause the viewer to misinterpret the intended message. The communication system of reading and writing should be integrated into a more comprehensive verbal-pictorial-sound-language system. Electronic communication has made cultural knowledge available publicly, instantaneously, and pervasively. -- A review of the material written concerning the nature of the television medium and methodological approaches to television criticism indicates that the present English curriculum lacks the means of achieving the goals which it sets for itself. A new focus on literacy which attends to the distinctive features of the television medium is required; 'electronic literacy' should be taught in our schools.

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