Article Assessment #3: Orchestrating the Media Collage by Jason Ohler

Orchestrating the Media Collage, by Jason Ohler, is a comprehensive look at what it means to be literate in today's digital society. It is also an exploration of the implications of the digital age for those in the business of education.

Ohler begins by exploring literacy as a historical concept - literacy has always referred not only to the ability to consume the "media of the day," but also to the ability to produce it. However, there has also traditionally been a large gap between the number of people who are capable of creating and publishing media and the number of people capable of consuming it. This, according to Ohler, is becoming less and less true in the digital age. Today, a literate person must be skilled in interpreting and in assembling digital and traditional media into shared and meaningful "collages" if they wish to communicate as effectively as possible with their peers. Developing the ability to become literate in new media quickly is also vital, as widely available creation and publishing capabilities often come out as soon as the new media itself does today.

Ohler goes on to enumerate some special obligations of Educators in our media-rich world. He places emphases on the importance of embracing new media while not forgetting the value of more traditional media which require prolonged thought and focus, like reading and writing, the importance of being "fearless" in pursuit of our own media literacy while allowing our students to develop their own and help us learn, and the importance of guiding our students towards intelligent, constructive, and human approaches to media.

A few excerpts and initial reactions. . .

But what effect will this have on my classroom? I want to require more of my students in terms of media literacy (as in, expecting anything of them at all). I want to emphasize the idea of "collage" in my own teaching. I use too much text. I lecture in text, with pictures as sidenotes. This is not the best I can do. I impart much information in the form of lecture, readings, and written questions. This is not all I can do. I use media, but sparingly. I have not made it my business to acknowledge and prepare students for interaction with the majority of information they come into contact with - I have not bothered to prepare them for interaction with digital media, assuming that teaching them how to interact with traditional "school-type" media was all that was necessary, and assuming that unless I was going to walk them through how to use digital media in tiny baby steps, I had no business asking them to do anything of the sort.

I am emboldened as to my ability to give valuable input to people who are more tech-savvy than I am, and I am emboldened by the idea that I don't HAVE to tell students exactly how to do things - I just need to give them tools and expectations and let them run with it.

And I don't have to be crazy-digital-savvy; just curious, motivated to try new things, and willing to set standards for modern literacy in my classroom. This is good to know.