What Should Diversity Look Like in the Media Center?

The Council for Exceptional Children states that doing justice to the word diversity means "understanding and valuing the characteristics and beliefs of those who demonstrate a wide range of characteristics. This includes ethnic and racial backgrounds, age, physical and cognitive abilities, family status, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religious and spiritual values, and geographic location. What implications does this call for justice to an admittedly vast range of diversities have for the modern media center? Where do we begin, as media specialists and educators, to meet the needs of these diversities?The first step is to educate ourselves.

Amanda Credaro, in School Libraries: Catering to the Special Needs of Children, lists five challenges faced by media specialists in ensuring that the special needs of students are met.

They are the diversity of individuals, the heterogeneity of groups, the difficulty in identifying student groups, the instability of those groups, and budgetary restrictions (Credaro. 2006).

Diversity can mean many things. We can begin with the obvious things such as race, age, and physical abilities.  These diversities are outwardly apparent and, therefore, easily identified.  But what about cognitive ability, socioeconomic status, or motivational attitudes?  How will these diversities affect a student's ability to learn? Consider the use of technology.  A student from a middle class family has probably grown up with at least one if not more computers in his/her home. That students ability to assimilate new technology and to utilize it to further his/her learning will be far greater than a student from a family of low economic status or a student with cognitive/physical challenges.  Technology also holds a potential for grabbing the attention of that low motivated bright student.

Media specialists must also be aware of the fact that students may fall into more than one diversity group. The racial identity of a student should not be overlooked because he/she is cognitively challenged. Conversely, a student's high ability, low motivation challenge should not be secondary to his/her racial/ social identity.

After identifying the diversities presented in a population, the next step would be to identify individuals.  Many of the students with cognitive/physical challenges will be identified by the special education professionals in a school. However, the media specialist has a unique opportunity to observe students outside the classroom and potentially recognize students who are struggling. Regarding race/ethnicity, media specialists have a responsibility to provide representation for all races/ethnicities within the media center collection.  We live in a global world and the media center should reflect that fact.  Similarly, a high school media center serves students from 14 to 18 and the collection should provide appropriate material for that broad span of maturity.  

Over the years the diversity of a school population changes creating the need for the media specialist to continually update the collection and stay abreast of changing technology. Situations may arise within a population based on one or more of the diversities, bullying, for instance, or an influx of tranisitory students.  The media specialist needs to be prepared to aid in dealing with the situation.

And, finally, there are budgetary concerns.  Meeting the needs of all these diversities comes at a cost. These costs may include physical changes in providing access by widening doors, adding additional wheelchair-accessible shelving, and collections for the hearing or sight impaired. Additions to the collection to provide adequate resources for racial/ethnic and age diversity is also costly. Many of the diversities will require additional man hours.  The media specialist is then faced with a juggling act trying to balance myriad needs within a limited budget.

All of these challenges and more face the modern media specialist on a daily basis. However, it would be unethical and immoral to pretend these diversities do not exist in our schools today.  Just as in the classroom, the media specialist has a responsibility to meet each student where he/she is and maximize his/her educational experience. What will diversity look like in your media center?

Credaro, A. (2006). School Libraries: Catering to the Special Needs of Children. Warrior Librarian. http://www.warriorlibrarian.com/LIBRARY/kidsneeds.html

How Does CEC Define Diversity. Council for Exceptional Children.

http://www.cec.sped.org/content/navigationmenu/aboutcec/diversity/definitionofdiversity/default.htm

Technology, Diversity and the Media Center

“Let’s Make it Great for Everyone”

 The media center should stimulate the students and make them aware of their diversity in a positive way. Programs and activities should be designed to appeal to and serve the needs of the entire student population. This certainly will require the need to have several specific activities during the school year targeting specific groups of the student populations.

The media center can help support diversity among the student population by providing literature as well as multimedia resources to promote the variety of interest and abilities commonly found in an academic setting.

Different types of diversity exist within the school population. It is important to recognize and celebrate each one in some unique way. Schwartz and Karge have identified the following types of differences: racial and ethnic diversity; gender and sexual orientation; religious diversity; physical, learning, and intellectual differences; linguistic differences; and behavior and personality diversity. Schwartz and Karge (1996)

The school media specialist is in charge of providing instructional and informational resources for the diverse population. The collection should represent different views, including the ones the media specialist might find offensive. Students should have access to a variety of perspectives in order to make inform choices.

Diversity among people and cultures should have a strong presence within the collection and should be seen throughout the media center in the form of music, displays, posters, bulletin boards and etc...  

The students that we serve in the media center differ greatly from one another in various forms; however, technological advances make it possible to use a variety of technology assistive devices to meet each of these needs.

Technology for supporting diversity in the media center did not jump right at me as I entered the media center at my school. However, I did discover that technology is being used to support diversity.  Students with hearing difficulties can use head phones to listen to books on tapes. The media center provides different shapes and types of computer mice for computer navigation. Students are also given the opportunity to use a computer program to help improve fluency, the students are also offered head phones with an attached microphone. Using the software, they read the words out loud into the mike, and the computer then read and repeats what was just said, thereby letting the student know if a word is being pronounced correctly.

In addition, I have seen tables that can be raised and lowered to adjust the height by touching a button. Some of my students with visual impairments use a software based screen magnifier which enlarges text and graphics seen on the computer screen. It also provides contract and color enhancements that make it easy for visually impaired students to read.

Ashley’s story was really great to read. The support she received for her teacher and mother really helped to accomplish her goal.  I am sure she knew that she was different from the other students. Ashley wanted to be given the opportunity to be herself and be viewed as a student - not in a separate category.  If not given the opportunity to audition, the school would have missed out on her contribution to the school’s culture. I have found that most students with disabilities take great pride in their work --- like Ashley!

In reference to copyright, what are the Principles of Fair Use for media literacy education?

The terms “media literacy” and “fair use” are two terms that tend to cause confusion among many people, including educators, administrators, and media specialists.

According to the Center for Social Media, media literacy is the capacity to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate using a wide variety of forms of media such as television, newspapers, movies, print, images, websites, music, blogs, etc.

 Fair use refers to the part of copyright law that says that, under certain conditions, copyrighted media material can be used by someone else without paying royalties. This means that it is okay to use copyrighted material if it provides educational, social, or cultural benefits to the user.

Fair use is widely used in the world today. For example, historians regularly use quotes from other writing and textual sources; scholars illustrate cultural issues with textual, visual, and musical examples; and the news regularly makes reference to films, classic television programs, archived images and songs.

In the educational community, copyright laws are often misunderstood on the subject of media literacy and fair use; therefore, educators fear being sued for copyright infringement. This misunderstanding of the law interferes with the genuine purpose of copyright- to promote the advancement of knowledge through balancing the rights of owners and users.

Following is a list of five practices where the doctrine of fair use clearly applies:

1.) Educators may use materials designed for entertainment or persuasive or  advocacy purposes if they are a clear part of an instructional goal.

2.) The principles of fair use apply to not only school settings but also non-school based programs.

3.) The principles of fair use concern inappropriate use of material; not how they were acquired. It doesn’t matter if it’s an over-the air broadcast, a  personal copy, or a rented or borrowed copy as long as the material is used to enhance critical thinking and promote learning.

4.) Fair use of materials is subject to the “rule of proportionality” which means only the part of the media that is needed to accomplish the learning goal is considered fair use.

Five Principles to Guide Fair Use:

1.) Educators can choose illustrative materials from a full range of copyrighted media resources. These resources must be germane to the lesson and only the part needed to accomplish the learning goal should be used.

2.) Educators can integrate copyrighted material into curriculum material such as books, tests, workbooks, podcasts, videos, websites and other   materials designed for learning. The educator must provide attribution for the material, and, again, can only include what is necessary for achieving the educational goal.

3.) Educators can share effective examples of teaching about media and meaning with one another including lessons and resource materials. When educators create materials, their materials should be able to be seen or used by anyone they choose to share with.

4.) Students or learners can incorporate, modify, or re-present media objects in their own classroom work assignments as long as they can justify how the material is transformed or re-purposed to show critical analysis.  

5.) Student work that incorporates media content (that has met the transformative standard) can be distributed to wide audiences.

MYTHS:

There are many myths concerning fair use, but the one that hits most closely to home to me is that “fair use could get me sued.” I know at my school, there is a great misunderstanding about fair use. We are heavily cautioned about using any movie clips or television program clips in our lessons. Many teachers have been asked to not do these even if they have an educational goal in mind. It is very, very unlikely that any lawsuit would be brought against an educator over the use of media in the educational process. Many educators might confuse a “cease and desist” letter from a copyright owner as a threat of being sued. Because of this, many quality lessons that could be even better with media examples are often pushed to the wayside.

Another myth that is prevalent is that “if I don’t make money off of it then it is fair use.” This is stretching it to the extreme. Fair use applies ONLY to material that can be re-purposed to create critical thinking and learning. You can’t show an entire movie if only a portion of it is intended for learning.

After researching this, I looked at my own media center handbook and was shocked to see that there was not a single mention of “fair use” anywhere in the handbook. The entire copyright section of our handbook addresses photocopying, videotaping, and computer software. Wow! No wonder there is so much confusion!

Reference:

Center for Social Media. (2012). Code of best practices in fair use for media literacy education. Retrieved March 15, 2012, from         http://mediaeducationlab.com/code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education-0.

Bookworm Channel News

Bookworm Channel News

When you become in charge of the school news, you may want to look over some tapes to get an idea of what has been done. However, it is not necessary to do the exact same thing, remember this is your chance to present the news as you wish.

TV school news production maybe challenging for a new media specialist. The first thing that comes to mind is the news we watch on TV while at home.  The key is to start small by keeping thing simple as you learn.  It is a good idea to invest in books on television production.  Books should have illustrations to make following instruction easier. 

TV news production guidelines for new media specialists:

• Learn your equipment

Read manuals so you will be familiar with how your equipment works.

Take pictures of your studio you never know when you may have to disassemble it due to relocating or when cleaning the studio room is necessary.

• Teach your students

Teach the skills of television production to your students.

• Insist on quality

Students should look their best when in front of the camera. They should sit up straight, hair should be combed, clothes ironed, and faces clean.

• Follow a format and write a script

Provide a script for students to read. Students need a script to read so they will       sound natural and be more relaxed during the session.

• Improve some aspect of your show each year

Reflecting on your TV news program throughout the school year will help you decide what need to be changed or added to the production.  

Pleasant grove, Kids News Network (KNN), is a weekly broadcast done in a format similar to a magazine's. The news team consists of academically gifted level fifth graders, who produce a recorded video broadcast for the school. A portion of the class does designated tasks over the course of the school week, with the finished news video being displayed the following Monday.

The presented video consists of the introduction, the welcome anchors, a review of the previous week’s events, and then several of news packages involving the school. Afterwards, the video displays the upcoming events for that week and then the weekly character education skit of a positive motivational term or phrase. The news then concludes with a sign-off, thanking the audience for their attention and then displays a closing montage of the students and faculty along with the staff roll. 

Southern California Area High School’s Tigernews  uses a similar scheduling format similar to a professional news channel, with the flyer, the introductory comments, clips of media (in this case a girl sung for a few minutes), some news articles. They then sign off as well.

George Washington Elementary School hosts news articles by students selected by teachers to work on the broadcast; the selection is based on reading ability, having a clear voice, and the capability to come to school early. The news is done every morning from 8:00am to 8:10am. What the students do in the broadcast is dependent on grade levels: the lower grades (K~3rd) do only the pledge, while the higher grades (3rd~5th) do the actual news broadcast.

The video production is done live, should a problem arise that interferes with the ability to broadcast the news video, the media specialist handles the troubleshooting. Failing that, the news would be presented over the intercom system instead.  Because the news broadcast is so popular among the students, they are rarely late to class.

TV school news production is very popular among students therefore it would be wise for the media specialist to capitalize on its popularity.  It is another resource that can be used to involve students in school activities.        

Speak Up, Social Media!

Social networking in our schools. Words that strike fear into the hearts of many of our colleagues. However, I think it affords an intriguing possibility,  its potential in meeting kids where they are.

Today's student has been raised in an era of instant communication with information right at his/her fingertips.  I guarantee that most of my students spend a significantly larger percentage of their week on social media than they do on homework. Most would rather lose a finger than their phone. No, wait, not a finger, they need those for texting! Our students have obviously embraced a new form of communication filled with tweets, IMs, wikis and blogs. They are not even emailing anymore; email is so last week.  Why are we fighting this trend? What scares us about this new kind of communication?  I believe it is control. We are terrified that in allowing social media in our schools we are relinquishing control over how they spend their time at school and what goes into their brains while they are there. In outlawing social media at school we are forfeiting a key opportunity to engage students right where they are.  What have we to lose by boldly utilizing social networking to communicate with our students?

Now, what implications does social networking have for the media center? Well, in a recent study published in the School Library Journal it was found that media specialists are more likely to join social networking sites than teachers and principals, and they are more likely to adopt a variety of content-sharing tools for personal, professional, and classroom use. Obviously, media specialists are further down the road with adoption of social networking.  This should provide a leg up in making the media specialist and, by extension, the media center the coolest things at school.  Can you imagine a library full of QR codes providing library orientation, or students receiving tweets about new books based on the type of books they have previously checked out? How about students posting book reviews on a library blog? I can, and if you want your media center to be a  current, vital asset to your school, you should, too!

One complaint noted in the aforementioned study is that most media specialists are frustrated with their school districts blocking access to much of the social media they would like to utilize.  I know at my school, we are constantly running up against blocking of scads of worthwhile sites.  The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, has prepared a useful resource to aid in educating the community and teens about responsible, safe use of social networking.  Check out their toolkit and start advocating for social networking in your school.


Here's  a website with an extensive list of social networking resources from Internet @ School.


 

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6705646.html