The readings and discussions have once again given me much food for thought. Yet, I don’t feel I am any closer to answers. In fact, I have many more questions that leave me wondering and worrying about the impact online access is having on our students and the long term effects.
The article by Harste and Albers (2012) had me thinking about my role as an AT consultant and the message I have been delivering to teachers in regards to online advertisements. Often in my workshops when I am demonstrating online tools, a website that I select may have an advertisement for a product or game. My solution has been to install an online tool, such as Adblock that recognizes advertisements on a page and removes them so that the user does not see the ad. This is usually the suggestion I give to teachers when asked how to stop these pop up advertisements from displaying on a student’s screen as they can be distracting and sometimes inappropriate. However, after reading the article, I have started to think about my patchwork solution as not good enough. Putting a bandaid on an open wound won’t solve the problem. Clear boundaries and discussion about media advertisements and images are essential to help students develop critical thinking and analysis skills.
How do skills associated with critical examination of advertisements transfer to critical analysis of other media texts? Harste and Albers (2012) claim that instruction around visual media images is necessary in a literacy curriculum. The activities conducted in the Harste and Albers (2012) study provide students with opportunities to think and look critically as a consumer and as a marketer. A quick google search led to numerous lesson plans on marketing and consumerism. Yet I wonder about the responsibility of parents too. Whose role is it to lead students in understanding online consumerism and targeted advertisements, educators or parents? I believe a partnership is necessary to spread a common message. Unfortunately, I have friends that allow their children to install apps on iPads and iPhones. Children who have made in app purchases that add up to a large sum of money. Parents who have laptops and TV’s in their children's bedrooms or in the basement away from adult monitoring. It makes it difficult for educators to teach students about consumerism and online safety if parents are not monitoring what their children are seeing, hearing and reading.
References
Harste, J.C., and Albers, P. (2013). "I'm riskin' it": teachers take on consumerism. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(5), 381-390.
Hi Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences in regards to this week’s topic of online consumerism. Like you, this week’s articles had me thinking about the suggestions I have been giving to teachers regarding dealing with advertisements now that we have become a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) system and Chromebooks are a part of our daily lessons in all of our classrooms. Too be honest up until this point we have taken more of an out of sight out of mind approach to advertisements and like you we have used software extensions such as Adblock Plus to simply block ads on Google chrome. It’s a nice piece of software and fairly easy to install and use, (this is a how to YouTube video that I have shared with staff - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEKUSf0UkDE) but it does not teach students what they need to know about advertisements. You hit the nail on the head when you state that it is simply a band aid solution. I find myself agreeing with Harste and Albers (2013) who declare that “adults and children alike are immersed in a world where visual information is everywhere and we suggest that teachers and their students must be equipped to understand messages that underpin this information (p. 389). I again thank you for sharing. I too will need to rethink our approach and this week’s seminar has definitely got me headed in the right direction.
Samear
References:
Harste, J.C., and Albers, P. (2013). "I'm riskin' it": teachers take on consumerism. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(5), 381-390.
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteYou brought up two very important issues related to online consumerism. First, that the so-called ‘bandaids’ used to censor or block advertisement do only offer a temporary, at-school solution for pop up ad problems. By using online tools to block advertisements, the true teaching of critical thinking and analysis skills is really just being avoided altogether in a ‘Hear no evil, see no evil’ manner. However, these tools can still have a very valuable place in the classroom and could be used within one of those ‘teachable moments’ of digital citizenship. Perhaps teachers could go through the process of modelling the use of these tools with their students and encourage students to use them at home, thus helping to merge school online practice and home online practice. The ads are not going to go away, but teaching students how they can protect themselves from being flooded with them by using online tools and also teaching them how to be critical and aware of them is important.
The other issue you mentioned was the responsibility of parents and educators to work together to help students understand online consumerism and targeted advertisements. The education, communication and participation of all stakeholders is critical. How can parents, students, and educators be supported through this process of learning?