October 24-28 is National Media Literacy Week!
What is media literacy? The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication. This includes critical thinking about both digital and print information.
While we talk about digital citizenship and media literacy in school, families are also encouraged to have conversations about the use of media in their own homes. This might include talking about the amount and type of screen time you want to have, or learning to pause and think before clicking, or how to identify ads. One resource for families is: Building Healthy Relationships with Media → A Parent’s Guide to Media Literacy
"To become a successful student, responsible citizen, productive worker, or competent and conscientious consumer, individuals need to develop expertise with the increasingly sophisticated information and entertainment media that address us on a multi-sensory level, affecting the way we think, feel, and behave.
Today’s information and entertainment technologies communicate to us through a powerful combination of words, images, and sounds. As such, we need to develop a wider set of literacy skills helping us to both comprehend the messages we receive and effectively utilize these tools to design and distribute our messages. Being literate in a media age requires critical thinking skills that empower us as we make decisions, whether in the classroom, the living room, the workplace, the boardroom, or the voting booth." (National Assn. for Media Literacy Education. www.namle.net)
Additional links for families:
Media Smarts: Canada's Centre for Digital and Media Literacy
Common Sense Media: reviews on movies, TV, video games, and social media platforms, plus tips on managing screen time for kids and adults