STEMM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math...and Multimedia?

Elizabeth Beste -EDU 6215

  http://besteau.blogspot.com/

Cornelius, D. (2011). STEMM: Science, technology, engineering, math...and multimedia? Techniques: Connecting Education and Careers, 86(7), 46-49.

Summary

In this article Dave Cornelius points out that with the increase focus on STEM education, other disciplines are being pushed aside. This is especially true when looking at multimedia technologies. Multimedia is such a part of everything, that it has lost being a specific subject and as such, is not being specifically taught.

Main Points

Most schools no longer teach multimedia communications or technology literacy, yet hundreds of career opportunities require multimedia skills. The lack of emphasis on media skills prompted federal funding to the area of digital literacy. The goal was to increase multimedia partnering with such topics as critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration.

The Knight Commission on Digital Media and Literacy points out that digital literacy requires people to learn new multimedia skills as a requirement of digital citizenship. They recommend that digital and media literacy needs to be funded and supported as a critical element of education and through libraries and community organizations for adults. The commission has identified 5 key competencies that “work together in a spiral of empowerment, supporting people’s active participation in lifelong learning through the processes of both consuming and creating messages” (Cornelius, 2011, p. 47). The competencies, access, analyze and evaluate, create, reflect, and act, are needed as the basis for digital citizenship. These competencies are also the basis for the Common Core State Standards that lead to college and career readiness.

            The author quotes Nicole Pinkard of Chicago’s Digital Youth Network, who agrees that those who don’t learn to navigate literacy skills in a digital world will be considered illiterate very soon. Too many believe that focusing on digital tools will destroy reading and writing, rather than improve those basic skills. Many of the people interviewed felt that using multimedia when writing opens the creator to a larger audience and their work becomes more meaningful. Additionally, writers in a digital world still need to know the basics of storytelling when adding the multimedia elements. The author goes on to emphasize how digital work, such as video portfolios and websites are becoming the norm for jobseekers and points out that workers rarely are required to write handwritten reports any longer.

            Pushing students to write in the traditional sense, is limiting students in the future. Students no longer need the same level of memorization of facts; instead we need to teach students how to use digital tools where information can be obtained in seconds. Kids today need to be willing to change and learn new tools.

Recommendations

            Students today need to be taught how to use a wide variety of digital tools and techniques. They need to be able to access and assess those tools to use what best meets their needs and their audience. Additionally they must do so in an efficient and concise manner. These are skills that need to be specifically taught  

Reflection/Application     

            I completely agree with Dave Cornelius. Multimedia skills and tools need to be taught to students. Not only do students need to be able to produce a multimedia presentation, they need to understand how to address their audience and get their point across. When writing, students are taught how to hook their reader. This is a skill that also needs to be taught from a multimedia perspective. Students are taught how to write a persuasive paper, yet don’t understand how a TV commercial persuades them to buy the latest and greatest toy. We are in a digital world and we need to teach our children how to use digital tools to their advantage.