Student Media Literacy Research

A nationwide sampling of high school students were assessed for their ability to evaluate digital sources on the open internet. Nearly all students floundered. Ninety percent received no credit on four of six tasks. Some of the specific findings follow: 

• Fifty-two percent of students believed a grainy video claiming to show ballot stuffing in the 2016 Democratic primaries (the video was actually shot in Russia) constituted “strong evidence” of voter fraud in the U.S. Among more than 3,000 responses, only three students tracked down the source of the video, even though a quick search turns up a variety of articles exposing the ruse. 
• Two-thirds of students couldn’t tell the difference between news stories and ads (set off by the words “Sponsored Content”) on Slate’s homepage.
• Ninety-six percent of students did not consider why ties between a climate change website and the fossil fuel industry might lessen that website’s credibility. Instead of investigating who was behind the site, students focused on superficial markers of credibility: the site’s aesthetics, its top-level domain, or how it portrayed itself on the About page.

Breakstone, J., Smith, M., Wineburg, S., Rapaport, A., Carle, J., Garland, M., & Saavedra, A. (2019). Students’ civic online reasoning: A national portrait. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford History Education Group & Gibson Consulting. https://purl.stanford.edu/gf151tb4868

Media Use by Tweens and Teens 2019

This census report is a big-picture look at how young people in the U.S. find entertainment and use devices. Beyond screen time, the report explores other critical challenges for families managing media use, from internet access for homework to unregulated, unrated online videos.

Common Sense Media. (2019). Common Sense census: Media use by tweens and teens 2019. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense Media.  

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens-2019?j=7514895&sfmc_sub=168224478&l=2048712_HTML&u=137031445&mid=6409703&jb=220&utm_source=research_8-18census_2019&utm_medium=email 

 

Remaking Videos

In analyzing 93 video remakes, inspired by the video "Love Language," researchers found that producing remake videos may enhance media literacy competencies by offering a means for youth to develop creative skills through strategic imitation.
Hobbs, R., & Friesem, Y. (2019). The creativity of imitation in remake videos. E-Learning and Digital Media.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2042753019835556

Variety of Resources Educators Use to Conduct Work

One study conducted by ProQuest found that while traditional peer-reviewed journals were of key importance to users, they were only part of a rich set of materials researchers and faculty were tapping to conduct their work. While the importance of content diversity remains stable, the mix of content being demanded is changing. Print books continue to be the most commonly used non-journal resource, but are experiencing some decline in importance. Conversely, the importance of video and blogs has jumped significantly and e-books continue their upward trend as well. The study found that researcher use of video content has nearly doubled from 2014 to 2017 as well. Implications from this study could lead to more videos being used in education to assist in student engagement with the material and ultimately improve the learning process.

Ayling, M. (2017). Research and teaching rely on content diversity: Faculty use multiple content types in their work and they’re teaching students to look beyond journals. Ann Arbor, MI: Proquest. http://contentz.mkt5049.com/lp/43888/502958/PQ00545-003_Content_Diversity_whitepaper_0.pdf

According to the results of The Campus Computing Survey 2017, a large majority of institutions say open educational resources (OER) will be an important source of course content in five years, according to a survey of CIOs detailed in an annual report that takes a look at campus IT. Video is increasingly important for hybrid, flipped and online classes, and the growing use of video lecture capture has surpassed audio in institutions. While artificial intelligence has drummed up lots of buzz in education, early data in this report suggest that more initial interest lies in the technology’s use in analytics, and less in instruction.

Outcomes of this conference:

-       Identify key IT planning and policy issues and trends that affect their institution

-       Use data from the presentation and supporting online materials for campus planning

-       Identify a national data resource to support campus decision making

OER: EduCause. (2017). Campus Computing 2017: The national survey of E-Learning and IT in American higher education. Philadelphia, PA: EDUCAUSE.