Communication skills are one of the four most crucial skills for students in the 21st century to develop. While many understand communication to be the ability to clearly articulate thoughts and verbally converse with others, there is a new dimension to the term “communication”, which relates to technology. Media fluency helps develop the ability to communicate effectively with graphical and multimedia formats as much as with words and text (Wabisabi Learning, 2016).
Students in the 21st century are consuming media at a higher and higher rate with each passing year. With the increase in consumption comes the increase in responsibility for parents and educators to prepare students to manage the media effectively. While students are largely comfortable using technology to consume information, they are not as prepared to produce communications effectively using media.
Students need to become Prosumers - a term derived from the two titles: producer and consumer (Wabisabi Learning, 2016). If students become just as proficient at producing media as they are at consuming it, they will possess skills that will truly help them navigate any situation they may face in their personal, educational, and professional lives.
It is an educator’s responsibility to teach students to question who created the information they find, why it was made, and how it is created to grab their attention (Common Sense Education, 2020), and then to be as thoughtful in the way they participate in it.
By building and developing media fluent students, we are building and developing good digital citizens.
Common Sense Education. (2020, April 1). 5 Essential Media Literacy Questions for Kids. https://www.commonsense.org/education/videos/5-essential-media-literacy-questions-for-kids
Wabisabi Learning. (2016, February 16). Media Fluency [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myYUGyAjqII&feature=youtu.be