Week 5: Chapter 9 Discussion Questions and Answers

Many educators believe that with the growth of media and information technology, media literacy is just as important as – or even more important than – print literacy (that is, learning to read and write).

What is your position on the relative importance of the two “literacies”?

Although I do believe that media literacy is a very important attribute to have whether you are young or old, the basis to actually learn media literacy correctly at this point of time or in the near future still comes down to first learning print literacy. Without first learning the basics of reading and writing, there is no logical way to develop and actually learn media literacy skills. Granted, there are some media literacy skills that don’t require reading and writing skills but depend on visual cues instead (just like many safety visual cues that exist in society for individuals who don’t know how to read), but for the vast majority of media literacy skills, the ability to be able to read is still a required skill. The same goes for writing skills. Learning to write is still a vital skill to have in order to be able to make it through life. Maybe 1000 years from now it might be different as far as how important writing will be in order to make through life’s daily activities, but for now and in the near future, writing is still a vital skill to have. Media literacy is very important to know because of the way technology is progressing, but reading and writing skills are still more important skills to have.

What information from this chapter helps support your position?

The information that helps support my position on this issue is when Robyler states in this chapter that definition of literacy has evolved dramatically over time and that new definitions of what goes into to modern day literacy skills will have to implemented.