Comunicar 39-ingles - Revista Comunicar

79cratic discourse». They began to understand how theimages and stories perpetuated in the media affectedtheir belief systems and those of the people aroundthem. The students gained skills in finding and evaluatingsources and understanding more deeply the vitalrole the news media plays in encouraging citizen participationor discouraging it. The students began tounderstand how a news story could affect them personally,the impact of a poorly constructed news report,and the ways in which incompleteinformation can lead tocitizen apathy.In classroom after class -room, day after day, childrenmade videos, produced simplevideogames, created basicweb sites, analyzed news, visiteda local TV station, deconstructedcommercials and ad -vertising, and participated inrobust debates about currentevents. Students experiencedan innovative pedagogy thatcombined play and learning inthe course of media analysisand creative multimedia compositionactivities.Through reading, viewingand listening to a variety of traditionaland popular culturemedia texts, children learnedhow to think abstractly aboutquestions of authorship, audience, and purpose acrossall types of media. Children experienced the power ofbeing an author of different types of media productionsincluding videos, poetry, music, news articles,videogames, and comic books, working individuallyand collaboratively so that they could engage moredeeply with their communities and the world aroundthem.3. DiscussionThrough a detailed exploration of these three programscertain consistencies are revealed signifying specificmethods for developing a strong media and informationliteracy program with a focus on democraticparticipation.All programs reflect a respect for student interest inpopular culture. Particularly for younger students, connectingto popular culture is an effective way to gainstudent attention. For some students, the notion ofdemocratic participation seems a distant topic fromtheir lives. Connecting to students through popularculture provides an access point for an educator.All programs integrate student interests into the lessonplans. If the goal of a course of study in democraticparticipation is, ultimately, student participation, then itis vital that the student’s own interests in current eventsare incorporated into the lesson plans. Note that in allthe programs described above it was through studentdiscussions that topics evolved and participation wasNew technologies have made communication across towns,across countries, and across the globe increasingly available,easy and often instantaneous. For that communication to beeffective requires the dual skills of media and informationliteracy, as well as an understanding of what it means to bea responsible, engaged citizen. The world is increasinglyreliant on educational environments, in formal and informalsettings, to help young people gain the skills and knowledgenecessary to express their opinions and participate in theirown governance.enhanced. Educators, especially those with an interestin discussing certain key topics, may be tempted to forwardtheir own current event agenda, but true democraticparticipation is more likely to be developedwhen the students themselves explore the issues anddetermine where their efforts should be placed. It isthen the instructor’s responsibility to make the bridgeto current events that matter to the students. For manyyoung people, popular culture is where they mostlikely already feel their voice is heard. Helping them tounderstand how to use that voice in other waysthrough the media is a necessary learning outcome forsuccess.All programs were led by educators willing to putaside any assumptions that students would not be interestedin current events. Each program shows thatwhen the current events speak to the interests andconcerns of the students, the students engage enthusiastically.All programs used technology as a means to anComunicar, 39, XX, 2012© ISSN: 1134-3478 • e-ISSN: 1988-3293• Pages 73-80