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Teacher Review for MediaBreaker/Studios

MediaBreaker + their curriculum = Real media literacy

James D.
 Educator/Curriculum Developer
IdeaDriven Education
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My Grades 6, 7, 8
My Subjects English Language Arts, Social Studies, English Language Learning
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My Rating
Learning Scores
Engagement
Pedagogy
Support
My Students Liked It Yes
My Students Learned Yes
I Would Recommend It Yes
Setup Time More than 15 minutes
Great for Creation
Further application
Individual
Knowledge gain
Small group
Student-driven work
Great with Advanced learners
ELL
Low literacy
Special needs
How I Use It
I upload several video clips - either ones I have taken myself or others available via fair use - into the media library of Media Breaker. These become the resources that all of us can work with , edit, cut, remix, caption, etc. We usually take one of them and make it the subject of an extensive class discussion or socratic seminar to examine whatever essential issues might be present. With election season hitting full stride in the US, campaign commercials, news coverage, etc. could be the perfect basis for the project. If that were the case, we would discuss the messages, issues, or biases in the videos (just like with text). Next, I would set students loose on the whole set of uploaded videos and ask them to create something that either examines what the perceive is an essential message, an implicit bias, an issue that should be addressed, etc. They would then use the video editor to cut and remix the clips, adding text captions as they see fit to explain their points of view.
My Take
MediaBreaker is essentially a video editor with an agenda, and that agenda is media literacy. Part of TheLamp.org MediaBreaker comes with a ton of resources and lessons to help teachers help students learn to really examine media. Most importantly, it helps students learn to craft their own messages using media effectively. The combination of tools brings out the analytical best in students.