My initial thoughts with this video were: FINALLY! I have always wanted to teach that communication is more than just words. Music, for example, can be used in a very manipulating manner; the images that are shown with a voiceover affect the message in profound ways. These are things we need to be teaching. In addition, I have always believed that the storytelling medium of our time is TV/movies. I am 100% with George here: we should be teaching how to be an active viewer as well as an active reader.

I hadn’t though about the students producing the visual media, mostly because of practical concerns, but as I consider it now, it might not be as difficult as I thought. It is very possible to use these types of projects with my students. I have already been thinking about what I want to teach about media/visual literacy and I believe it is an essential part of Language Arts: the art of language.

I simply can not wait for our local schools to be proactive in technology. I hope I will be a part of the change. The thought of young children engaged in learning and excited about it, is fascinating. I love movie making and love the though of children expressing their thoughts and views through movies. There is so much thought processes that go into making movies; sequencing, grammar, and preparation. Children love to entertain but to see your ideas and thoughts on a screen is awesome. I feel students will be running to school to show off their talents.

I found Media Smarts: Kids Learn How to Navigate the Multimedia World to be an accurate discription of what schools need to move towards to help students develop their technological vocabulary, media literacy, and understanding of the digital world around them. I felt that the video did a great job expressing the concern that students are focusing on teaching students the written English language and not focusing on educating students on the digital releams of society; such as teaching different ways to express creativity, perspective, color, or the "rules" of English grammar. In addition, I felt that the video did an excellent job at showing students who have media incorporated into their classrooms, enjoy learning more because they are actively engaged in their education and learning experiences.

I feel incorporating technology and media into my class will be a way to help my students express their understanding of key science concepts. I believe that all students need to know how to communicate ideas through written text but I also strongly believe that students need to know how to create, understand, analyze, and express their own ideas through media. I feel that providing students with projects such as PowerPoints, creating movies, video documentaries, etc. allow the students to apply communication, written, and digital media skills, while actively taking a part in the direction of their own education.

In closing, I feel that the video was geared to help teachers re-evaluate their teaching styles and open their eyes to the various ways to not only incorporate technology into their classrooms, but also address the growing concern of allowing students to become actively engaged in their education.

I think this video is an excellent example to show others what students in the 21st century should be doing in the classrooms.

I'm exhausted watching more hyperbolic cheerleading for increased digital activities. The people in this video seem to think they have enlightening thoughts regarding education. Is George Lucas an educator? I thought he produced and marketed the Star Wars franchise. Why do I care what he thinks? This video comes across as an advertisement for film school. What is film anyway? It's just one of many ways to communicate. Some people, to communicate ideas and emotions, write poetry, or plays or novels. Others paint, sing, sculpt or compose symphonies. Others make movies. I celebrate and enjoy all these forms of expression.

Can/will I incorporate digital media into my classroom? Most small children are probably on overload as it is. I imagine digital media could be a quick way to get young students focused. Other than that, it doesn't seem practical and it's way to time consuming. What do you eliminate so you can make PowerPoints and rubrics?

The Media Smart video was good. I like the beginning where they stated that children spend 6½ hours in front of some type of screen. Media is a constant part of today’s children’s lives.

The video also states that all Fifty States are required to incorporate media into its core curriculum. I would be nice to be able to teach every child to be media literate. As teachers we want to do what’s best for our students. We want to help them succeed.
But not every school district or school is capable of incorporating media into their core curriculum (at this time).

I know as a classroom teacher I am not prepared to take on this task. If a school has the means, maybe they could hire an IT person/teacher to assist the classroom teacher with incorporating media into their curriculum. I would love to make a 15 minute video with my students to show their parents during open house.

After viewing "Digital Kids", I was really surprised to see how young some of these kids were that were being introduced to some in depth media. It looks as though digital media classes are a "hot topic" right now. However, it appears that this type of class is a hot topic in charter schools instead of the public school system. I wonder why charter schools have picked up on this idea. It does offer a great hands-on learning environment that is very engaging to students of all ages. As far as integrating this type of learning into my classroom, I'm not sure how such a digital media class would fit into our current scope and sequence. It is possible that I could incorporate it somehow into our studies of fairy tales which does involve creative writing of an original fairy tale. Perhaps we could set up some sort of video opportunity for my students to actually act our their fairy tales "on screen" and share them with the class or other visiting classes. I'm sure some of our younger students would like to see such a production...who wouldn't?

I can definitely see the benefit of the students learning about media literacy both thru studies and applications. I believe it is very important for everyone to be able to analyze the media and the "news" / information that is being presented.

This is a very interesting video that I will be forwarding onto fellow teachers.

This was a hands on experience of how to integrate technology into the curriculum. As a high school English teacher, I look for new ways to keep the class interesting and to obtain 100 percent interaction with students and materials. This clip gave me a lot of ideas.

Media literacy has long been the province of the school library and the technology departments--a good partnership. The new AASL (American Association of School Libarians) Learning Standards address all kinds of media literacy.

Too often, though, libraries are considered unnecessary by short-sighted administrators who forget that evaluating sources--whether they be text, audio, or video--is as important in the library as finding them.

The learning standards are here: http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf

Ask your school librarian about them!