Brainstorming My Media Literacy Autobiography

Growing up with parents that weren’t “tech savvy” always made for an interesting time when they just bought new cell phones or a desktop for the family. I am the youngest in my family and I am always the one that my parents and sister go to for technology advice. I am the type of person that would try different things and click different buttons to see what would happen. Now I look for YouTube videos when I am stumped on technology things.

I am just like my mother when it comes to reading books, magazines, etc. I love getting wrapped up in a good novel and escaping the real world for a little bit. Learning how to navigate through the Internet and finding what is and isn’t reliable was something that I have taught myself. When I was in high school I finally started learning more about reliable sources and finding educational websites that could help with research.

Looking back now I used the Internet for entertainment purposes rather than for educational purposes. I don’t remember having to write a paper or researching a topic until later on in high school. I had AOL and the instant messenger that it had. Going through high school I had a MySpace account until I graduated then I moved up to the Facebook world. Changing your profile picture, adding music to your page, or showing everyone what your favorite movies are is something that I like about social media.

As an educator, I feel like it is my job and responsibility to incorporate different aspects of the media into my teaching. I want to utilize all of the media that we have available to us and share it with my students. Being a librarian, I can help my students become media literate before they get out of high school. There are so many things that I can do with teaching media literacy. I feel that this is one of the best jobs where I can utilize everything from print and online materials to show students what they need to know before they go off to college and into the real world. This course has given me so many sources that I could use in my library and with my students. I want students to not only know how to evaluate media sources that they see but also to show the world who they really are. The media is a great outlet for expressing yourself and this class has shown me that.