Thinking about the activities you take part in and the knowledge that you acquire is a crucial step in truly understanding new information. As I completed the material for one of my Digital Media classes the other day, I couldn't help but ask myself questions about everything I had just done. How will this relate to my students? How can I implement these resources into the classroom come my placement? All of these questions started to fill my head, which prompted me to organize my thoughts into the subheadings below:
What Did I Just Engage In?
What Did I Just Engage In?
- To explore the wonderful world of advertising, we were given four different activities, in which two had to be completed. As explained in my Assignments and Exemplars tab in my blog, I chose to create my own Infographic (using Easel.ly) and take a short survey that would inform me on my technological presence in the classroom environment and my personal beliefs about the use and implementation of the tool (click here to take the test yourself).
- After completing the class activities, I began to think about how important it is for students to understand that what they post, and how they interact with one another on the Internet, can be classified as a form of advertisement. Not the type of advertisement that showcases a new movie and it's cast, but rather an advertisement that advertises you and your personal information. This can be a slippery slope with students, as they don't always recognize what is dangerous and inappropriate and what is safe and acceptable . Through the various advertisement activities, I came to realize that by engaging your students in activities and resources such as the ones mentioned above, you can create a safer environment for your students, and teach them how to protect themselves from potentially harmful situations. By understanding the various aspects of advertisement, students will able to differentiate the unsafe Internet resources from the safe ones, allowing them to have a more positive experience with technology. Not only does this apply to technological aspects, but it also extends into the real world where children are subjected to an even larger variety of advertisements. Familiarizing students with the 5 P's of Advertising - Product, Purchaser, Pitch, Placement and Presented - will give students knowledge to act upon when faced with advertisements and persuasive lingo. By integrating safe and proper ways to use technological resources into the classroom, and preparing your students to keep their eyes peeled for harmful situations, will create mindful and prepared students - which is something every educator should strive to accomplish.
- With technology and advertising being such large parts of our everyday lives, it is our responsibility as educators to teach our students how to use this technology and decipher advertisements so that they can be smart about the choices they make, and understand the logic behind them. Once students become familiar with advertising, I would allow them to further their knowledge by creating a poster or presentation demonstrating their understanding of advertising and the power it can hold. Depending on the age group you are working with of course, I think it would be both fun and beneficial for your students to create their assignment using some sort of online advertisement tool, such as Easel-ly. This was they can explore the power of advertising, while interacting with safe and engaging tools. Overall I think that teaching our students about advertising and advertisement safety can only be an asset, and will only make them more efficient and responsible technological users in the future.