EDEC 612-001 – Media Literacy
McGill University, Faculty of Education
Summer 2014
www.edec612.wordpress.com
Course instructor: Habib Siam
Office hours: MTWTF, 11:30 AM – 12:15 PM (Rm 424)
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edec612@gmail.com
Course overview
Class time and location
July 7, 2014 – July 18, 2014
MTWTF, 1:05 PM – 4:55 PM
Seminars: Education building, Room 338
Lab demonstrations: Room 328 (PC lab)
Course description and content
This course’s primary goal is to help prospective teachers develop the critical skills and
understandings required to adapt to new media and to effectively integrate these media
effectively into educational curricula.
Class discussions will engage a number of topics including definitions of media, digital
literacies, critical media analysis, media representations of culture and cultural forms,
social media and linguistic norms. Our dialogues will examine the impact of these mediarelated themes on pedagogy and classroom practice.
Classes consist of a seminar, discussions and presentations. Readings are mandatory and
students are required to post daily reading response on the class blog.
Learning objectives
 Construct functional and pragmatic understandings of media, media literacy and
media education.
 Develop media production skills through lab demonstrations and participations.
 Become familiar with effective media education practices and sensitive to the
potential drawbacks of media in pedagogy.
 Build alternative understandings of how media and technology impact teachers’
professional identities and personal worldviews.
Quebec Education Plan (QEP) competencies
The QEP outlines 12 essential teacher competencies, each of which represents a set of skills
and strategies that prospective teachers must understand and strive to apply in their
respective educational environments. Throughout the semester, we will examine the
implications and complications of these individual competencies.
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Though this class critically engages all 12 competencies, particular attention is dedicated to
the following competencies 1, 4, and 8, in which teachers are:
1- To act as professional inheritors, critics and interpreter of knowledge or culture
when teaching students.
4- To pilot teaching/learning situations that are appropriate to the students
concerned and to the subject content with a view to developing the
competencies targeted in the programs of study.
8- To integrate information and communications technologies (ICT) in the
preparation and delivery of teaching/learning activities and for instructional
management and professional development purposes.
Class readings and course materials
Readings consist of a collection of academic and non-academic articles. All readings will be
made available to students directly through WebCT.
Access to computers is provided during lab demonstrations but students are welcome to
use their laptops should they prefer to.
McGill policy statements on academic integrity and student rights
1- McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must
understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other
academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures
(see www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/ for more information).
2- In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this
course have the right to submit in English or French any written work that is to be
graded.
3- If you have a disability, please contact the instructor to arrange a time to discuss
your situation. It would be helpful if you contact the Office for Students with
Disabilities at 514.398.6009 before you do this. Additional policies governing
academic issues which affect students can be found in the McGill Charter of
Students’ Rights: http://www.mcgill.ca/secretariat/documents/
Grading grid
A
AB+
85 – 100%
80 – 84%
75 – 79%
B
BC+
70 – 74%
65 – 69%
60 – 64%
C
D
F
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55 – 59%
50 – 54%
0 – 49%
Assignments and assignment descriptions
Reading responses (5 x 3% = 15% total)
Due: July 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14, 15, 16 by 10 am
Write a 200 word reading response for 5 of the 7 “sets” of required readings. In each response,
reflect on the day’s articles and the parallels between them. Analyze relevant ideas and themes
and share insights. Please avoid lengthy summarizing.
Post your responses on the class blog at www.edu612.wordpress.com under the relevant post.
These posts will be titled “Reading response” followed by the appropriate date. Upload your
work a reply/comment. (Our first lesson includes an in-class demonstration on the appropriate
steps to follow).
Facilitating class discussion (20%)
Dates: July 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14, 15, 16
In groups of 4, you will lead a 50 mins seminar discussion in class. The topic will be the
week’s readings. You can explore any themes that resonate with you and incorporate
external materials and media objects (films, music, publications, web resources).
You can provide a brief overview of the readings but your evaluation is based on your
ability to critically analyze the material and engage the class in open and critical dialogue.
Group presentation (30%)
Due: Presentations – July 17 and 18.
Self-evaluation – July 21
In groups of 3 to 4, you will collectively plan, and demonstrate a 45 mins lesson on a
particular application/website with your choice of topic/subject related to media literacy.
You will be asked to self-evaluate the process at the end of the teaching demonstration. A
portion of each class in the second week of our time together will be reserved for group
meetings.
Evaluation of website/program/application/media object (35%)
Due: Aug 4
You will create a post or page on your blog in which you critically analyze a media object of
your choosing (television series, educational websites or web/mobile applications, books
or magazines, films, etc…). The instructor will provide the list of choices which are to serve
as suggestions. The purpose of this assignment is to learn more about emerging online
educational platforms and other media resources, their pedagogical advantages and
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shortcomings. Should you choose to analyze a media object instead, please ensure that you
touch on the educational uses of this object (which can be a film, documentary, music
album, publication, etc…). You must include at least four references (at least 2 of these
must be from the class readings), and proper APA or MLA in-text citations and
bibliography. You will be graded on writing skills, content, originality and thoroughness of
the research conducted.
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Course overview
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Lecture
Date
1
Mon Jul 7
Topic/Readings
Introduction: Media in the classroom
Workshop
Due
Wordpress
(introduction)
(No required readings)
PART 1: THEORIES OF MEDIA AND MEDIA BASED CULTURE
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Tue Jul 8
The Medium, XXL: Understanding key concepts in the
production of meaning
RR #1
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Wed Jul 9
En masse: Mainstream culture and the nomothetic
impulses of dominant media
RR #2
(McLuhan, Williams, Kristeva)
(Marcuse, Fiske)
PART 2: MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF CULTURE AND CULTURAL FORMS
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Thu Jul 10
Little boxes, little boxes: Culture, cultural stereotypes,
and cultural representations in the media
Video editing
Rotten apples: Popular culture representations of schools
and the experience of schooling
Video editing
RR #3
(Morrisson, McIntosh, Said)
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Fri Jul 11
(Friedenberg)
RR #4
PART 3: YOUTH CULTURE, SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE REFASHIONING OF SOCIAL NORMS
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Mon Jul 14
Thirty three and a third: Hip Hop, youth culture, and
classroom practice
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Tue Jul 15
Betwixt and between: Youth media production, digital
literacy practices and classroom practice
(Watkins, Freire)
Wordpress
(advanced)
Group meetings
RR #5
RR #6
(Mandiberg, Rosen, Benkler, Vaidhyanathan)
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Wed Jul 16
The bounded word: Regulation of speech and the limits
of democracy
(Lessig, Stadler)
Group meetings
RR #7
PART 4: GROUP PRESENTATIONS
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Thu Jul 17
10
Fri Jul 18
Presentations of final project
Presentations
(No required readings)
Presentations of final project
Presentations
(No required readings)
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Course readings
July 8
McLuhan, M. (2003/1966). The medium is the massage. In S. McLuhan & D.
Staines (Eds.), Understanding me, pp. 76-97. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart
Ltd.
Williams, R. (1974). Television: Technology and cultural form. New York, NY:
Routledge Classics. [Ch. 5: Effects of the technology and its uses, pp. 121-138].
Kristeva, J. (1980). Desire in language: A semiotic approach to literature and art
(Leon S. Roudiez, Ed., Trans.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press. [Ch. 3:
Word, dialogue and novel, pp. 64-69].
July 9
Marcuse, H. (1964). One-dimensional man: Studies in the ideology of advanced
industrial society. New York, NY: Routledge Classics. [Ch. 1: New forms of
control, pp. 3-20].
Fiske, J. (2010). Understanding popular culture, 2nd Ed. New York, NY: Routledge
Classics. [Ch. 1: The jeaning of America, pp. 1-18].
July 10
Morrison, T. (1983). Recitatif. In A. Baraka (Ed.) Confirmation: An anthology of
African American women, pp. 243-261. New York, NY: Morrow Publishers.
McIntosh, P. (2005). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. In P. S.
Rothenberg (Ed.), White privilege: Readings on the other side of racism (2nd ed.),
pp. 109-113. New York: Worth Publishers.
Said, E. W. (1979). Introduction. Orientalism, pp. 9-23. New York, NY: Vintage
Books.
July 11
Friedenberg, E. Z. (1975). The conscript clientele. Garden City, NJ: Doublebay &
Company. [Ch. 1: The disposal of liberty and other industrial wastes, pp. 1-27].
July 14
Watkins, S. C. (2005). Hip Hop matters: Politics, pop culture and the struggle for
the soul of a movement. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. [Ch. 3: Fear of a White
planet, pp. 85-111].
Freire, P. (1970). Chapter 3. Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.),
pp. 87-97. New York: Continuum.
July 15
Mandiberg, M. (2012). Introduction. In M. Mandiberg (Ed.), The social media
reader, pp. 1-10. New York, NY: New York University Press.
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Rosen, J. (2012). The people formerly known as the audience. In M. Mandiberg
(Ed.), The social media reader, pp. 13-16. New York, NY: New York University
Press.
Benkler, Y. (2012). Sharing nicely: On shareable goods and the emergence of
sharing as a modality of economic production. In M. Mandiberg (Ed.), The social
media reader, pp. 17-23. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2012). Open source as culture/culture as open source. In M.
Mandiberg (Ed.), The social media reader, pp. 24-31. New York, NY: New York
University Press.
July 16
Lessig, L. (2012). REMIX: How creativity is being strangled by the law. In M.
Mandiberg (Ed.), The social media reader, pp. 155-169. New York, NY: New York
University Press.
Stadler, F. (2012). Between democracy and spectacle: The front-end and backend of the social web. In M. Mandiberg (Ed.), The social media reader, pp. 242256. New York, NY: New York University Press.
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