All Aboard the Adobe Express to Media Literacy Through Media Creation

Purpose & objective

A significant challenge facing educators today is the pressing need for students to shift from being passive consumers of media to being active, critical and savvy media creators and consumers. If we want them to be able to see through the insidious influence that media can have on them, we must take the time to engage them in media analysis. But that is best accomplished when students become active media makers, participating themselves in crafting media to communicate a certain message to a certain audience.

Technology makes it easier for teachers to do this, but few teachers have the time or resources to create these media making opportunities on their own. Adobe Express brings templates, images and audio together in one site, where students can create graphics, webpages and videos on their own. Lesson plans for a range of content areas and ages are provided, making it even easier for teachers to make the move to hands-on, active learning classrooms.

Participant outcomes:
--Participants will learn how to sign up for Adobe Express, create a Classroom account and invite students.
--Participants will learn how to use Adobe Express to create graphics, webpages and video stories, and how to customize them with color, text styles, images and music.
--Participants will learn how Adobe Express can be used by students to demonstrate learning in a variety of content areas, as well as how it can teach students to be more critically aware of how media is used to manipulate their thinking.

The presenter will share many examples of success from her own classroom, where her students have used Adobe Express to create graphics and videos for their school broadcast news show and for their own individual interests, and where her English students have produced professional quality online magazines.

Outline

10 mins: introduction:
Presenter will:
--explain (with many visual examples) how having students create their own media helps them understand the potential influence media can have on them, thus building their media literacy along with their digital, graphic, film and design skills;
--share examples of her students’ work with Adobe Express:
----advertisements for student-produced magazines
----graphics for student-produced news show
----video stories for a variety of purposes
----webpages for online magazines/research projects
5 mins: introduction to Adobe Express:
Benefits:
--Free (and teacher/student accounts are upgraded to paid features at no cost)
--Huge library of professional quality photos makes for high quality work without copyright concerns
--Teachers can create classrooms within the site - easy to see and manage student work
--Templates make for easy creation
--“Start from scratch” option helps students build design skills
How to:
--create account;
--create new media;
--access resources and tools
30 mins: Hands-on use of Adobe Express:
Participants will:
--Create an account on Adobe Express
--Create a graphic to introduce themselves
--Create a web page on a favorite topic
--Create a video story
As they finish each one, they will post their work in a shared Wakelet
10 mins: Participants discuss:
--What they noticed about Adobe Express in the context of media creation
--What they noticed about their own process as they worked
--How their students might use Adobe Express in the classroom
5 mins: Wrap up with Q&A

Supporting research

Media by its very nature is social; it involves the collaboration and communication of a variety of people. Therefore, in addition to accessing, synthesizing, and evaluating sources, a hands-on component is recommended. “Media literacy involves ‘writing’ the media as well as ‘reading’ them” (Buckingham, 2007, p. 49). By including media creation as a part of media literacy education, educators empower students’ self-efficacy and promote democracy (Hobbes, 2011; Mihailidis, 2011). The creation of media is seen as an essential step to students’ ability to critically read media.

Students welcome opportunities to demonstrate their learning in a variety of formats—such as slideshows, podcasts, documentaries, or how-to videos. …students are focused on creation and education using multiple media devices…(Education week, 2013).

The ability to communicate in a variety of media is not only engaging to today’s students but essential for their lifelong success in the global economy and society. The growing importance and convergence of technology, information, and media have rendered the traditional conception of print literacy incomplete and insufficient for the 21st century. In 2008, the Executive Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) adopted a definition of “21st century literacies” to emphasize that a literate person must now possess a wide range of abilities and competencies. This policy has been continually updated and today we stand at the present ideas (NCTE, 2013).

“Choice in the classroom has been linked to increases in student effort, task performance, and subsequent learning. However, to reap these benefits, a teacher should create choices that are robust enough for students to feel that their decision has an impact on their learning.” When given choice by teachers, students perceive classroom activities as more important. Providing students academic choices increases engagement. (Marzano, 2010)

Students learn more when taking part in classrooms that employ active-learning strategies (Deslauriers, 2019).