Aug 03, 2020 2020-08-03
Digital Learning • Learning Support
Project Look Sharp, a program of Humanities & Sciences at Ithaca College, has developed a series of free constructivist media-decoding lessons that teach critical thinking skills about COVID-19–related topics. All of the lessons apply the fair use of copyright law, so teachers can repurpose current media documents for critique and criticism in the classroom. For example, the media-decoding lesson “Misinformation About COVID-19: How to Figure It Out” is based on three short YouTube videos to teach essential knowledge about the coronavirus (and its “infodemic”), as well as habits of questioning information received through media sources. Questions in the lesson plan encourage students to discuss the purpose of each video, the credibility of the information, and the media techniques used to persuade and entertain viewers. In the lesson “Changing Our Media Habits: The Impact of the Pandemic,” students learn about and reflect on changes in media during the pandemic. This lesson uses charts, graphs, and illustrations from five sources as the key media texts. Another lesson, “Trusting Web Videos on COVID-19 (Or Not),” poses questions about each speaker’s purpose and ways to determine the speaker’s credibility on this issue. Students consider how different people might interpret the credibility of these messages.
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