Hi guys, so today I am going to be talking about the third media literacy skill which is Simulation. Simulation is the ability to interpret and portray models of real-world practices. (Jenkins, 2009: pg 41) Simulation is important to individuals because through this individuals will be experiencing real world situations rather than just reading a book and taking knowledge from there for example. As said in (Jenkins, 2009: pg 42), we learn simulations through trail and error that leads new discoveries found by researches to be refined to make it better. In an example of a student like myself, I think simulation is very valid because through simulation students like myself who are not fans of reading can actually get to experience the content. This makes it easier for us students to understand the content or take knowledge from the content since we are not fans of reading. Individuals who are not readers for example, will have a harder time understanding the content because reading is not their forte. For individuals like that simulation works best. As said in (Jenkins, 2009: pg 42), educators always believed that students learn much better through direct observations and experimentation rather than listening to a class lecture or reading a book to retain knowledge. An example of simulation is a journal article called “The Assassin’s Perspective: Teaching History with Video Games” by Nicolas Trepanier. This article from the American Historical Association talks about how playing the game “Assassins Creed” has imparted so much knowledge into students and created an interest for the War of Spanish. (Trépanier, 2014) In this article, it was said that before an undergraduate seminar, the students were asked to play this video game and then come to class. After playing the game, the level of discussion of the student’s rose and student’s tone, scope, approach and arguments were so deep and thought provoking showing their knowledge about the Spanish war. (Trépanier, 2014) Trépanier (2014) also mentioned that making the students play the video game before the seminar raised their engagement level and raised it so high, which she doesn’t recall seeing among other undergraduates. This example shows how the level of knowledge and interest rises when media is included in the learning, which proves simulation as a valid media literacy skill.

https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2014/the-assassin’s-perspective

References:

·      Trépanier, N. (2014, May 1). The Assassin's Perspective: Teaching History with Video Games. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2014/the-assassin’s-perspective

·      
      Jenkins, H. et al (2009). “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century”. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. http://bit.ly/1AaI4rc
Hi guys, so the second media literacy skill that is important to media is “Performance.” Performance is the ability to adopt alternate selections for the purpose of improvisation and findings. (Jenkins, 2009: pg 47) According to Jenkins (2009: pg 47), By using the performance media skill, individuals would be able to connect with the character and have a captivating experience. By connecting with the character, the individual can also reflect on his values, choices, beliefs and question themselves. In my opinion, performance is a valid skill because I feel that by experiencing this an individual can enjoy himself as well as take a lesson out of it. Everything you do should have a purpose to it and should be worthwhile at the end. In our daily lives we often listen to music and do not think about the message of what were listening to. When we take the time and listen to the song, we are able to find the message of the song that connects to an issue that is happening in the world. For example the artist “Beyonce” created a song named “Flawless” which portrayed the idea of feminism and compared society’s views on male roles and female roles and how women are taught to fulfill traditional gender roles but can do much more than those roles. An example of performance would be the Disney movie “Mulan.” Mulan is a story about a girl who enrolls herself into war because she wanted to prove to herself and her dad that women are equal to men and can a fight a war. Mulan first step was to registers herself into war as a man so that she can get in. At the end it is revealed that despite being a women, she made a difference and is pronounced as a hero. This relates to the performance skill because as said in the definition, performance is a skill that suggests people to adopt to a new thinking and change the web into something playful and knowledgeable. This example of Mulan shows how a movie can change the mentality of her town stating that women are as capable as men. The role of this movie is to teach kids that women are capable of doing the same things as men.




References:

·      Jenkins, H. et al (2009). “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century”. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. http://bit.ly/1AaI4rc
Hey guys, so today I am going to start with the first media literacy skill which is called “Play.” Play is the capacity to analyze with the surroundings in order to solve problems. (Jenkins, 2009: pg 35) According to Jenkins (2009, Pg 35), play is an important media literacy skill because it helps shape relationships to their communities and surroundings. Through “play” we can experiment with different roles and try to find how it suits us and what it teaches us. I believe play is a valid skill for media because from play we can improve our knowledge, enhance our skills and shape our relationships. Play is also significant to our culture because it not only expands our knowledge but also helps us to work on our skills which we can use in our daily lives such as problem solving, concentration, communication and etc... Play is also very valid because in this day and age it is important for us to be very knowledgeable and very skilful since this world is very competitive and is moving very fast. Since play helps us improve our skills we can use those skills to move ahead faster in our life. We can also develop a richer understanding of our social roles and ourselves by further enhancing the play media skill. Further by using this the play skill, we would be able to exercise more skills and further enhance them, for example improve our communication skill by talking to others via social media. An example of the media literacy skill “Play” is a baseball card shown below. When a child looks at a series of baseball cards, he uses three learning skills. First in order for the child to understand the batting averages they would need to make use of their math skills. The child would be required to read the back of cards and understand the subsets as well as calculate differences, that would require math skills. (Alcox, 2015) Next in order to arrange their cards they need to exercise their classification skills, and finally in order to discuss their cards and learn how to play them safely, the child would make use of their communication skills and knowledge skills which could potentially be from their previous experience in baseball. This example portrays how a small type of media either online or physical, like playing with a baseball card can further enhance a child’s skills and at the same time can become an enjoyable pastime. This is a perfect example of "Play" because as said in the definition, it helps us improve three skills in one type of media.



References:

·      Alcox, D. (2015). Why Should a kid start collecting baseball cards? Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://www.sportscardfun.com/why-should-a-kid-start-collecting-baseball-cards.asp

·      Jenkins, H. et al (2009). “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century”. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. http://bit.ly/1AaI4rc

Welcome to my New Media Skills and Literacy blog.

This blog will cover ten different aspects of new media skills and literacy. Each concept will be defined and further explained using examples that can be found in our society.

Click on the blog tab to further enhance your knowledge on New Media Skills and Literacy.

Thank you,

Anusha Gulzar

About Me

My name is Anusha Gulzar and I am a 3rd Year Business Student at Brock University. This blog will identify ten different types of Media Skills and Literacies. Hope this is informative and enjoyable.