Artifact 10

Context: My fellow interns and I at Beech Mtn. Elementary school collected photographs and data (via surveys) about the impact of the media on students, both within and outside of school settings. Following the time that I spent actually taking surveys of a K-1 class, I led a discussion on “media literacy” with my students and brought out important points about how they may be affected by the media without even being aware of its influence. We paid close attention to what products were endorsed directly by the school, school employees, and peers and compared that data to questions about children’s corporate and media preferences. My student-colleagues and I then presented our findings in a PowerPoint presentation.

Impact: From doing this project, I was personally impacted to see how the media influences children. It has made me more aware of how I need to guard against unnecessary influences from outside of the classroom, and what I can do to inform children of ways they can make decisions without relying on the media to make their decisions for them.

Alignment: I have collected data about students and communicated the data to others by doing the project and using PowerPoint to present my findings (Tech-competency IV-B). Also, I have attempted to promote safe and healthy use of technology resources as I have tried to help children recognize positive and negative uses of the media and technology (Tech-competency VI-D).