The literal definition of financial literacy is understanding the topic of money.

Financial literacy represents one area of financial wellness. However, it takes more
than financial literacy to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. It takes a
focus on behaviors, systems, sentiment, and making regular adjustments based on
outcomes.
Financial literacy helps improve a person’s confidence, sentiment and may help
them make better decisions. 
Financial literacy is defined as the possession of knowledge and skills that enable
informed and effective money management.
Importance of Financial Literacy      
 Financial education can benefit consumers of all ages and income
levels.
 For young adults just beginning their working lives, it can provide basic
tools for budgeting and saving so that expenses and debt can be kept
controlled.
 Financial education can help families acquire the discipline to save for
their own home and/or for their children’s education.
 It can help older workers ensure that they have enough savings for a
comfortable retirement by providing them with the information and skills
to make wise investment choices with their individual pension and
savings plans.
 Financial education can help low-income people make the most of
what they are able to save and help them avoid the high cost charged
for financial transactions by non-financial institutions.
 

Components of Financial Literacy              

Financial literacy breaks down into two parts:

1. knowledge                                                                                  

2. skills.

For KNOWLEDGE
Financial literacy is defined by an understanding of the core concepts of personal
finance—interest rates, credit scores, and the purpose of an emergency fund, for
instance. When put into practice, this knowledge provides the foundation needed to
make informed decisions that contribute to long-term financial health.

For SKILLS
Knowledge needs to be complemented by the ability to perform tasks that support
robust personal finance. For instance, someone who is financially literate will know
how to use online banking apps, request a credit report, and do something as simple
as write a check.

The particular knowledge and skills that define financial literacy can be divided
into six categories:
1. Spending and saving
2. Credit and debt
3. Employment
4. Investing
5. Risk management
6. Decision-making

Financial Literacy: KNOWLEDGE

Spending and Saving
 Understand different payment methods. There are important differences between
credit cards and debit cards and other forms of payment. Credit cards are essentially
a form of borrowing, but debit cards draw directly from your bank account. Checks
also draw directly from your bank account, so make sure there’s enough to cover the
expense.
 Understand how banking works. Banks provide a secure way to store money. Funds
can be deposited or withdrawn in person, at ATMs, or by using the bank’s website or
apps. Banks also offer useful services. A checking account is designed for everyday
transactions. A savings account is better for accruing interest.
 Saving provides money for future purchases. Saving means choosing to set aside
money now for future needs, goals, and emergencies. This might include short- or
long-term financial goals, recreational activities and purchases, or an emergency
fund. An emergency fund is money that is saved for unexpected costs such as job
loss, medical bills, or car repair.
 Needs vs. wants. Expenses can be divided into two categories: needs and wants.
“Needs” are essentials—food, housing, etc. “Wants” are luxuries—things that would
be nice to have but can be done without. Some items can be both needs and wants.
For instance, food is certainly a need. However, an expensive meal at a restaurant is
a want.
Credit and Debt
 What’s credit? Credit is a financial tool that allows you to buy something now and
pay for it later. Forms of credit include credit cards, personal loans, and mortgages.
Using credit comes at a cost—interest is charged.
 The difference between credit reports and credit scores. A credit report is a detailed
account of a borrower’s credit history. It’s collected and maintained by the credit
bureaus. Payment history and other factors contained in the report are used to
generate a credit score (between 300 to 850) that reflects a borrower’s
creditworthiness. The higher the score, the more confident a lender can be that a
loan to the person will be repaid.
 Financial missteps can hurt your credit score. Missed payments and loan defaults
are reported to the credit bureaus and added to your credit report. They can stay on
your report for up to seven years and negatively impact your credit score. Since
lenders look at your score when considering whether to grant a loan or offer a credit
card, any negative marks will impact your ability to receive credit, a loan, and even
rent an apartment. A lower score will also increase the cost of using credit.
 Credit has different costs. Credit isn’t free. You pay in the form of interest to borrow
someone’s money. This is often expressed as an annual percentage rate, or
 APR. An APR is the annual amount owed in interest for borrowing money. The
higher the APR, the more expensive the credit. Various types of fees—such as fees
assessed for late or missed payments—also affect the cost of credit.
 A lower credit score affects creditworthiness and your cost of borrowing.
Creditworthiness is the determination made by lenders of the possibility that a
borrower will default on debt obligations. It considers factors like repayment history
and credit score. Consumers with a history of missed payments—and thus a lower
credit score—are considered to be high-risk borrowers. As a result, these borrowers
pay higher interest and fees in order to receive credit.
Employment
 Choices about education and skills can affect income. Earning potential and job
satisfaction can be affected by a worker’s education, skills, and supply and demand
for their labor. Typically, workers with higher levels of education, training, and
experience earn higher incomes.
 Income is taxed. There are two types of income: earned and unearned. Earned
income would include salary or commissions. Interest, dividends, and capital gains
are examples of unearned income. There are many ways that income is earned,
and each may be taxed at a different rate.
 Understand worker benefits. In addition to pay, many workers receive benefits from
their employer. These benefits might include health insurance or employer-
sponsored retirement plans.
Investing
 Understand investing. Investing means using money to earn more money. Many
people invest in order to achieve future financial goals by building wealth. There are
risks to some types of investing, however, such as selling stock investments for a
loss.
 Time value of money. The time value of money is an important concept for investors.
It refers to the potential for money to grow in value over time. Because of interest
earned, money that’s invested today has greater value than the same amount of
money if it were to be acquired and invested at a later date. Thus, the sooner money
is received, the greater benefit it offers.
 Consequences of delaying investment. Because of the time value of money,
delaying investment wastes the potential of money to earn interest and grow. Think
of a retirement fund. Younger workers have the greatest potential for higher return
on investments simply because they have a longer amount of time for their earnings
to accrue interest before retirement.
 Economic conditions affect the stock market and investments. There are many
factors that affect the stock market. A low inflation rate may result in a surge of
selling in the stock market, whereas deflation is caused by a decrease in spending
and revenue. Rising interest rates mean higher borrowing costs causing consumer
spending and business investments to slow and reduce economic growth.
Conversely, falling interest rates can stimulate economic growth. Even economic
trends in foreign markets may impact the U.S. stock market.
Risk management
 The purpose of insurance. Insurance can protect you from significant financial costs
related to things like medical emergencies or property damage. It allows you to pay a
small cost now to avoid a large cost in the future that may be unaffordable. People
manage the risk of monetary or physical loss through avoidance, acceptance, and
reduction. Several types of insurance—such as insurance for homes, cars, or
medical bills—allow people to minimize risk.
 Decision-making
 Financial responsibility requires active decision-making. Financial health requires
active decision-making and planning. It requires the application of sound financial
information to individual circumstances. Life events—like illness, job loss, or divorce
—may change a person’s financial circumstances and require appropriate
adjustments.
 Know where to get financial advice. We all have questions. Part of financial literacy
is knowing the right places to go for answers. Libraries, reputable online sources,
and financial advisers are all sources of sound financial information.
Financial Literacy: SKILLS
Spending and Saving
 Create a budget. Create a budget to balance your income and expenses. Use it to
plan how to allocate income to meet financial obligations and work toward future
goals. If your financial circumstances change, your budget, and how much you
spend or save, will change too.
 Schedule and manage bill payments. Know how and when to schedule bill
payments. Will you pay online, via automatic payments, through an app, or by
sending a check in the mail? The important thing isn’t which you choose but rather
that you have a method that ensures your payments are consistently on time. Keep
track of when bill payments are due each month and opt to receive payment
reminders either by email, phone, or mail.
 Comparison shop. Know how to research the best price for a product before making
a purchase. This allows you to avoid overspending. When researching, find
comparable alternatives. For example, when at the grocery store, compare the price
per ounce (the total dollar amount divided by the number of ounces) of similar food
products to get the most value for your money.
 Build savings through the “pay yourself first” method. The “pay yourself first” method,
also known as reverse budgeting, is building a spending plan around your savings
goals. First, list your short- or long-term savings goals. Then, decide how much to
contribute each month. Finally, put that money toward your savings account before
allocating the rest of your budget to expenses.
Credit and Debt
 Request your credit report. All consumers are entitled to receive a free credit
report once a year from each of the major credit bureaus—Equifax, TransUnion, and
Experian. Review your credit report to catch problems early. To dispute an error, tell
the credit bureau what information is inaccurate. After an investigation, corrections or
deletions will appear in 30 to 90 days.
 Monitor your credit score. Yearly credit reports aren’t the only way to check your
credit score. You can also access and monitor changes to your score at any time
with a free online credit check company. These sites don’t provide your official FICO,
but they do provide a close estimation. Be conscious of financial decisions that raise
or lower your score, such as utilization rate, timeliness of payments, credit length,
and inquiries.
 Determine the most cost-effective method of making a purchase with credit. When
using credit, assess whether the purchase justifies the pitfalls. For example, ask if
you will you be able to pay it off in the grace period or if you will have a balance
carried into the next month. How about taking out a loan? Compare the costs of
credit. This might include interest rates, compounding frequency, fees, and loan
length. Calculate the total cost of repaying credit under various interest rates and
over different lengths of time.
 Develop a plan to manage excessive debt. If your debt becomes excessive and
you’re missing payments, it’s important to develop a plan to effectively manage it so
you can work to reduce it. Consider contacting lenders directly to regain control,
renegotiate a payment plan, consolidate loans, or enter a debt-counseling program.
Another option is to pay a third-party credit repair company to handle the matter. Use
a budget to reduce spending and focus on repaying debt.
Employment
 Use a career plan to determine income potential. Explore jobs related to a career
that both interests you and draws on your strengths. Then, determine your potential
earnings based on your desired job, educational attainment, and skills. Develop a
strategy to minimize the costs of post-secondary education or job training by
researching scholarships, federal subsidies, and part-time work. Finally, outline a
career plan that takes all of these factors into consideration.
 File taxes from employment. Do you know how to file your taxes? While most people
who earn an income are required by law to file a return with the IRS, not everyone is.
First, figure out your filing status. Then, gather all of your documentation, including a
W-2 from employers or a 1099 for contract work. Hire an accountant to sort out your
taxes or file yourself with an e-filing company.
 Calculate the future income needed to maintain your lifestyle in retirement. How
much money will you need in retirement to maintain your current or expected
standard of living? Identify sources of income in retirement, such as a retirement-
savings account like a 401(k) or IRA, pensions, annuities, investments, home equity,
or part-time work. Make a savings goal based on your desired income and the length
of time until you retire. Take advantage of compound interest since this is the most
assured method of building wealth for the future.
Investing
 Implement a diversified investment strategy. Consider starting a diversified
investment portfolio. Typically, diversified portfolios have stocks, fixed income, and
commodities. Keep a watchful eye on the market to know when to divest.
 Identify warning signs of investment fraud. Investment fraud is the illegal sale of
deceptive financial information. The government and independent agencies combat
fraud and oversee the financial services industry. Be skeptical of unsolicited
communications from strangers. Don’t trust anyone who promises a high return in a
short period of time or no- or low-risk investments. Beware of a broker giving “inside”
information.
Risk Management
 Compare costs to purchase insurance. Categorize and then determine the types of
insurance you may need—renter’s insurance, auto insurance, homeowner’s
insurance, and liability insurance, among others. List the factors that determine
insurance premiums. Determine if there are any legal minimums in your state.
Calculate your payment after accounting for exclusions and deductibles. Then, learn
how to file an insurance claim, if needed.
Decision-Making
 Identify sources of sound financial information. Search for sources of information that
are objective, accurate, and up-to-date. Financial advice is available from libraries,
online, professional financial advisors, and friends and family members, but make
sure to vet your sources. Understand the most important factors to consider before
hiring a professional financial advisor, attorney, tax advisor, or financial planner.
 Prepare a contingency plan. Use sound financial decision-making to prepare a
contingency plan for an unexpected change in financial circumstances. A
comprehensive financial plan includes financial goals, a budget, cash-flow
management plan, investment plan, insurance plan, net worth statement, a will, and
estate plan. Discuss financial plans or contractual obligations with any dependents or
beneficiaries you may have.

The National Endowment for Financial Education defines financial literacy as "the

ability to read, analyze, manage and communicate about the personaal financial
conditions that affect material well-being. It includes the ability to discern financial
choices, discuss money and financial issues without discomfort plan for the future,
and respond competently to life events that affect everyday financial decisions,
including events in the general economy"/ 
To put it simpy, "it is the ability to use knowledge and skills to manage one's financial
resources effectively for lifetime financial security" (Mandell 2009).
According to Hastings, et al. (2013) Financial Literacy is referred to as:                     

1. Knowledge of Financial Products

2. Knowledge of Financial Concepts
3. Having the mathematical skills or numeracy necessary for effective financial
decision-making
4. Being engaged in certain activities such as financial planning

Public and private institutions alike have recognized the need for financial literacy to
be incorporated in the school curriculum. Financial education and advocacy
programs of the public and private sectors have been identified as key areas in
building an improved financial system in the Philippines (Go, 2017).
Republic Act 10922, otherwise known as the "Economic and Financial Literacy Act",
mandates DepEd to "ensure that economic and financial education becomes an
integral part of formal learning". 

The Council for Economic Education, the leading organization in the United States
that focuses on the economic and financial education of students from kindergarten
through high school developed six standards gearing toward deepening students'
understanding of personal finance through an economic perspective.
Summary of the Standards and Key Concepts to deepen students' understanding:
 Standards Key Concepts
 income earned or received by people
 different types of jobs as well as different forms of
income earned and received
 benefits and costs of increasing income through the
1. Earning Income
acquisition of education and skills
 government programs that affect income
 types of income and taxes
 labor market
 scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost
 factors that influence spending choices, such as
advertising, peer pressure and spending choices of
others
 comparing the costs and benefits of spending
decisions
2. Buying Goods and  basics of budgeting and planning
Services  making a spending decision
 payment methods, costs, and benefits of each
 budgeting and classification of expenses
 satisfaction, determinants of demand, costs of
infromation search, choice of product durability
 the role of government and other institutions in
providing information for consumers.
 concept of saving and interest
 how people save money, where people can save
money, and why people save money
 the role that financial institutions play as intermediaries
between savers and borrowers
 the role government agencies such as the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) play in
protecting savings deposits
 role of markets in determining interest rates
3. Saving
 the mathematics of savings
 the power of compound interest rates
 real versus nominal interest rates
 present versus future value
 finacial regulators
 the factors determining the value of a person's savings
overtime
 automatic savings plans, "rainy-day"funds
 saving for retirment
4. Using Credit  concept of credit and the cost of using credit
 why people use credit and the sources of credit
 why interest rates vary across borrowers
 basic calculationsrelated to borrowing (principal,
interest, compound interest)
 credit reports and credit scores

5. Financial Investing
6. Protecting and
Insuring
 behaviours that contribute to strong credit reports and
scores
 impact of credit reports and scores on consumers
 consumer protection laws
 concept of financial investment
 variety of possible financial investments
 calculate rayes of returns
 relevance and calculation of real and after tax rates of
return
 how markets cause rates of return to change in
response to variation in risk and maturity
 how diversification can reduce risk
 how financial markets react to changes in market
conditions and information
 concepts of financial risk and loss
 insurance
 managing risk
 identity theft
 life insurance products
 how to protect onelf against identity theft

The Benefits of Financial Literacy

 One's level of financial literacy affects one's quality of life significantly.

It determines one's ability to provide basic needs attitude toward
money and investment, as well as one's contribution to the community.
 Financial literacy enables people to understand and apply knowledge
and skills to achieve a lifestyle that is financially balanced, sustainable,
ethical, and responsible.

 Increased personal financial literacy affects one's financial behavior.

These changes in behavior pay dividends to society as well. People
who work, spend, save, borrow, invest and manage risk wisely are less
likely to require a government rescue.
 Financial literacy does not totally eliminate the need for a social safety
net because even the most prudent individual can encounter financial
difficulties. Taking responsibility for one's financial life cultivates proper
decision making skills and discipline. Most of the responsibility for
mananging finances matters rests with the individual. That
 responsibility is easier for adults to bear when they have learned the
basics of personal finance in their youth.

Financial literacy unlocks the door to financial success.

The main benefit of financial literacy is that it empowers us to make smart financial
decisions. It provides the knowledge and skills we need to manage money effectively
—budgeting, saving, borrowing, and investing. This means that we’re better
equipped to reach our financial goals and achieve financial stability.
The particular benefits of financial literacy will differ depending on a person’s
circumstances, but some common situations in which financial literacy can help
include:

 Saving for retirement.

 Creating and sticking to a balanced budget.
 Purchasing a home.
 Selecting insurance.
 Reducing expenses.
 Investing.
 Buying a car.
 Saving for college.
 Managing debt.
 Using credit cards.
What it means to be financially literate
To be financial literate means someone has an understanding of essential financial
concepts. These include:
 Budgeting.
 Saving.
 Credit.
 Debt.
 Insurance.
 Financial decision-making.

The second part of financial literacy is using financial knowledge to inform financial
decisions and establish healthy money-management habits. Financial literacy skills
include:

 Creating a budget.
 Calculating interest.
 Lowering costs by reducing “want” purchases.
 Evaluating loan terms.
 Comparison shopping.
 Doing taxes.
 Saving money.
Financial literacy knowledge and skills contribute to smart financial decision-making
and the ability to carry out the decisions that are made.

Trends Making Financial Literacy More Important

Compounding the problems associated with financial illiteracy, it appears financial
decision-making is also getting more onerous for consumers. Five trends are
converging that demonstrate the importance of making thoughtful and informed
decisions about finances:
1) Consumers are shouldering more of the financial decisions
Retirement planning is one example of this shift. Past generations depended on
pension plans to fund the bulk of their retirement lives. Pension funds, managed by
professionals, put the financial burden on the companies or governments that
sponsored them. Consumers were not involved with the decision-making, typically
did not even contribute their own funds, and they were rarely made aware of the
funding status or investments held by the pension. Today, pensions are more a rarity
than the norm, especially for new workers. 
2) Savings and investment options are more complex
Consumers are also being asked to choose among various investment and savings
products. These products are more sophisticated than in the past, requiring
consumers to choose among different options that offer varying interest rates and
maturities, decisions they are not adequately educated to make. Deciding on
complex financial instruments with a large range of options can impact a consumer’s
ability to buy a home, finance an education, or save for retirement, adding to the
decision-making pressure.
 
3) Government aid is lacking
A major source of retirement income for past generations was Social Security. But
the amount paid by Social Security is not enough, and it may not be available at all in
the future. 
4) The financial environment is changing
The financial landscape is very dynamic. Now a global marketplace, there are many
more participants in the market and many more factors that can influence it. The
quickly changing environment created by technological advances such as electronic
trading makes the financial markets even swifter and more volatile. Taken together,
these factors can cause conflicting views and difficulty in creating, implementing, and
following a financial roadmap.
5) We are inundated with choices
Banks, credit unions, brokerage firms, insurance firms, credit card companies,
mortgage companies, financial planners, and other financial service companies are
all vying for assets, creating confusion for the consumer.

Financial literacy among Filipinos   

The Filipino mindset upon receipt of salaries, as commonly-known, is that upon
receipt of salaries, spending comes in before saving. What is left, is saved. If there’s
none left, then, there’s nothing saved.
 According to a study conducted by Philam Life, 96 percent of Filipinos are concerned
about their own and their family’s health, however, only 16 percent of them are
prepared to pay for medical costs in case they are diagnosed with a critical illness.9
There is a rising number of senior-dependents or those retirees who depend on their
children for financial help, due to lack of financial education.
Financial planning teaches individuals to be responsible when it comes to their
finances, and instills the discipline needed in order to keep track of their financial
goals.9
Financial planning involves educating Filipinos on the different types of goals that
they should set: short-term, medium-term, and long-term. Short-term goals involve
monthly living expenses that need to be paid, or the person’s basic needs, including
the setting-up of an emergency fund.  In contrast, medium term goals are those you
want to achieve in one to five years like buying a house or a car, while long term
goals are those that take longer than five years to achieve.
To address the growing demand for more investments in the country, the financial
industry advises that Filipinos should save first and spend whatever is left after
putting their savings aside.
 
 
What can the government and financial institutions do to make Filipinos
financially-literate?
1. Develop financial education policies and set up robust financial products available to
the financial intermediaries and their customers.7
2. Develop financial education policies and set up robust financial consumer protection
frameworks to ensure that consumers are informed and understand the financial
products available to them.7
3. Involve financial service providers and other key stakeholders to build the financial
capabilities of the youth and adults through a variety of delivery channels. 8
4. Empower teenagers to deliver financial education on issues such as savings to
younger children. This peer-to-peer approach is useful because young people tend
to listen to their peers more than adults, and the participative approach helps foster
youth as agents of change in their own communities.8

Financial literacy programs can reduce economic inequalities as well as empowering

citizens and decreasing information asymmetries between financial intermediaries
and their customers. 8
------------------------------------------------
 
In his article "State of Financial Education in the Philippines, "Go (2017)
indicated several findings of researches with regards to the state of financial
literacy in the country including:
 World Bank study in 2014 estimated 20 million Filipinos saved more
but only half had baank accounts.
 Asian Development Bank (ADB) study in 2015 revealed that PH does
not have a national strategy for financial education and literacy.
 In 2016, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released the national
strategy for financial inclusion, stating that while institutions strive to
broaden financial literacy should also complement such initiatives.
 As per Standards & Poor's (S &P) Ratings services survey last year,
only 25% of Filipinos are financially literate. T his means that about 75
 million Filipinos have no idea about inflation, risk divrsification,
insurance, compound interest and bank savings.
 Ten years after discovery of the stock market, still less than one
percent of PH population is invested in it.
 More than 80 percent of the working middle class have no formal
financial plan.
Because of these findings, public and private sectors alike have recognized the nedd
to strengthen financial education in the country. 
Last November 27-28, 2018 more than 1000 leaders, decision makers, influencers
and representatives from public and private  institutions, civic society, and the
academe gathered ti the first ever Financial Education Stakeholders Expo organized
by BSP. 
The Expo is designed to build an organized network of playrs that share the vision of
a financially literate citizenry and cohesively implement a variety of initiatives to
achieve this vision.
The Expo supports Republic Act No. 10922 which designates second week of
November as Economic and Financial Literacy Week. It is also aligned with the
objectives of the Philippine National Strategy for Financial inclusion, particularly the
pillar on Financial Education and Consumer Protection.
DEVELOPING PERSONAL LITERACY
One's attitude about money is heavily influenced by the parents' attitude and
behavior about money. The attitudes you formed early in life probably affect how you
save, spend, and invest today. 
Do you behave similarly or differently from your parents about handling money?
There are six major characteristic types in how people view money (Incharge,
2017).
FRUGAL - Frugal people seek financial security by living below their means and
saving money. They rarely buy luxurious items: they save money instead. They save
money because they believe that money will offer protection from unprecedented
events and expenses.
PLEASURE - Pleasure seekers use money to bring pleasure to themselves and to
others. They are more likely to spend than to save. they often live beyond their
means and spend more than they earn. If they are not careful and do not change,
they may fall into deep debt.

STATUS - Some people use money to express their social status. They likely to
purchase and "show off their branded items.

INDIFFERENCE - Some people place very little importance on having money and
would rather grow their own food and craft their own clothes. it is as if having too
much money makes them nervous and uncomfortable.

POWERFUL - Powerful people use money to express power or control over others.

SELF-WORTH - People who spend money for self-worth value how much they
accumulate and tend to judge others based on the amount of money they have. 
Media Literacy is defined in many ways:
It is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a wide
variety of forms- (Aufderheide, 1993)
It is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages across a variety of
contexts. (Christ and Potter, 1998)
It is a term used by modern scholars to refer to the process of critically analyzing and
learning to create one's own messages in print, audio, video and multimedia.
Media literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and understand the
messages they're sending.
Kids take in a huge amount of information from a wide array of sources, far beyond
the traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines) of most parents'
youth. There are text messages, memes, viral videos, social media, video games,
advertising, and more. But all media shares one thing: Someone created it. And it
was created for a reason. Understanding that reason is the basis of media literacy. 
The digital age has made it easy for anyone to create media. We don't always know
who created something, why they made it, and whether it's credible. This makes
 media literacy tricky to learn and teach. Nonetheless, media literacy is an essential
skill in the digital age.
 According to Boyd (2014) media literacy education began in United States and
United Kingdom as a direct result of war propaganda in the 1930s and the rise of
advertising in the 190s.In both cases, media was being used to manipulate the
perspective (and subsequent actions) of those exposed to it, thereby giving rise to
educate people on how to detect the biases, falsehoods and halftruths depicted in
print, radio, and television.
Why Teach Media Literacy? Here are ten good reasons:
1. Media literacy encourages young people to question, evaluate, understand and
appreciate their multimedia culture. It teaches them to become active, engaged
media consumers and users.
1. Media education brings the world into the classroom, giving immediacy and
relevance to traditional subjects such as History, English, Health, Civics and the
Creative Arts. It serves as a perfect bridge for subject integration and
interdisciplinary studies.
2. Media education embodies and furthers current pedagogy, which emphasizes
student-centred learning, the recognition of multiple intelligences, and the analysis
and management – rather than just the simple storing – of information.
3. Media education is grounded in the sound pedagogical approach of starting
learning where kids are at. The media – music, comics, television, video games, the
Internet and even ads – are a part of life that all kids enjoy. Media create a shared
environment and are, therefore, catalysts for learning.
4. Media education encourages young people to use multimedia tools creatively, a
strategy that contributes to “understanding by doing” and prepares them for a
workforce that increasingly demands the use of sophisticated forms
of communication.
5. In a society concerned about growing youth apathy to the political process, media
education engages young people in “real-world” issues. It helps young people to see
themselves as active citizens and potential contributors to public debate.
6. In a diverse and pluralistic society, the study of media helps youth understand
how media portrayals can influence how we view different groups in society: it
deepens young people’s understanding of diversity, identity and difference.
7. Media literacy helps young people’s personal growth and social development by
exploring the connections between popular culture – music, fashion, television
programming, movies and advertising – and their attitudes, lifestyle choices and self-
image.
8. Media literacy helps children critique media representation, teaching them to
distinguish between reality and fantasy as they compare media violence and real-life
violence, media heroes and real-life heroes, and media role models and real-life
roles and expectations.
9. With most  students turning first to the Internet for research, media education is an
essential component of Information Communications Technology education,
assisting young people in developing critical thinking skills and strategies for
optimizing searches, evaluating and authenticating information and examining issues
of plagiarism and copyright.

 
 Specifically, it helps kids:
 Learn to think critically. As kids evaluate media, they decide whether the
messages make sense, why certain information was included, what wasn't included,
and what the key ideas are. They learn to use examples to support their opinions.
Then they can make up their own minds about the information based on knowledge
they already have.
 Become a smart consumer of products and information. Media literacy helps
kids learn how to determine whether something is credible. It also helps them
determine the "persuasive intent" of advertising and resist the techniques marketers
use to sell products.
 Recognize point of view. Every creator has a perspective. Identifying an author's
point of view helps kids appreciate different perspectives. It also helps put
information in the context of what they already know -- or think they know.
 Create media responsibly. Recognizing your own point of view, saying what you
want to say how you want to say it, and understanding that your messages have an
impact is key to effective communication.
 Identify the role of media in our culture. From celebrity gossip to magazine covers
to memes, media is telling us something, shaping our understanding of the world,
and even compelling us to act or think in certain ways.
 Understand the author's goal. What does the author want you to take away from a
piece of media? Is it purely informative, is it trying to change your mind, or is it
introducing you to new ideas you've never heard of? When kids understand what
type of influence something has, they can make informed choices.
 When teaching your kids media literacy, it's not so important for parents to tell kids
whether something is "right." In fact, the process is more of an exchange of ideas.
You'll probably end up learning as much from your kids as they learn from you.
 
 
Key Concepts for Media Literacy
 
Media educators base their teaching on key concepts for media literacy, which
provide an effective foundation for examining mass media and popular culture.
These key concepts act as filters that any media text has to go through in order for
us to critically respond. 

1. Media are constructions

Media products are created by individuals who make conscious and unconscious

choices about what to include, what to leave out and how to present what is
included. These decisions are based on the creators’ own point of view, which will
have been shaped by their opinions, assumptions and biases – as well as media
they have been exposed to. As a result of this, media products are never entirely
accurate reflections of the real world – even the most objective documentary
filmmaker has to decide what footage to use and what to cut, as well as where to put
 the camera – but we instinctively view many media products as direct
representations of what is real.

Ask:

 Who created this media product?

 What is its purpose?
 What assumptions or beliefs do its creators have that are reflected in the content?

2. Audiences negotiate meaning

The meaning of any media product is not created solely by its producers but is,
instead, a collaboration between them and the audience – which means that different
audiences can take away different meanings from the same product. Media literacy
encourages us to understand how individual factors, such as age, gender, race and
social status affect our interpretations of media.

Ask:

 How might different people see this media product differently?

 How does this make you feel, based on how similar or different you are from the
people portrayed in the media product?

3. Media have commercial implications

Most media production is a business and must, therefore, make a profit. In addition,
media industries belong to a powerful network of corporations that exert influence on
content and distribution. Questions of ownership and control are central – a relatively
small number of individuals control what we watch, read and hear in the media. Even
in cases where media content is not made for profit – such as YouTube videos and
Facebook posts – the ways in which content is distributed are nearly always run
with profit in mind.

Ask:
  

 What is the commercial purpose of this media product (in other words, how will it
help someone make money)?
 How does this influence the content and how it’s communicated?
 If no commercial purpose can be found, what other purposes might the media
product have (for instance, to get attention for its creator or to convince audiences of
a particular point of view).
 How do those purposes influence the content and how it’s communicated?

4. Media have social and political implications

Media convey ideological messages about values, power and authority. In media
literacy, what or who is absent may be more important than what or who is included.
These messages may be the result of conscious decisions, but more often they are
the result of unconscious biases and unquestioned assumptions – and they can
have a significant influence on what we think and believe.

As a result, media have great influence on politics and on forming social change. TV
news coverage and advertising can greatly influence the election of a national leader
on the basis of image; representations of world issues, both in journalism and fiction,
can affect how much attention they receive; and society’s views towards different
groups can be directly influenced by how – and how often – they appear in media.

Ask:

 Who and what is shown in a positive light? In a negative light?

 Why might these people and things be shown this way?
 Who and what is not shown at all?
 What conclusions might audiences draw based on these facts?

5. Each medium has a unique aesthetic form

The content of media depends in part on the nature of the medium. This includes the
technical, commercial and storytelling demands of each medium: for instance, the
interactive nature of video games leads to different forms of storytelling – and
different demands on media creators – that are found in film and TV.
  

Ask:

 What techniques does the media product use to get your attention and to
communicate its message?
 In what ways are the images in the media product manipulated through various
techniques (for example: lighting, makeup, camera angle, photo manipulation)?
 What are the expectations of the genre (for example: print advertising, TV drama,
music video) towards its subject?

What Media Literacy is NOT

Given the broad and somewhat nebulous nature of media literacy, its implied
definition can be gleaned by understanding what media literacy is not. The following
is a list of actions that are often mistaken for being representative of media litercay
(Center for Media Literacy, n. d.)
 Criticising the media is not, in and of itself, media literacy. However,
being media literate sometimes requires that one indeed criticize what
one sees and hears.

 Merely producing media is not media literacy although part of being

media literate is the ability to produce media.

 Teaching with media (videos presentations, etc) does not equal

media literacy. An education in media literacy must also include
teaching about media.

 Viewing media and analyzing it from a single perspective is not media

literacy. True media literacy requires both the ability and willingness to
view and analyze media from multiple positions and perspectives.

 Media literacy does not simply mean knowing what and what not to
watch; it does not mean, "watch carefully, think critically."

CHALLENGES TO MEDIA LITERACY EDUCATION

One glaring challenge to teaching Media Literacy is, "how do we teach
it?" Teaching it as a subject in itself might not be feasible given how unburdened the
curriculum is at the moment, while integrating it into the subjects that are currently
being taught might not be enough to teach what are essentially media consumption
habits- skills and attitudes that are learned by doing and repetition rather than by
mere classroom discussion (Koltay, 2011).
Livingston and Van Der Graof (2010) identified "how measure media literacy and
evaluate the success of media literacy initiatives "as being one of the most
pernecious challenges facing educators in the 21st century, for the simple reason
that if we cannot somehow measure the presence of media literacy in our students,
how do we know we have actually taught them?
Finally, a more fundamental challenge to Media Literacy Education is one of
purpose. As Chrsi & Potter (1998) put it, "Is media literacy best understood as a
means of inculcating children against the potential harms of the media or as a
means of enhancing their appreciation of the literacy merits of the media?

Additional source for your reading:

THE PROMISES, CHALLENGES, AND FUTURES OF MEDIA LITERACY: REPORT
 
The report, issued in February 2018 by Data & Society, addresses the “fake news”
problem by evaluating the successes and failures of recent media literacy efforts.
Contemporary media literacy programs–commonly organized around the five main
themes of youth participation, teacher training and curricular resources, parental
support, policy initiatives, and evidence base construction–have demonstrated
positive outcomes, particularly in the case of rapid responses to breaking news
events, connecting critical thinking with behavior change, and evaluating partisan
content.
However, media literacy efforts continue to struggle with a lack of comprehensive
evaluation data, with some research showing programs can have little-to-no impact
for certain materials, or even lead to harmful overconfidence in assessing media
content.
Report authors Monica Bulger and Patrick Davison make five recommendations to
guide the future of media literacy programming for educators, legislators,
technologists, and philanthropists in the space.
Specifically, they warn against the treatment of media literacy as a panacea–
particularly at a time when significant resources continue to be pushed toward media
literacy programs as a counter balance to “fake news.”
The report recommends the following approaches:
 Developing a coherent understanding of the media
environment: With new technologies and new rhetorical techniques,
existing programs should be updated.
 Improve cross-disciplinary collaboration: Media literacy is often
seen as a narrow, pedagogical field. But work from other disciplines –
social psychology, political science, sociology – is producing new
research and findings that could greatly benefit media literacy.
 Leverage the current media crisis to consolidate
stakeholders: The new attention on “fake news” could allow for new
cross-disciplinary collaboration and therefore greater coherence within
the field.
 Prioritize the creation of a national media literacy evidence
base: A centralized and stable base of evaluation data would make
 more accurate assessment possible. Though there are many potential
political challenges to such an evidence base.
 Develop curricula for addressing action in addition to
interpretation:With the increased use of social media, literacy efforts
need to be able to address user behavior in addition to interpretation.

10 Examples of Media Literacy Activities

1. Dissecting Logos

Teach students to recognize the basic effects and intricacies of brand logos with
this simple, discussion-driven exercise.
Prepare by asking students to share logos that pop into their heads, such as Apple and
Taco Bell. The next day, print and bring in the logos. Gather the class in a circle,
holding each logo up one at a time. Ask open questions as you do so. “How did you
know this logo is Taco Bell?” “Would you still recognize it if it were green instead of
purple?” “How important is using the same colours?” You can ask impromptu follow-up
questions based on answers, and use the call-and-response method to encourage
participation.

You may be surprised to see which logos resonate most with your students.

Age: 1st to 3rd Grade

2. Describing Characters

Use visual media — such as a movie or television show — to help young students
learn about character traits.

A lesson you can use in language arts classes, tell each student to pay attention to a
particular character before playing the show or movie. After it’s done, pair students who
focused on different characters together. Instruct each partner to describe three traits
that his or her character demonstrated. The other partner should ask “why?” if the
description was vague, prompting an example that supports the characteristics. For
example, if a student says “I think Jenny is smart,” the partner should encourage more
detail.

After, the class can work together to thoroughly describe each character.

Age: 2nd to 3rd Grade

3. Building a Cereal Brand

Bring in different cereal boxes to launch an activity that spans across classes.
It starts by putting students into small groups, giving each its own cereal box. Group
members must analyze it, noting attributes such as font size, style and placement as
well as elements such as mascot use and facial expression. To smoothen this process,
provide a sheet of questions to consider. This initial exercise opens the door to range of
activities. For example, students could watch a commercial for the cereal, analyzing it
in a similar way. They could then script their own ad, recording it using school or
personal devices.

Student creativity will shine, so don’t be surprised if they ask to make ads in other
classes.

Age: 3rd to 5th Grade

4. Dissecting Logos, Part II

Expand the first exercise on this list for older students by analyzing logos more
thoroughly.
A basic homework task launches this activity: Get students to identify and bring up to
four pictures of logos to class. Start the lesson by having them identify each other’s
logos, starting a discussion about how a company would benefit from being easily-
recognizable. You can even ask if they’ve ever bought something just because they
knew the logo. To turn the exercise into an engaging math activity, allow students to
find as many logos as they can across the classroom — including on apparel they’re
wearing. Then, work to make a chart that visualizes the popularity of the different logos.

Who knew a company’s trademark picture makes for good lesson material?

If you want to reimagine how to arrange your classroom for activities like this, consider
a flexible seating arrangement.
Age: 3rd to 5th Grade

5. Finding Movie Messages

Teach students to find the theme and key points of any content piece — be it
academic or part of popular media — by watching and reflecting on movies.

Depending on students’ existing knowledge, start by explaining that most media have
underlying messages they communicate. For example, many adventure shows and
movies highlight the importance of courage. To help students solidify understanding,
sort them into groups and present a list of about 10 movies they would likely know.
Groups should write a key message of each movie before reviewing responses as a
class. To wrap up the activity, watch a short film. Ask questions throughout it to help
your students pinpoint the underlying messages.

They’ll likely see their favourite movies in new lights afterwards.

Age: 4th to 6th Grade

6. Differentiating Media

Allow students to create a range of media, exercising their analysis skills

afterward, by holding this multi-class activity.

It is based on you sharing an overarching idea or story. For example, a hypothetical

news piece about a new sports arena opening in your area. After students note what
you say, divide them into groups. Distribute templates and instructions about creating
distinct media — such as print ads, mock radio interviews and storyboarded news hits
— to each group. Over the course of a week, they must craft different media pieces
about the idea or story you shared. After students submit their products, hold a class-
wide discussion to analyze how the content changed or was told differently depending
on the medium.

An exercise in differentiation, you should see distinct learning styles shine.

Age: 5th to 6th Grade
7. Deconstructing Advertising Language

Help your class understand — and see through — advertising language, including

how advertisers can influence them to make decisions through word choice and writing
techniques.
Launch this exercise by delivering a brief lesson about advertising claims. Explored in
many online and offline marketing resources, these 10 kinds of claims typically highlight
a product’s superiority over competitors. For example, “our cola has more taste” is
an unfinished claim. After hearing or reading it, your students should ask: “More taste
than what?” Once they grasp the concept, hand out stacks of magazines and online
ads you’ve printed to groups of students. Each group should explore the resources
they’ve received, identifying two to four ads that use specific claims. After, groups can
share their findings with the class.

Ideally, out of curiosity after completing this exercise, students will begin to analyze ads
they see.

Age: 6th to 8th Grade

8. Making a Newspaper

Use media literacy education to bridge gaps between subjects, as your students
work together to publish a class newspaper.
The newspaper can focus on a fictional setting — such as a town in a novel your class
is reading — and each student should deliver a specific product. For example, one
student can write a breaking news story for the front page, whereas another can write a
report about a historically-significant event in the town. You can even involve math, as
the paper could include a math challenge made up of word problems based on
scenarios in the novel. Students should submit first drafts of their products to you,
prompting you to make corrections and hand them back.
Once students have finished and submitted all revised products, put them together to
create and display a class newspaper.

Age: 7th Grade and Up

9. Re-imagining the News

Have students critically evaluate, and improve, a news piece with this 30-minute

activity.

It starts by watching a short news clip. At its conclusion, hold a minds-on exercise in
the form of an informal quiz. Ask about the clip’s content, including the point of the story
and who it affected. This allows you to hold a subsequent discussion about how
students would improve the clip to better communicate its points. Then, let them.
Dividing them into groups, they should write five ways they would change the clip. They
can then storyboard the revamped news piece.

You can replicate this activity to analyze and create other media, too.

Age: 7th Grade and Up

10. Switching the Medium

Build your students’ writing skills in an engaging way — allowing them learn
nuances between media — by morphing existing content into a different medium.

There are many chances to launch this activity throughout a given semester, as it
works best to reinforce student understanding of media such as books and movies. As
an in-class group exercise or take-home solo assessment, assign them different
scenes from the specific book or movie. Then, match each scene with a specific
medium. For example, a scene in which the protagonist argues with supporting
characters could be re-imagined as an advertisement — the protagonist would “sell” his
ideas to them. Students tackling this scene-medium combo would have to write the ad.
They can act it out to the class, too.

This activity also prepares students for quizzes. To re-imagine a scene, they’ll have to
study it closely.

Age: 8th Grade 

Digital Literacy (also called e-literacy, cyber literacy, and even information

literacy by some authors) is no different although now the "text" can actually
be images, sound, video, music or a combination thereof.
Digital Literacy can be defined as the ability to locate, evaluate, create and
communicate information on various digital platforms.
It is the technical, cognitive, and sociological skills needed to perform tasks and
solve problems in digital environments (Eshet-Alkalal, 2004)
Skills and Competencies listed by Shapiro and Hughes (1996) in a curriculum
envisioned to promote computer literacy:
  tool literacy-competence in using hardware and software tools
 resource literacy-understanding forms of and access to information
resources; 
 social-structural literacy-understanding the production and social
significance of information;
 research literacy- using IT tools for research and scholarship;
 publishing literacy-ability to communicate and publish information;
 emerging technologies literacy- undestanding of new developments
in IT, and
 critical literacy-abilty to evaluate the benefits of new technologies (this
literacy is not the same as critical thinking).
Bawden (2008) collated the skills and competencies comprising digital literacy from
contemporary scholars on the matter into four groups:
1. Underpiinings- this referes to those skills and competencies theat "support" or
"enable" everything else within digital literacy, namely: traditional literacy and
computer/ICT literacy (ex. the ability to use computers in everyday lie.)
2. Background Knowledge- This largely refers to knowing where information on a
particular subject or topic can be found, how information is kept, and how it is
diddeminated- a skill taken for granted back in the day when information almost
exclusively resided in the form of printed text.
3. Central Competencies-These are the skills and competencies that a majority of
acholars agree on as being core to digital literacy today, namely:
 reading and understanding digital and non-digital formats
 creating and communicating digital information;
 evaluation of information;
 knowledge assembly
 information literacy; and
 media literacy.
4. Attitudes and Perspectives- Bawden (2008) suggests that it is these attitudes
and perspectives that link digital literacy today with traditional literacy, saying "it is
not enough to have skills and competencies, they must be grounded in some moral
framework," specifically:
 independent learning -the initiative and ability to learn whatever is
neede for a person's specific situation; and
 moral/social literacy- an understanding of correct, acceptable, and
sensible behavior in a digital environment.
Information Literacy within Digital Literacy
Given the ease with which digital media (as opposed to traditional print media) can
be edited and manipulated, the ability to approach it with a healthy amount of
skepticism has become a "survival skill" for media consumers.
Eshet-Alkalai (2004) draws attention to Information Literacy as a critical component
of Digital Literacy as "the cognitive skills that consumers use to evaluate information
in an educated and effective manner".  In effect, Information Literacy acts as a filter
by which consumers evaluate the veracity of the information being presented to them
via digital media and therupon sort the erroneous, irrelevant , and biased from what
is demnstrably factual.                                                                                                   
Socio-Emotional Literacy within Digital Literacy
Alongside information Literacy, Eshet-alkalai (2004)highlights a kind of Soco-
Emotional literacy needed to navigate the internet, raising questions such as , "How
do i know if another user in a chatroom is who he says he is?" or "How do i know if 
call for blood donations in the internet is real or a hoax?"       
Such question should make us realize that there no hard and fast rules for
determining the answers. Instead, there is a necessary familiarity with the unwritten
rules of Cyberspace; an understanding that while the internet is a global village of
sorts, it is also a global jungle of human communication, embracing everything from
truth to falsehoods, honesty and deceit, and ultimately, good and evil.
According to Eshet-Alkalai (2004), this Socio-Emotional Literacy requires users to be
"very critical, analytical and mature-implying a kind of richness of experience that the
literate transfers from real life to their dealings online. 

  --------------------                                                                                                       
Below discussion was taken from Media Smarts -Canada's Centre for Media
and Digital Literacy, which i find it worth reading:

 
What is Digital Literacy?
Digital literacy is more than technological know-how: it includes a wide variety of
ethical, social and reflective practices that are embedded in work, learning, leisure
and daily life.
Globally, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) frames its
benchmarks for digital literacy around six standards: creativity and innovation;
communication and collaboration; research and information fluency; critical thinking,
problem solving and decision making; digital citizenship; and technology operations
and concepts.[4]
Digital Literacy Model
 
This model[5] illustrates the many interrelated elements that fall under the digital
literacy umbrella. These range from basic access, awareness and training to inform
citizens and build consumer and user confidence to highly sophisticated and more
complex creative and critical literacies and outcomes.[6] There is a logical
progression from the more fundamental skills towards the higher, more
transformative levels, but doing so is not necessarily a sequential process: much
depends on the needs of individual users.
Use, Understand, Create
Traditional definitions of literacy have focused on skills relating to numeracy,
listening, speaking, reading, writing and critical thinking, with the end goal being
developing active thinkers and learners who are able to engage in society in effective
and meaningful ways.[7] These skills are needed for full participation in digital
society as well, but they are only part of a larger set of skills and competencies that
are required.
Competencies for digital literacy can be classified according to three main
principles: Use, Understand and Create.
Use represents the technical fluency that’s needed to engage with computers and
the Internet. Skills and competencies that fall under “use” range from basic technical
 know-how – using computer programs such as word processors, web browsers,
email and other communication tools – to the more sophisticated abilities for
accessing and using knowledge resources, such as search engines and online
databases, and emerging technologies such as cloud computing.
Understand is that critical piece – it’s the set of skills that help us comprehend,
contextualize, and critically evaluate digital media so that we can make informed
decisions about what we do and encounter online. These are the essential skills that
we need to start teaching our kids as soon as they go online.
Understand includes recognizing how networked technology affects our behaviour
and our perceptions, beliefs and feelings about the world around us.
Understand also prepares us for a knowledge economy as we develop – individually
and collectively – information management skills for finding, evaluating and
effectively using information to communicate, collaborate and solve problems.
Create is the ability to produce content and effectively communicate through a
variety of digital media tools. Creation with digital media is more than knowing how to
use a word processor or write an email: it includes being able to adapt what we
produce for various contexts and audiences; to create and communicate using rich
media such as images, video and sound; and to effectively and responsibly engage
with Web 2.0 user-generated content such as blogs and discussion forums, video
and photo sharing, social gaming and other forms of social media.
The ability to create using digital media ensures that Canadians are active
contributors to digital society. Creation – whether through blogs, tweets, wikis or any
of the hundreds of avenues for expression and sharing online – is at the heart of
citizenship and innovation.
As Douglas Belshaw puts it, “Digital literacies are transient: they change over time,
may involve using different tools or developing different habits of mind, and almost
always depend upon the context in which an individual finds herself.”[8] Given how
quickly and frequently our media world is evolving, developing and maintaining one’s
digital literacy is a lifelong process. The specific skills that are needed will vary from
person to person depending on their needs and circumstances – which can range
from basic awareness and training to more sophisticated and complex applications.
What remains constant, however, are the key concepts that apply to all networked
media and are relevant to students – and adults – at all ages.
 
Fostering Digital Literacy in the Classroom
Many teachers are using technology in their classrooms to support different learning
styles and to engage students: what’s missing are guidelines to help them do this in
ways that promote innovative thinking and collaborative work, promote ethical
practices, and strengthen their own professional development.
Teachers interviewed by MediaSmarts identified several key factors that limit
the ability of educators to help students build digital literacy skills. They also
offered some solutions to these problems, including the need to:
 provide students with authentic learning opportunities that are enhanced through
technological tools;
 position teachers as facilitators and co-learners, instead of “drill and kill” experts;
 focus teacher training on how to use technology to enhance learning and meet
curricular outcomes; and
 create reasonable policies and less restrictive filters in schools so that teachers can
better help students develop and exercise good judgement.[12]
Technology has shifted the traditional classroom paradigm that positions the teacher
as the expert. This can be hard for many educators to accept, but it’s not necessarily
a bad thing. In our quickly evolving technological world, we are all learners, and
teachers who are willing to share responsibility with students are more likely to be
comfortable – and effective – in a networked classroom.
This is where our education system can benefit from models in the youth
engagement sector, where young people are acknowledged as decision-makers,
partners and agents of social change, and adults assume the role of trusted guides
and lifelong learners alongside youth.[13]
 

Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum

Digital education has a place in nearly every course and subject. You can see
our Curriculum Charts to get specific information on how each of our lessons and
resources meets the curriculum of different courses in your province or territory.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
English Language Arts: This subject is where media literacy expectations have
most often been found, and those apply to digital media as well. Some of the most
important implications of our key concepts – like the idea that anyone can publish
online – make traditional media literacy skills more important than ever, but also
require more up-to-date ways of recognizing advertising, for example, and the ways
that we’re susceptible to bias.
Digital tech also provides enormous opportunities for creative media production. We
need to take advantage of those opportunities, while also making sure that our
students understand the ethical issues involved in it – as well as their own rights as
media creators.
Social Sciences: Finding and verifying information is at the heart of social science.
Teachers can explore the use of the Internet for research, including access to
uncensored information and alternative news sources. As with English, students can
also learn to distinguish bias, misinformation and propaganda in online content. In
more advanced classes like anthropology and psychology, students can learn how
the values of their online communities are shaped and how the features of online
environments shape our behaviour.
Civics: Digital platforms are the new arena for both online and offline civic
participation, and digital technology also offers students a chance to participate as
full citizens in a way that they can’t offline. Teaching them to be an active part of their
online communities – as well as to use digital tools to be involved offline – is
essential to prepare them to be fully engaged citizens when they’re older.
Careers: Students will need to learn that what they post online might be around for a
long time – and that they have some control over whether that reflects well or poorly
on them. As well, digital literacy skills such as communicating clearly, collaborating
remotely and managing information will be some of the most important and longest-
lasting job skills when students graduate.[16]
Health and Personal Development: Because digital tech is so central to young
people’s lives, no subject may need to integrate digital literacy more than health.
Traditional health topics like body image and sexual health education need to
incorporate digital literacy key concepts, as well as digital health issues such as “fear
of missing out” that are caused by persistence, shareability and
asynchronous communication.
Young people’s self-image is influenced by the photos of their peers – and
themselves – that they select, and often edit or manipulate, so carefully. As well, the
line separating them from the celebrities they admire – whose images are very
definitely Photoshopped – is largely gone, as they all participate in the same
platforms like Instagram. Beyond just body image, young people need to be able to
ask questions about the ideals of masculinity and femininity that they feel pressured
to fit into on social media.
Young people’s health can also be affected by some of the features of digital media
like persistence and shareability, which can make it very hard to log off and give the
haunting feeling of “fear of missing out” – the idea that your friends are having a
good time online without you.
Finally, students need to understand some of the effects we’ve discussed that digital
media can have on relationships, as well as how to deal with them, and to
understand how ideas like respect and consent apply in the online context.
The Arts: As more and more artistic production is created or distributed through
digital media, arts courses also need to reflect the impacts of digital technology, such
as how platform architecture influences aesthetics and self-presentation, and the
effects of networked technology on arts industries and communities. The Internet
has definitely been a mixed blessing for most arts industries, but students need to
understand those changes – and be able to see what changes are coming – if
they’re considering careers in the arts.
Technology and ICT: Technology courses themselves need to adopt a wider view
of digital literacy and go beyond a focus on technical skills – which are likely to be
obsolete within a few years after students graduate – to a more critical
understanding of digital technology, and should expand from a focus
on using technology to include understanding and creating as well.
 
What is a Digital Native? 
Digital native is a term coined by Mark Prensky in 2001 used to describe the
generation of people who grew up in the era of ubiquitous technology, including
computers and the internet. Digital natives are comfortable with technology and
computers at an early age and consider technology to be an integral and necessary
part of their lives. Many teenagers and children in the first world today are generally
considered to be digital natives as they mainly communicate and learn via
computers, SNS (social networking service) and texting. The opposite of digital
natives is digital immigrants—people who have had to adapt to the new language of
technology.
Understanding Digital Natives
The idea of “digital native” came from an article explaining Prensky's opinion on why
today’s teachers are having trouble teaching students. Prensky argued that young
people today are speaking a digital language whereas teachers are speaking an old
accented language (their accent being their reluctance to adopt new technology). He
called for a change in the way children are taught so that they may learn in a
“language” they understand. It is worth noting that not all children born today are
digital natives. Although cheaper mobile technology is making rapid inroads into
developing and emerging nations, children in less affluent areas are less exposed to
technology than their counterparts in the G8, (developed countries) for example.
 
It is important to note that Prensky's original paper was not a scientific one, and that
no empirical data exists to support his claims. He has since abandoned his digital
native metaphor in favor of digital wisdom.
But here goes  problem, digitally literate is popularly defined as the ability to use
computers or use the internet, which as we have seen earlier, forms only one part of
thec rucial skills and competencies required to be digitally literate.
Our expanded view of the term "literate" allows to see that while the digital natives in
our classrooms are most certainly familiar with digital systems-perhaps even more
so than their instructors- this does not mean they automatically know how to read,
write, process, and communicate information on these systems in ways that are both
meaningful and ethical, especially when the information involved does not involved
technology's most common use: personal entertainment.
That is to say, when the task at hand does not involve what the digital natives
consider to be entertainment, the gaps in their literacy begin to show.
---------------
Researches about individual generation are continued as time changes. The
terminologies that can refer to certain generation like "Digital Natives" are made,
which is because individual generations create their own culture and characteristic.
Here are some of culture & characteristic of "Digital Natives".
 1. They feel familiar with digital devices. 54% of them have smartphone as a first
personal mobile phone.

2. They tend to be individualistic. This might be because they are affected by

environmental elements like parents (X generation).
3. They are realistic. They are usually raised in affluent environment, however,
due to prolonged economic recession and the Fourth Industrial Revolution,
they think their future is not clear. This kinds of thoughts make them focus
more on their reality.

---------------------
CHALLENGES TO DIGITAL LITERACY EDUCATION
Digital Literacy Education shares many of the same challenges to Media Literacy.
For example:
 How should it be taught?
 How can it be measured and evaluated?
 Should it be taught for the protection of students in their consumption
of information or should it be to develop their appreciation for digital
media?
Brown (2017) also noted that despite the global acknowledgement  that Digital
Literacy Education is a need, there is as of yet no overarching model of framewok
model or framework for addressing  all of the skills deemed necessary. Put simply,
there is no single and comprehensive plan anywhere for teaching digital literacy the
way it should be taught.
Despite the challenges posed by the broad and fluid nature of media (and therefore
digital) literacy, educators in the Philippines can spearhead literacy efforts by
doubling-down on those concepts and principles of Media literacy that are utmost
importance, namely, critical thinking and the grounding of critical thought in a moral
framework.
Teach media and digital literacy integrally. 
Any attempt to teach these principles must first realize that they cannot be separated
from context-meaning, they cannot be taught separately  from other topics. Critical
thinking requires something other than itself to thinl critically about, and thus cannot
develop in a vacuum. Similarly, developing a moral framework within students
cannot be taught  via merely talking about it. This moral framework develops by
practicing it, that is, basing our decisions on it, in the context of everything else we
do in our day-to-day lives.
Master your subject matter. 
Whatever it is you teach, you must not only possess a thorough understanding of
your subject matter, you must also understand why you are teaching it, and why it is
important to learn. Teaching is in itself a kind of media the students are obliged to
consume; it is only fair they know why.
Think "multi-disciplinary".
How can educators integrate media and digital literacy in a subject as abstract as
Mathematics, for example? The answer lies in stepping-out of the "pure
mathematics" mindset and embracing communication as being just as important to
math as computation. Once communication is accepted as important, this opens up
new venues where the new literacies can be exercised.
Explore motivations, not just messages.
While it is very important that students learn what is the message being
communicated by any media text, it is also important to develop in them a habit for
asking why is the message being communicated in the first place.
Leverage skills that students already have.
It is always suprising how much a person can do when they are personally and
affectively motivated to do so- in other words, a person can do amazing things when
they really want to. Students can produce remarkably  well researched output for
things they are deeply interested in, even without instruction. Harnessing this natural
desire to explore whatever intersts them will go a long way in improving media and
digital literacy education in your classroom.

How to Teach Digital Literacy Skills

Digital literacy skills are some of the most crucial skills taught in today's schools.

But knowing digital literacy skills are important to teach is far different from knowing
how to teach them.

As a career readiness curriculum developer, middle and high school teachers often
ask us for tips on teaching digital literacy skills.

While we provide curriculum to teach digital literacy and other career readiness

skills, our solution may not be the best fit for everyone.
From this lesson taken from the internet, you'll find tips and resources to help
you teach digital literacy in your classroom. You'll also discover how to use
digital curriculum to easily teach these skills as part of your overall course.
But before getting into the details, it's important to understand what "digital literacy
skills" actually are.

What Are Digital Literacy Skills?

Digital literacy encompasses a number of 21st century skills related to using

technology effectively and appropriately.
Because digital literacy and citizenship are gaining importance across the country,
many states have developed specific digital literacy standards and courses.
There are six common topics that all digital literacy curriculum should include:
1. Information literacy
2. Ethical use of digital resources
3. Understanding digital footprints
4. Protecting yourself online
5. Handling digital communication
6. Cyberbullying
Information  Literacy
Today’s students rely on the Internet as a primary source of information for both
school and personal use.
That’s why it’s important that you teach students how to evaluate information to
ensure it’s accurate.
To teach information literacy, focus on effective ways to evaluate the quality and
credibility of information and cover learning strategies that yield more credible
results.
Ethical Use of Digital Resources
While your students may know they need to cite information from books, they could
forget that they need to cite information online as well.
Talk to your students about intellectual property, copyrighted material, and the
proper way to reference the information.
It’s especially important to note that copying text from a website is plagiarism just like
stealing text from a book.
Understanding Digital Footprints
A digital footprint is all of the information a person passively leaves and actively
shares about themselves online, especially on social media sites. Text, images,
multimedia, cookies, browsing histories, IP addresses, passwords, and even Internet
service providers all make up a person’s digital footprint.
Your students spend a lot of time online and may not always think about the
implications of what they do. In your digital literacy lessons, discuss the
consequences of what students share online.

It’s especially important to note that students can’t assume anything is private online.
Whether it’s the new phone number they registered or the tweet they just wrote, it’s
all available online.  

Protecting Yourself Online

With so much information available online, your students need to understand the
basics of Internet safety.
Creating strong passwords, using privacy settings, and knowing what not to share on
social media will start them on the right foot.
You can also delve into more technical parts of privacy, like virtual personal networks
(VPNs), data encryption, and hacking. 

Handling Digital Communication

Today, most students use technology to communicate in one way or another. That’s
why it’s so important to talk to them about how to communicate safely and
appropriately.
That includes both personal and professional communications.
Almost every career requires digital communications at some point. If students don’t
have a good grasp on responsible communications, their careers could end before
they even had a chance to start. 
Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying — the use of technology as a means to harass others — has become

a daily occurrence across the United States.
According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, an average of 27.9% of students
experienced cyberbullying over the past 10 years. Those numbers have jumped to
an average of 34% since 2014.
The statistics about cyberbullying speak for themselves! Addressing it in the
classroom can stop current bullies and prevent future harassment.
As a result, cyberbullying lessons are some of the most important parts of digital
literacy classes.
 
Environmental Literacy, Ecological Literacy and Ecoliteracy
Frameworks for ecoliteracy exhibit a high degree of similarity with frameworks for
environmental literacy, in that both sets include similar affective, knowledge,
cognitive skills, and behavioral components. However, what most differentiate
ecology from environmental literacy is the clear emphasis on sustainability, and their
introduction of spiritual, holistic components, expressed in terms of "celebration of
Creation " (Orr, 1992) and "reverence for the Earth" (Capra, 1996, 2007) and
"expansion of the soul" (wooltorton, 2006). 
An ecoliterateperson is prepared to be an effective member of sustainable society,
with well-rounded abilities of head, heart, hands, and spirit, comprising an organic
understanding of the world and participatory action within and with the environment.
Environmental Literacy, Ecological Literacy and Ecoliteracy

General
Concepti Primary Examples
Dominant Educational
ons of  Pedagogical of
Objectives
Environm Approaches Strategies
ent

 Develop Case study,

problem issue
solving skills analysis,
from problem-
diagnosis solving
to action Cognitive project
Environme Problem
 Develop a Pragmatic
ntal field of  
systemof Affective/
Literacy values
ethics Moral Analysis and
 Adopt clarification
environment of values,
ally criticism of
responsible social
behaviors values
Ecological Object of  Acquire Cognitive Observation,
Literacy  study knowledge Experiential demonstrati
system of ecological one
concepts experimenta
 and tion
 pronciples
 Develop
skills related
to the
scientific
method:obs
ervation and
Case study,
experimenta
environment
tion
al; ystems
 Develop
analysis.
systems
construction 
thinking:anal
of
ysis and
ecosystem
synthesis
models
 Understand
environment
al realities in
view of
informed
decision-
making
Ecoliteracy Shared  Promote and Cognitive Case Study,
resource contribute to Pragmatic social
for economic Holistic marketing
sustainabl development Intuitive/ sustainable
e living that Creative consumpotio
Gaia  addresses n activities,
social equity sustainable
and living
ecological managemen
sustainability t project
 Develop the Immersion,
many visualization
dimensions ,
of one's Creative
being in workshops
interaction
with all
aspects of
the
environment
 Develop an
organic
understandi
ng of the
world and
participatory
action in and
with the
 environment

Greening Initiatives in Colleges and Universities

Increased awareness of environmental degradation and concern for its rehabilitation

have prompted colleges and universities to green their campuses.
A green campus is a "place where environmentally responsible practice and
education go hand-in-hand and where environmentally responsible tenets are borne
out by example" (NEIWPCC, n.d)
The green campus institution is a model environmental community where operational
functions, business practices, academic programs, and people are interlinked,
providing educational and practical value to the institution, the region, and the world.

Greening initiatives, although challenging and demanding, yield significant

benefits in the long run:
 Environmental and economic sustainability-A system-wide culture
of sustainability helps preserve and enhance what the institution values
today as well as for the future.

 Reputation as a leader through example -as colleges and

universities offer courses in environmental management, engineering,
laws and regulations, and assessment, greening initiatives provide
them opportunities to practice what they preach and make their mark
as environmental leaders. Colleges and univiersities , need to examine
their own organizations and implement on their own campuses what
they and the public expect their industry to do.

 Economic benefits. A routine, curriculum-based, environmental audit

program that reveals wate anddd inefficiency associated with campus
activities, coupled with the identification of environment-friendly
alternatives, can yield significant cost savings for the institution.

 "Real-life" work experience for your students. Environmental audits

and pollution prevention evaluations can be integrated into the
curriculum, providing students with hands-on investigative and
problem-solving experience that they can take with them when they
enter the workforce. This experience not only makes your students
 more marketable, it also provides them with the kinds of broad-thinking
skills that allow them to succeed and thrive once they are employed.

 Improved quality of ife in the campus. A green campus is a cleaner,

safer and healthier place to live and work.

LC12C-Ecological Literacy
Enhance
Ecological literacy is a form of transformative education that requires shifts in three
related areas:
1. perception (seeing)
2. conception (knowing) and
3. action (doing)
 
In schools, teachers are also required to shift emphasis through the following:
 From parts to whole-Subjects are to be traught asintegrated, not as
isolated units in the curriculum.
 
 From objects to relationships - An ecosystem is a community.
Communities are characterized by sets, networks, or relationships.
Schools put premium on relationship-based processes such as
cooperation, collaboration, and decision-making by concensus.
 
 From objective knowledge to contextual knowledge- This shift
requires one to explain properties of the parts within the context of the
whole or in terms of environments and systems.
 
 From quantity to quality- Assessments have traditionally emphasized
standardized testing in terms of quantities, numeric scores, and
measurements. Schools are challenged to design assessment more
adequate than the standardized tests if they are to practice this
principle.
 
 From structure to process- Systems are dynamic and evolving. Thus
the understanding of living structures is linked to understanding
renewal, change and transformation. This shift is embodied in project
based learning, which highlights the application of knowledge within
evolving real-life contexts.
 
 From contents to patterns- When we draw maps of relationships, we
discover certain configurations of relationships that appear again and
again. We call these configurations patterns. Instead of focusing on
what a living system is made of, we study its patterns. Pedagogically,
the shift reminds us of the importance of integrating art into programs
of study. This enables children even at a young age to recognize and
 express patterns whether we talk about poetry, literature, visual arts
performing arts and music.

Ecological Literacy refers to an individual's understanding not only of

ecological concepts, but also of his or her place in the ecosystem.

Ecological literacy is a form of transformative education that requires shiftd in

three related areas:
1. perception (seeing)
2. conception (knowing)
3. action (doing)

The ecologically literate person of the 21st century has a positive view of life,
grounded on the faith of interconnectedness, and has the capacity to
competently perform significant life work and related tasks.