I’m sure this will vary for many people depending on their schools, where/when they were taught, and the like, so I’m interested to see what others’ experiences have been with this.
I’m also curious about what resources some have used to learn better research skills & media literacy (and found useful) if their school didn’t adequately teach either (or they may have whiffed on it at the time).
Eh, they certainly tried to teach it, but teachers were scared to give assignments that required information they didn’t provide ahead of time.
So, there was never a need to actually apply it, to realize that, hey, if I don’t know something, I should absolutely crack open the internet and read up on whatever I can find.deleted by creator
I’m over 40 and while I was taught to do research on a Microfische, I was regularly told not to trust anything on the internet.
As for media literacy, no way in hell. Especially after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 started allowing mass consolidation of media empires. In the 1980’s, majority of US media was owned by around 80 companies, in the modern era, it’s five that own the majority of the US media landscape.
You say the name “Marshall McLuhan” or even “the medium is the message” and you get confused fucking looks.
We were taught basic research skills all throughout highschool, how to find information, how to read and write academic papers and how to cite things properly.
As far as media literacy goes, but our social studies classes always opened with a discussion about the day’s news stories as well as the bias of the source it came from.
But I think the class that really opened my eyes the most was a unit in 9th grade English where we discussed the language of advertising. In that class they taught us how anything you see in an ad has to be technically correct as to not run afowl of false advertising laws, but is very often misleading. After that, I started to spot those techniques everywhere, and not just in ads. Those few weeks were foundational to the way I approach critical thought now.
No. Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
GCSE (14-16 year olds) history is (supposed to) teach the various types of source (primary, secondary, etc.), and consideration of reliability, bias, etc.
For the sciences, we were required to use reasonable sources (perhaps not direct papers and journals, but certainly reasonably reputable outlets that discuss their findings.
At college level (16-19), I honestly don’t remember this being a requirement (although I did drop history). Tests and assignments were mostly based on class teaching.
At university level, it goes full force after the first year. Everything you assert, you have to back up, using the university’s preferred referencing system.
What is college? Is it employed for middle school or high school? If so then no.
And if someone who didn’t get such eduction thinks they have the tool to distinguish between false and true, they are delusional. The more verified knowledge someone has, the more that person develops their ability to manage information and find if it’s bad or good. Tho that doesn’t mean that everyone has equal training or capacity in doing so.
If college is employed as a synonym of university, then kinda yes? Tho for myself I wasn’t really trained into getting the right sources. However the knowledge gained from the years of eduction allowed me to somehow manage a bit the informations.
However, I don’t think I would have been able to really avoid bad information without getting the university training, where I also learned sources and reputable sources.
Even now it can be sometimes hard to get a good source to check. And often for random info I’ll forget on the Web I don’t even bother.
What is college? Is it employed for middle school or high school? If so then no.
It’s for post-high school education, also referred to as higher education in my area. Generally they’re synonymous with universities in that respect where I’m from, and while I’m sure there may be some slight difference between the two (probably more distinct in other areas), I don’t know what they are exactly.
In France and other countries around speaking French, college is middle school. 11-15y old something like that.
According to Wikipedia, in most countries it’s high-school or secondary education.
In the US and maybe other it seems to be a synonym of university.
Here in Australia it can be used for post-high school vocational education, but it can also be used for residential premises attached to a university (but not the university itself). Of course, there’s some American language import here.
Only the absolute basics.
It’s been a while for me. I remember school covered a bunch of basics. What is this text trying to say outside of its explicit wording? I don’t remember it going into sources or framing much, but I also did pretty badly at it in school. A lot of students are checked out most of the time. I don’t really remember anything to do with the preponderance of media (e.g. If NYT, CNN, MSNBC, and FOX all agree on something, how will this be perceived by the public, how small will your voice be if you say “But the UN sent investigators and found no evidence of chemical attacks” etc). We certainly didn’t explore, say, Chomsky’s reading of how the media industry is structured, even though I think most students at my school would be capable of absorbing the information.
The thing is, I think people often have the skills for media literacy if it’s a message they disagree with. They can question sources and motivations, peel apart euphemisms etc. But most of the time they are insufficiently motivated, especially with messaging they agree with. Or they want to agree with.
Secondary education did a pretty good job, but I’d say that was more on the teachers than the curriculum. I got very lucky in that regard. My community college for my BTEC, same, the one teacher who taught me how to properly write reports and assignments was really good at ensuring we cited everything properly, and gave extra marks.
Yes, but not enough that you couldn’t ignore, fail to understand, or miss it.
not long before dropping out in the 90s in a conservative, backwards, rural area – the need to cite sources and do extensive research, and have a willingness to have my ideas challenged, was something I grokked from high school. i don’t expect much from from West Virginia, but I didn’t then either.
