MEDIA AND INFORMATION PRODUCTION AND USE
The MIL curriculum provides teachers with competencies to engage with media and information platforms, to meaningfully communicate and to self-express. This includes a knowledge of media ethics and info-ethics based on international standards and including intercultural competencies. The ability to select, adapt and/or develop media and information literacy materials and tools for a given set of instructional objectives and student learning needs should be skills that teachers acquire. In addition, teachers should develop skills in helping students apply these tools and resources in their learning, especially in relation to enquiry and media production.
Media production and use should foster a student-centred pedagogy that encourages investigation and reflective thinking on the part of students. Learning by doing is an important aspect of knowledge acquisition in the 21st century. Media production provides an avenue for students to immerse themselves in learning by doing through the production of texts and images in a participatory environment. Teachers must play an active role in this process if students are to develop competencies for participatory learning.
User-generated content is becoming a dominant attraction for new and traditional media alike. Interaction with other users of social networking platforms is increasingly the most important reason why young people are accessing the Internet through various delivery platforms. This is not restricted to developed countries: in Africa and South Asia, more and more citizens are gaining access to mobile media and using them to receive and send messages and participate in debates on the social and political issues that affect their lives.
As teachers develop competencies and confidence in producing and using media and information for instructional practices, they move towards becoming leaders in promoting media and information literacy within the school curriculum. As they increase their proficiency in teaching MIL for a variety of functions, teachers become champions of MIL in the school system and in the wider society.