Media and Collaboration Fluency

Media Fluency

Why is media fluency important?

The world we live in has drastically change in the way people communicate. It has become a much more interactive society and people are taking to the likes of social media to communicate with one another. It is important to consider media fluency within the classroom because the digital generation has been continuously exposed to television, videos, and computer games that deliver images and experiences with little or no accompanying text (Crockett, Jukes & Churches, 2011, p.57). Being able to relate to students is a key component of student learning.

Collaboration Fluency

Why is collaboration fluency important?

Collaboration fluency is characterized by the unconscious ability to work cooperatively with both real and virtual partners in both physical and virtual environments to solve real and simulate problems (Crockett, Jukes & Churches, 2011, p. 69). Collaboration fluency is preparing students for life after school, whether that is college or the work force. Students must learn to communicate with one another in order to solve problems they may face.

Media Fluency Strategy
One media fluency strategy that I implement in my classroom is showing students how to leverage information. There are certain strategies I use that are more beneficial at specific times. For example, while helping to introduce a lesson, I often have students watch videos or visit different websites with available tutorials. Many of these videos and websites offer real world situations and I have my students focus on these types of problems. It forces them to carefully listen and ultimately think critically about what information is beneficial in solving the problem. Since the implementation of this strategy, students have become more aware of determining what will contribute to their learning and what is not.

Collaboration Fluency Strategy
"Collaboration is crucial to learning because it is through effort of explaining and defending positions, exploring differences and reaching agreement, that new knowledge is created" (Hammond, 2016, p. 1011). A strategy for implementing collaboration fluency is to establish a group. This is a strategy that is frequently use in my classroom. I have found students work well with one another and can lean on one another to develop a better understanding of the material. This is often times because students can have a way with words that the teacher simply does not. By creating groups and allowing students to collaborate, together they are able to define the problem, identify what information is needed and ultimately solve the problem collectively (Crockett, Jukes & Churches, 2011, p. 70).