EduCon 2.8

At a base level of media consumption we need to consider “What are we watching? (or listening to, playing, etc.).” This is engagement in its simplest form, and gets us to think about the encoded messages that generally wash over us without question or interpretation. Asking ourselves “Why are we watching this?” begins the process of thinking about the constructs of media and how they serves our needs. As new technologies have lowered the barriers to creation the framing question, “What are we making?” asks us to think about the elements identified in the curate stage and how they work within our own creations. “Why are we making this?” helps us look at our own creations from a more critical perspective with greater understanding of production, our relationship to media and the encoding/decoding process.

As teachers "Who is this for?" is a given, but how much time do we spend truly considering the audience? Are they part of this curation and creation? If so, how? If not, why? How well do we fully grasp the additional layer of understanding new platforms of distribution our students are predominantly using for media consumption? This conversation aims to gain a better understanding of what it is like from the other side of the lecture, assignment and project.