Today's fake news crisis and its connection to media literacy offers an opportunity to explore the concept of open pedagogy. In November 2016, at the height of the election season and in the midst of a national conversation on validity in media, the Stanford History Education Group released a report describing the capacity of students to appropriately interpret digital media. The results indicated an astounding lack of proficiency among students at all levels - far beyond what researchers anticipated. Overall, students in K-12 and higher education may be graduating without the capacity to properly evaluate digital sources of information.
With the rapid growth of digital media as an integral component of communication, students need explicit instruction in media literacy skills. However, institutions of higher education have not determined the means to provide this instruction, and the subject remains unattached to any specific discipline. At the same time, public faith in universities and colleges has dwindled, resulting in calls for educational reform. Students' difficulty in effectively navigating society's digital landscape may add to public concern that higher education isn't doing its job well.
In order to reinstill public faith, academia must embrace a focus on student learning and evidence-based pedagogical practice. An open approach to pedagogy may help the academy answer the public's call for reform. Openness has sustained innovations in the past such as the proliferation of innovations including scientific journals in the 16th century and the world wide web more recently.
Schmidt (2015) has recommended an interdisciplinary approach to media literacy instruction through the integration of brief media literacy tutorials embedded within the content lessons of various courses. In this brief session, three professors will discuss their pedagogical experiences integrating media literacy and OER into instruction.
