Seeing microplastic clouds: Using ecomedia literacy for digital technology in environmental education

Abstract

Connecting environmental and digital media education with the guiding metaphor of water, this article explores ecomedia literacy, a methodology that prompts students to perform a holistic analysis and systems thinking of gadgets using four zones of inquiry: ecoculture, political ecology, ecomateriality, and lifeworld. Ecoculture involves studying the discourses, symbols, and stories associated with gadgets. Political ecology relates to the ideological aspects of gadgets and how their production chain is facilitated by social structures. Materiality corresponds with how the gadget is made and what materials it’s composed of. Lifeworld is the phenomenological experience of the gadget and how it impacts sensory, cognitive, and emotional experience. This article reflects on student research performed utilizing ecomedia literacy and the insights they generated about the environmental impacts of their personal gadgets.

Keywords:

• technoliteracy
• ecomedia literacy
• information and communication technologies
• water
• environmental education

Acknowledgement

Research assistance was provided by Julia Banashak and Christina Randazzo.

Notes

1 Throughout this article, I employ the terms media and technology as ICT interchangeably. In my work as a media educator, I don’t separate media literacy and technoliteracy, but combine them within the framework of ecomedia literacy.

2 https://ecomedialiteracy.org/ is a website I created for teachers and students to find research links and background materials to perform this kind of analysis.