Response to Lecture 2.5 - Media Ecology and the Invisible Environment

I was unable to be at this lecture unfortunately, but I have gone through the slides online and wanted to post a little running commentary on them as I go back through them. This isn't a required post for the tutorials, so I'm not taking it too seriously, so I will just write some quick notes in dot points!

• Firstly, I love the cartoon depicting the difference between media and mediums. I like to think I understood the concept and the correct terminology before, but now it is even more clear.
• What is Media Ecology? Well I'd assume that it is the study of the media environment.. Which I'm assuming is what the next slide is going to say, which in turn is this invisible environment that we're looking at?
• The Extensions of Man theory is really interesting. Never had I thought of those ideas, but now that I have seen them, I wonder how those connections crossed my mind before, it seems so obvious!
• So, Postman believes that technology is just the use of techniques by people, but when those techniques have a social or cultural purpose, they become media? So, communication has a social and cultural purpose and is therefore media. Does this equate to (and I'm trying to create an analogy here) the process of talking, the actual functions involved in the action itself, being the technology, and when that technology is being used in order to convey a message, through talking to someone, it is the media? Wow, I think that is very hard to follow, it makes sense in my head. It is late at night, that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!
   

This whole lecture/topic reminds me of what we studied in an English subject last semester; the importance of teaching students to be digitally literate, and critically so. We need to understand that the invisible environment is there and not just take everything at face value. We need to teach our students how to read the messages that aren't being seen, to be able to be critical about content they view and to put these concepts into practice in all aspects of life in order to make informed observations, opinions and life choices.