Who is Marshall McLuhan?

Welcome to your webquest for our Intro to Media Unit. You will learn about the famous Canadian media theorist, Marshall McLuhan. He was the first  major communications theorist to explore how the new media have the power to transform human nature. He popularized the idea that our technologies have a profound effect upon our lives, culture, and history. Enjoy learning about this eccentric and brilliant pioneer of media studies.   

Your task is to learn about Marshall McLuhan and his influence on modern media theory. There are a number of websites to visit, video clips to watch, and information to read.  There are several concepts or quotations that you will have a chance to read and understand. After you have chosen a quote or idea that interests you enough for further study, you will create a poster, slideshow, or infographic to display your chosen quotation and represent with words and images WHAT IT MEANS.

What do you think he meant by this quote? Go to the eLearning online discussion and post your answer in 140 characters or less - #hashtagincluded

STEP 1  

Begin by watching this video: Marshall McLuhan

STEP 2

Next, select a "McLuhan-ism" from the list below. Conduct research by investigating what your chosen quote means. Use video links, online articles, and the websites given to complete this. The links attached are only ONE source to aid you with your research. Use any other web-based sources to gather information that will help you clearly understand what McLuhan means by the quote that you have chosen to work on.

• "the medium is the message"
• "the global village "
• "we shape our tools and then our tools shape us"
• loss of identity & surveillance
• the future of man in the electric age
• "knowledge creates ignorance"
• Marshall McLuhan's Tetrads
• violence as a quest for identity
• predicting interactive communication
• Any other McLuhan-ism from this site: McLuhan-isms

Sites for further study:

• Official Marshall McLuhan Estate Site
• Historica Canada Site
• Canadian Encyclopedia Site

STEP 3

Choose a medium from the options below to complete a visual of the quote or concept you researched from the above list:

• Google slides (3 slides max). Your studentnumber@educ.dpcdsb.org; then your login + password for school
• Infographics: Canva or Piktochart
• Adobe voice email me the link to share 

The Marshall McLuhan Project