Media Literacy archive
A Blueprint for 21st Century Engagement
This week, PBS Teachers rolled out its curricular guide for the 2008 election. It offers teachers a range of online tools created by the public broadcasting community to encourage civic engagement, embracing social media with each lesson plan....
Random Acts of Journalism
At the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City this week, participants discussed and debated the impact of Web 2.0 on journalism, politics and governance. For two days, I couldn’t stop asking myself: what skills should we be teaching students...
Gangs, Social Networks and Media Literacy
Around the country, community groups offer free Internet access to young people as a way to keep them off the streets and away from gangs, just as gangs have started using social networks to recruit teens. Are they offering the...
A Compelling Look at Online Adolescent Behavior, Warts and All
Tonight on PBS, the investigative documentary series Frontline will take a close look at the behavior of young people online. If you’re expecting yet another sensationalized news piece about the dangers of online predators, you won’t find it here. What...
Debating Federal Funding for Online Safety Curricula
A coalition of online safety organizations and activists has come out in support of federal legislation that would create a $50 million grant program supporting online safety education initiatives. They’re also criticizing a competing measure on Capitol Hill that would...
Students Weigh in on Media Literacy
One of the best things about having a blog is participating in the conversation taking place in the comment threads. And this week has been a particular treat, as a group of students in Georgia has been duking it out...
Overcoming Media Illiteracy among Media Literacy Educators
Now I know I have a habit of examining a lot of research reports in this blog. Yeah, I realize I overdo it sometimes. Today, though, please bear with me, as there’s a new report that examines what I believe...
FactCheckEd.org: Teaching the Art of Persuasion
The 2008 election cycle provides us with an excellent opportunity for students to improve their media literacy by examining political messaging and the persuasive arts. So if you’re shopping around for lesson plans, look no further than FactCheckEd.org....
YouTube 101 - Yes, It’s a Real Class
It’s one thing to use YouTube videos as reference tools in class, but what about teaching an entire course on YouTube? One educator is taking a crack at it this semester, and everyone seems to have an opinion about it...
Do Internet Filters Undermine the Teaching of 21st Century Citizenship?
We all know that Internet filtering policies have the best interest of students in mind. But what are we sacrificing when we don’t allow educators to override filters at their own professional discretion? It’s something I’ve asked myself over the...
It’s Never Too Early for Student-Generated Political Videos
With the election kicking into high gear, there’s no doubt we’ll see some interesting uses of student-generated content in the classroom over the coming school year. But that doesn’t mean that some students aren’t getting a head start....
Could Wikis Help Achieve Consensus on Edtech Policy?
If you had the opportunity to help craft federal education technology legislation, would you participate? The idea isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds, as politicians are beginning to explore wikis as a tool for collaborative policymaking. And educators could become...
Cardboard Camcorders Take Playground by Storm!
There’s a short video floating around the Net right now telling the story about a school where all the students started to make toy cameras out of cardboard and pretended to film each other, YouTube-style. It paints a fascinating, and...
Discussing Media Literacy With Dan Rather
At the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas this week, I had a chance to spend some time with former CBS News anchor Dan Rather. And somehow we ended up talking about media literacy in schools....
Achieving a Consensus on Fair Use and Media Literacy
As more teachers began teaching students how to produce video and other multimedia content, the specter of copyright looms large. That’s why the Center for Social Media is trying to spread the gospel on fair use - and help develop...
