Topics

Media Literacy

The ability to communicate proficiently and navigate cleanly through all forms of media is fast becoming a skill required for participation in contemporary culture. In the school and the workplace, people must know how to access, interpret, analyze and evaluate complex sets of images, words and sounds that comprise contemporary mass media. Consumption of media is part of everyday life, and expression using media is a powerful skill that kids should develop. But there are few resources that can help teachers figure out how to build these skills with their students – they are mostly just concerned with figuring out how to manage/controol the presence of these media in their classrooms (hence cell phone bans, MySpace scandals in school libraries, etc.) Getting past this reactionary approach and embracing a more proactive approach is vital to addressing this vital skill set. Select a snapshot below to learn more about the kinds of work we do in this area.

CCT staff who have played prominent roles in this domain include Shelley Pasnik, Cornelia Brunner and Bill Tally.

• Snapshot 1
  We provided staff development for The Media Workshop of New York’s staff members. MWNY, now in its ninth year of operation, provides K-12 teachers with professional development opportunities in media literacy, particularly the critical use of new media in curricula.
• Snapshot 2
  In Developing an E-Rate Research Protocol 2, we worked with Milwaukee and Chicago schools to generate evidence of the impact of technology on young people’s research, presentation and visual literacy skills.