Education for a new millennium

NATIONAL MEDIA EDUCATION CONFERENCE

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

JUNE 25-28 2005

The media literacy and education change is growing rapidly in this land and abroad and the greatest in quantity recent edition of the biannual National Media Education discourse offered a wide array of practical and theoretical information below the theme of "Giving Voice to a Diverse Nation." Sponsored by the agency of the Alliance for a Media Literate America, the incident drew educators, media activists, health workers, pupils of media literacy and youth media makers for three days of workshops, presentations, prelections and screenings.

Four pre-conference sessions were presented including Media Literacy 101, facilitated through Elizabeth Thoman and Jeff Share, the one and the other of the Center for Media Literacy based in looks Angeles, which set the stage for the conversation To introduce attendees to the field, Thoman, explained that media literacy is "a twenty-first-century approach to education," providing "a framework to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms--from print to video to the internet." A more expansive way of looking at the general general [i]or[/i] abstract notion of "literacy"--addressing images, sound and detonation culture as well as text-this burgeoning field expands reading and writing instruction in educational settings and in general make deepers our ability to understand in what manner media affects individual citizens and society. Intrinsic to this proces is building the "essential skills of inquiry" as well as an understanding of the part of media in our agriculture While stressing enhanced critical thinking abilities and encouraging production of media as an essential full tale Thoman clarified that media education is more about education than media.

Offering essentially a primer to the field, Thoman explained that the equation "Text + connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts = Message" (expanding upon, and in more [i]or[/i] less ways contradicting, media theorist Marshall McLuhan's contention that satisfied matters less than medium) lies at the heart of the media education move She took attendees through the "Five Core Concepts" and "Five lock opener Questions" that provide a constitution and vocabulary for analyzing media that is similar to literary analysis. These conceptions and questions are directly correlated and speak to the issues of authorship, format, audience, satisfied and purpose. Thoman addressed the specifics, providing information about by what mode media education can be used in the classroom to lead scholars into more in-depth inquiry. For example, in terminuss of audience, there are three ways in which audiences interact with media: reactive, active and interactive. through providing students and citizens the tools to become interactive and therefore engaged consumer of media, (media literacy) educators empower the citizenry. To demonstrate this, Thoman explained the general [i]or[/i] abstract notion of the "empowerment spiral" that is created end media literacy applications, which consists of awareness, analysis, reflection and action.

While Media Literacy 101 provided a solid foundation for delving into the field of media education, the breakout sessions that took place during the talk went into more detail upon specific issues and practical matters. With a focus upon providing media education in the K-12 classroom, many of the presentations explained in what way media education can be included in curriculum (and across disciplines), demonstrated lucky programs being implemented around the geographical division and addressed how media literacy instruction can suitable numerous educational standards. Such presentations included "Using Media to Boost Skills and Scores" and "Have Your learners Grade the News," facilitated by dint of former journalists Paul Kandell and John McManus, creators of www.gradethenews.org, who took attendees end their specialized curriculum. Other presentations were center upon media production, a vital constituent of formal media education and community-based efforts. These included "Promising Practices in Community-Based Media Programs" and "It Takes a Village with a Camera: Community Building [i]or[/i] part of to the other Media Education," in which youth-made media about the conditions of the Baltimore City Public academy System and the community attests that resulted from this advocacy were highlighted. Several breakout sessions had a more political or social reform bent like as "One Economy & the Digital Connectors Program: Connecting depressed Income Youth and Communities to the Digital World" and "Ain't Gonna application of mind War No More: Media and Peace Education." move with a jerk McCannon, founder (in 1993) of the fresh Mexico Media Literacy Project and Josh Silver of unrestrained Press (which he co-founded, in 2002 with Robert McChesney and John Nichols) not awayed the dynamic, eye-opening and inspiring "Media Literacy, Independent Media & Media Reform." A not many sessions addressed the issue of our global agriculture including "Media Literacy in Europe and the U.S.A.: Similarities, Differences and Collaboration Possibilities," "Multimedia + Multiculture = Multiliteracy" and "Documentary as Professional Development: Putting a Human Face upon New Demographics," in which Elaine Shen of Active Voice demonstrated by what means teachers can sensitize themselves to the growing immigrant population. In "Media Literacy and Global Studies," teacher, author and media advocate Barry Duncan used myriad media examples from around the world to provide updated educational perspectives upon the representation of self and others as well as a consideration of the collapse of private into public space.