How Media Literacy Week Promotes Community
DAY: Monday, December 18th, 2023 TIME: 12 pm EST | 6 pm CET | 1030 pm IST Location: Register for Webinar Here. In this webinar, Pamela Morris and her colleagues and students will review and reflect on their experience in developing Media Literacy Week in Columbus, which was sponsored locally by Indiana…
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Media Club: A case for optimism
In this session, Maria Polski discusses how media education is enhanced by the accumulative approach, positing that a modern communicator must be competent at all levels of communication: oral, written, print, visual and digital. She presents a case for optimism: a way to encourage humans to develop and maintain the cognitive skills promoted by each of the communication technologies. A reader…
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AI 101: Introducing students to generative AI
Read here about our full webinar series on AI in the Classroom In this webinar, we’ll share a model for introducing students to some of the “big questions” about machine learning and generative AI. While many students have experience using generative AI, not all do - and many are unaware of the ways in which machine…
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BabeČ™-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
International Conference In celebration of Media Literacy Week, our co-directors Renee Hobbs and Yonty Friesem will participate as keynote speakers at the International Conference and Training on Digital and Media Education.. From, Oct. 26 to Oct. 27, national and international scholars, school educators, journalists, media professionals, NGOs and stakeholders will gather at Babeș-Bolyai…
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Media Club: Media Literacy and Media Education Research Methods: a Handbook
In this session, Pierre Fastrez and Normand Landry will examine the field of media literacy and media education research from the perspective of its research methods. They will argue that methodological discussions are an exciting way to interrogate the foundations of this field of research, and open up a dialogue on fundamental questions about what is meant by “media education”. Such…
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The Gaza-Israel War in the Media
While we might not be able to solve the violent conflict in the Middle East, we as media educators need to share our practice and be there for our learners. By connecting with our community of learners, asking critical questions, sharing needs and emotions as a group, challenging media representations, and fighting the spread of biases and prejudices, we can better understand, reflect,…
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Media Club: Pick a Side. Pick a Side. Now.
In the December meeting of the Media Club, Renee Hobbs will model a lesson from the New York Times Learning Network in a viewing and discussion of "Pick a Side. Pick a Side. Now,"  a four-minute Opinion video that explores the role of social media in the current…
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Artivism and the Fight Against Marginalisation in the Global South
Read here about our full webinar series on Inequalities and Media Education In this first webinar, we aim at reflecting on the potential of media activism and artivism to create more sustainable connections between Global South communities and to promote a dialogue to challenge…
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Introducing the Media Dictionary
Media Dictionary is an audiovisual, multilingual, and digital community media initiative that was initiated in 2021 with the primary objective of engaging with diverse communities across India on issues related to media literacy in local languages and dialects. More than 50 volunteers have posted more than 1,000 videos in 35 languages and…
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Gaming Stories From Our Classrooms: Perspectives on Critical Practices
WEBINAR DESCRIPTION “Gaming Stories From Our Classrooms: Perspectives on Critical Practices” focuses on educator storytelling around game implementation in school spaces. A panel of teachers with a variety of experiences, from novice to expert (noobs to pro), join researchers from the Literacy Research Association's Critical Gaming Literacies Study Group for this one hour event. Panelists…
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MEDIA CLUB - Childscape, mediascape: Children and media in India
In this session, Usha and Sumana will talk about the need for a more diverse approach to studying children’s media cultures that is both transdisciplinary and multi-sited, recognizing the complex and varied ways in which young people live with/in media. You can download the book chapter here. Date: Monday…
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Media Club - Ecomedia Literacy: Ecojustice and media education in a post-pandemic world
Join hosts Dr. Antonio López as he guides participants in an exploration of ecomedia literacy as a framework for the post-pandemic world, along with introducing some practical applications for how media educators can incorporate ecojustice through ecomedia literacy into their curriculum. The media for discussion is the presenters' essay that explores the theoretical understandings and…
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Critical AI Literacy
Read here about our full webinar series on AI in the Classroom In this eighth webinar, we will explore how can we develop our own critical AI literacy as educators, and how do we develop students' critical AI literacies? In this session, we will explore multiple dimensions of critical AI…
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AI research: An anthropological lens
Read here about our full webinar series on AI in the Classroom In this sixth workshop, Dr. Rangaswamy will introduce a few of her research projects at the intersections of AI, HCI [Human Computer Interaction] and anthropology. Through these projects, this webinar will lay out the impact and…
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The Future of Education in the Age of AI: Trends, Issues and Solutions
Read here about our full webinar series on AI in the Classroom In this seventh workshop, we will explore how AI is transforming education, such as personalizing learning, automating assessment, and improving collaboration. However, AI also poses significant challenges and risks for educators and learners…
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Visual literacy, creativity and authorship
Read here about our full webinar series on AI in the Classroom In this fifth workshop, we will explore the influence of these complex mathematical formulas on the visual arts and their potential to both enhance and distort our understanding of reality. Beginning with a review on the history of visual media,…
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Teaching Prompt Engineering in the Classroom
Read here about our full webinar series on AI in the Classroom In this fourth webinar, we will explore the use of AI in K-12 education. In today's fast-paced and technology-driven world, prompt engineering has become an essential skill for students to develop. This session will provide educators…
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High Conflict
In this session, we identify the way that conflict is rooted in blame and shame strategies. We examine the power of particular listening strategies like “looping for understanding” as a means of dialing down the conflicts that we encounter in media, the workplace, family and community. What is high conflict and what forces perpetuate it? How does it damage individuals and communities? What can…
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Artificial Intelligence Literacy
Read here about our full webinar series on AI in the Classroom In this third webinar, we will explore some of the AI impacts and issues relating to media literacy. Many of us are educators (in schools and communities, and among our peers) who strive to…
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Social Media Affordances & Constraints
Are students getting the most out of social media? Do they know when to use one platform over another? Can they tell when offline engagement might be a more viable option? To answer these questions, students might consider the role of social media affordances. How they perceive social media affordances, such as visibility, persistence, editability and association, can both…
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ChatGPT helpful or harmful for teaching rhetoric?
Read here about our full webinar series on AI in the Classroom The first workshop in this series will provide attendees with an introduction to chat GPT, a powerful communication tool that offers a wide range of benefits. Through a combination of interactive activities and expert presentations, attendees…
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Can media literacy help us see through the AI hype?
Read here about our full webinar series on AI in the Classroom The second workshop in this series will look at the recent release of GPT-4 and its predecessor ChatGPT in November 2022 that set off heated debate and a range of impassioned responses. ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies…
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Stay Curious, Not Furious
On February 28, the Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island will launch an exciting new media literacy initiative, Courageous RI. Funded by a $700,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security, the effort includes three distinct phases that will foster community conversation, provide training and education, and engage youth, helping…
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Student-Created Media
Media projects can be a perfect showcase for students’ ideas, research, subject knowledge, and media literacy skill set development. This program will provide insight into how educators of all ages can design student-created media assignments for authentic learning, with an emphasis on library-based perspectives. Hear case studies, in-depth overview of media project types, and questions to help…
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Critical Listening Matters
Did you know that critical listening was an important part of early media literacy in K-12 and higher education curricula from the early-to-mid 20th century? During this era, educators attempted to teach listening through new educational technologies, such as the radio. Long ago, educators sought to understand the role of listening in teaching and learning through research, scholarly articles,…
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The Routledge Handbook of Media Education Futures Post-Pandemic.
Our team from the Media Education Lab is proud to announce the publication of The Routledge Handbook of Media Education Futures Post-Pandemic. This handbook showcases how educators and practitioners around the world adapted their routine media…
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Media Literacy in Action
The blurring of entertainment, information, and persuasion is reshaping work, life, and citizenship. As a result, our relationship to media has never been so important nor so complex. By asking critical questions about what they watch, listen to, read, and use, students can be better prepared to be responsible communicators who can use a variety of formats and genres for self-expression and…
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Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age
Winner of the American Association of Publishers 2021 PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences Media literacy educators…
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The International Encyclopedia of Media Literacy
The definitive international reference on a topic of major and enduring importance Dynamic, multidisciplinary, and global in scope, media literacy is one of today’s fastest growing fields of applied communications. Media literacy encompasses a truly vast range of issues, including participatory culture, digital learning, civic engagement, the impact of media on children, the…
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Create to Learn
Create to Learn helps learners create multimedia texts as they develop both critical thinking and communication skills. Written by Renee Hobbs, one of the foremost experts in media literacy, this book introduces a wide range of conceptual principles at the heart of multimedia composition and digital pedagogy. Its approach is useful for anyone who sees the profound educational value of creating…
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Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning
Today, it's more important than ever before to understand the scope of your rights and responsibilities as a digital author. That's why Renee Hobbs wrote the book, Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning.…
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The Library Screen Scene
PUBLISHED JULY 15 from Oxford University Press order your copy now!In the past two decades, several U.S. states have explored ways to mainstream media literacy in school…
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Teaching Truth, Lies, and Accuracy in the Digital Age
This pedagogy article describes a semester-long undergraduate course designed to deconstruct information disorder in the post-truth era by looking at economics, ideology, and power relations. Applying a project-based learning model allowed students to enhance their digital and media literacy skills by inquiring about the accuracy of a variety of sources centered on a single story, '…
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Resistance and Learning in Media & Gender Literacy Classes
Resistance is a known component of social justice classes, and it is often seen as impeding learning. The current case study explored possible scenarios of resistance in classrooms where media representations of gender are discussed, and teachers’ reactions to such resistance. Methods used for collecting data included observations in U.S. high school classes as well as interviews with teachers…
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Civic media as a cultural dialogue: Arab and Jewish teachers & documentary filmmaking in Israel
Eighteen Arab and Jewish teachers of civic education and communication studies took part in a national professional development for peace education at the Israeli Center for Educational Technology from 2016 to 2018. They created documentaries as a way to have a cultural dialogue. While learning to produce a documentary as a form of reflection, the participants deepened their dialogues and…
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Digital Authorship: Issues and Implications for Educators
In this essay, the term digital authorship in examined in relation to literacy learning. We reflect on two critical issues that are sometimes overlooked features of digital literacy in relation to the pedagogical practices of digital authorship. Teachers who are advancing literacy in the context of digital authorship are attentive to the different stages of the creative process and have a solid…
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Exploring the Roots of Digital and Media Literacy through Personal Narrative
Explore the multidisciplinary nature of media literacy education It's been said that the lack of scholarship about the history of media literacy has been a source of some of the conflicts and debates among scholars and practitioners. Media literacy stands at the intersection of the fields of media studies and education, and these scholars have divergent perspectives on the past, present and…
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The Routledge Companion to Media Education, Copyright and Fair Use
The Routledge Companion to Media Education, Copyright and Fair Use Edited By Renee Hobbs Media educators rely on the ability to make use of copyrighted materials from mass media, digital media and popular cultlure for analysis and production activities. With chapters written by leading scholars and practitioners from the fields of media studies, education, writing and rhetoric, law and…
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Deconstructing Disney
Deconstructing DisneyThis fun, intergenerational workshop explores what we love and hate about Disney films, characters and brands from the past and present. If you’re a kid, teen, parent, educator or anyone who works with youth, you will learn how people’s knowledge, beliefs and attitudes can be harnessed and expanded for deeper learning through simple instructional strategies. Discovering how…
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Courageous Conversations Curriculum
Bring media literacy and active listening to middle school, high school, college and adult learnersWith support from talented educators and experts who participated in the program, we’re proud to bring you the Courageous Conversations Curriculum. This book contains a collection of materials to help you bring media literacy and active listening into your middle school, high school or college…
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Memories of September 11, 2001
The series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the U.S. on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 continue to deeply affect U.S. identity and politics. Through a digital academic forum, learners gather information and compare observations of memories of September 11, 2001 to reflect upon the variety of experiences and interpretations of this important…
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Mind Over Media: Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda
  www.mindovermedia.us Mind Over Media is the winner of the 2021 PROSE Awards for Social Sciences by the American Association of Publishers, the membership organization of the scholarly and academic press. ORDER THE BOOK!…
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Media Education for Law Enforcement Officers
The Media Education Lab collaborated with the Austin (TX) Police Academy to create the first-ever professional development program for police instructors on media literacy education.NEW! Read our article in Police Chief magazine!Access print handouts, videos, curriculum, and slides for the professional…
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Grandparents of Media Literacy
The Grandparents of Media Literacy is the website companion to a book edited by Renee Hobbs entitled Exploring the Roots of Digital and Media Literacy through Personal Narrative, which was published by Temple University Press in 2016. Read the book online. The…
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Media Literacy Smartphone
NEW!   Learn how to use the Media Literacy Smartphone with learners of all ages! Download the free learning guide to bring the power of media literacy analysis to your learners! These…
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Teach the Conspiracies
 Workshop: Teach the Conspiracies Read and Annotate the PDF: Teach the Conspiracies by Renee Hobbs Flipgrid: Explore a Conspiracy Theory and Comment View: Can You Win an Argument…
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Media Literacy Textbook
The blurring of entertainment, information, and persuasion is reshaping work, life, and citizenship. As a result, our relationship to media has never been so important nor so complex. By asking critical questions about what they watch, listen to, read, and use, students can be better prepared to be responsible communicators who can use a variety of formats and genres for self-expression and…
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Create to Learn Online
When students create media to represent their learning, they really learn! At the Create to Learn Online website, you can access more than a dozen free and low-cost digital tools for creating podcasts, videos, infographics, animations, videos, remix and more. Plus, you can view and upload multimedia work samples and access study notes…
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Magazine Media Literacy
Students of all ages can develop media literacy competencies in this fun and engaging lesson, which includes adaptations for both online and face-to-face learning. Watch the video to get an orientation to the lesson: Learners will: Strengthen visual analysis skills with special attention to multimodal features including text, images and design; Understand, use…
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Assignment: Media Literacy
After 30 years, it's still the most popular resource from the Media Education Lab! This is the 18-unit curriculum developed for Maryland State Department of Education and Discovery Communications, Inc. You can download the PDF files with lesson plans and reproducibles for each unit and use the videos to teach media literacy in conjunction with social studies, language arts and health…
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Digital Learning Anytime and Real Time
Since the start of the pandemic, educators all over the world have been learning on the fly how to use the power of digital texts, tools, and technologies for “remote emergency instruction.” As teachers quickly discovered, conducting nearly nonstop Zoom meetings, in an effort to replicate in-classroom learning in an online environment, is both ineffective and exhausting. In this series of…
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Set Your Motivation
The Digital Learning Horoscope is a 48-item Likert scale instrument that assesses teachers’ perception of the value and relevance of six conceptual themes, namely: attitudes toward technology tools, genres and formats; message content and quality; community connectedness; texts and audiences; media systems; and learner-centered focus.Visit the Set Your…
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A Starter Guide for Engaging Online Meetings
We share the key insights we learned about online meetings into a crisp synthesis that helps everyone get started with the essential features of great online meetings!Check it out: https://bestonlinemeetings.com
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Copyright
It's more important than ever before to understand the scope of your rights and responsibilities as a digital author. That's why Renee Hobbs wrote 2 books about copyright! Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital…
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THE HIVE
When teachers and library media specialists use a student-centered approach to media production, learners create to learn, developing cognitive, social, and socioemotional competencies through creative media production that can support academic achievement across the subject areas. This model consists of six stages where students collaboratively learn to produce media messages. Based on…
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Librarians on YouTube
Librarians are often challenged to connect with their communities (learners, fellow educators, and the public) with limited time, among competing priorities, and especially recently, across distance. Among many creative approaches to engagement, YouTube offers a fresh approach for librarians to build connections beyond the physical spaces of the library and outside of formal learning environments…
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Nonviolent Communication for Talking about Coronavirus
NEW FROM THE MEDIA EDUCATION LAB! This helpful guide, created by Elizaveta Friesem, helps learners to practice talking about their feelings and needs in ways that promote compassion, empathy and genuine understanding. The work builds upon the work of Marshall Rosenberg's 2005 book, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life.…
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Internet: Indispensable or Evil?
OverviewIn these four lessons, students use the episode Adam Ruins the Internet (Season 2, Episode 12) as a starting point to discuss the role of the Internet in modern culture and learn about media policies that shape people’s…
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Digital and Media Literacy: A Process of Learning
Digital and Media Literacy: A Learning Process …
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PBS News Hour Student Reporting Labs
Student Reporting Labs connect students with a network of public broadcasting mentors, an innovative journalism curriculum and an online collaborative space to develop digital media, critical thinking and communication skills while producing original news reports for PBS NewsHour Extra. Click here to access the COMPLETE …
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All About Media
It's never too early to be smart about media!Give emerging readers the tools to learn about media, evaluate it, and understand it. Readers will learn essential critical thinking concepts along with important topics such as understanding how to find sources and how to properly source, privacy and Internet safety, evaluating ads and news reports, and determining the differences between facts,…
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My Pop Studio
See how My Pop Studio can be used in formal and informal learning settings by browsing the examples below.
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Digital and Media Literacy Education
A Review by John Robinson ORDER THE BOOK NOW How can teachers use digital and media to support academic achievement in all subjects and content areas? The answer to that question is essentially what Renee Hobbs tackles in her book Digital and Media Literacy: Connecting Culture and Classroom.…
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