literacy

VIEW PROGRAM / On Saturday, June 28, 2008, the New England News Forum and the law firm of Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye, LLP presented a unique, one-day workshop, "Sharing the News: Fresh Approaches to Reaching Students and Training Citizens." forged new links among New England college journalism educators, high-school newspaper advisors and journalism teachers, citizen journalists and bloggers.

UConn's Neag School of Education hosts its 6th annual Northeast Media Literacy Conference April 11 2008. The event will see discussions from "an unusually diverse group of innovative leaders and topics in the study of the mass media and its great impact upon today’s young people and their thinking, priorities, decisions, actions, and their values."

In addition to keynote speaches from cultural anthropologist Dr. Michael Wesch and author Anatasia Goodstein, the event offers "twenty timely workshops based on key media literacy related areas – The Role of Today’s Advancing Technology, Mass Media’s Depiction of Today’s Culture and Values, Philosophy and Theory, Standards and Curriculum, Classroom Activities, Research and Evaluation, Teacher Education, and Media Production."

What happens when a video teacher and administrator at Boston English High School start to infuse media-literacy principles in the school day? Listen to this unedited audio of a session at the Oct. 27, 2007 media literacy conference at MIT: "Creating and Learning in a Media Saturated Culture." The panel, lead by Renee Hobbs, of Temple University, included (in first order of speaking): Rona Zickower, of Media Power Youth, Manchester, N.H.; Xavier Rozas, media teacher, Boston English High School; and Chris Toulet-Cote, assistant headmaster of English High.  Click here to launch an audio stream, or DOWNLOAD MP3 PODCAST.

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A new survey conducted by a Harvard University researcher has found that emphasis on standardized testing in middle- and high schools reduces classroom use of news as a means of civic education. Tom Patterson, a researcher at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government released survey findings Jan. 16. (News release -- PDF . . . full report PDF. The report is based on a national survey of 1,250 civics, government and social studies teachers in grades 5 through 12.