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media literacy - resources

ICT, Media, Technology Literacy Resources

General Lesson Plans International Research Projects Articles and Reports
Texts Keeping Up With Trends

General Resources

Literacy for the 21st Century: An Orientation and Overview of Media Literacy Education

Media Education: A Kit for Teachers, Students, Parents and Professionals

November Learning
The Information Literacy area has good information and resources on evaluating websites using the “grammar of the internet.”

Media Literacy Masters Program at Appalachian State University

Media Education Lab at Temple University

National Research Council ICT Fluency and High School Research Project

Project Look Sharp at Ithaca College, NY
Curriculum materials, training and support for the media literacy at all educational levels.

Frank Baker’s Media Literacy Clearinghouse

Susan Roger’s Media Literacy.com

Point Smart Click Safe

New ADL Resource on Cyberbullying

Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan Library

This resource is a searchable collection of lesson plans for teaching information literacy. (It is a project of the Center for Digital Literacy at Syracuse University, with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.)

SOS for Information Literacy

Searchable collection of resources and lesson plans for teaching information literacy. A project of the Center for Digital Literacy at Syracuse University, with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

International Resources

"Media Education: A Kit for Teachers, Students, Parents and Professionals," published by UNESCO, proposes a prototype of media education curriculum for the basic qualification of secondary school teachers. In addition to a teachers' manual and accompanying students' handbook, the kit also contains a manual for parents as well as a handbook on ethical relations with professionals and one on internet literacy.
Office of Communications in the UK (similar to FCC in the US) has a mandate to support media literacy.
European Charter for Media Literacy
Media Awareness Network: A Canadian site with a lot of useful information and ideas for teachers, parents and students.

Research Projects
Kaiser Family Foundation Entertainment Media Studies http://www.kff.org/entmedia/index.cfm
Source of statistics on issues related to children’s use of media. Recommended: Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year Olds.
A Call to Action: What We Know About Adolescent Literacy and Ways to Support Teachers in Meeting Students’ Needs
Pew Internet and American Life Project
Harris Interactive Trends & Tudes newsletter
Articles and Reports
The Seven Great Debates in Media Literacy
An old (2001) but still quite applicable exploration of controversies about what media literacy is and how it should be taught.
Aspen Institute Media Literacy Report
This Landmark Report was published in 1992. The gathering sought to define and set direction for media literacy in the US. It is valuable for historical perspective and explanation behind the commonly used definition of media literacy.
Issues in Media Literacy Education
Thinking Critically About Media: Schools and Families in Partnership: This resource is a collection of essays on media literacy by leading experts in the field, published by Cable in the Classroom.
Media Literacy 101
Online tutorial on the five basic concepts of media literacy, created by Cable in the Classroom

Telemedium, the Journal of Media Literacy
Published on an irregular schedule by the National Telemedia Council ( is the only journal devoted to media literacy. It is not available online.
Journal of Communication
Journal of the International Communication Society: Among scholars in the field, this is considered the most useful journal and the one they most want to publish in.
Academic Exchange Quarterly The Fall 2007 issue will cover media literacy and they have occasionally delved into media and information literacy in the past.
Innovate Online
Published by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova Southeastern University, this journal focuses on the creative use of information technology (IT) to enhance educational processes.

Reading Research Quarterly
Language, Learning and Technology
Sponsored and funded by University of Hawai'i National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) and the Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR), and is co-sponsored by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL).
Leading and Learning with Technology Journal of Research on Technology in EducationPublished by ISTE, occasionally covers media and information literacy topics.
Learning, Media and Technology
Explores the interaction of innovations in educational theory and practices, with media and educational technologies and occasionally gets into media and information literacy.

Texts
The following are useful texts. Some, while dated, lay out much of the theory behind media literacy, provide models for instruction and can easily be adapted to include newer media.
Considine, David & Haley, Gail (1999). Visual Messages: Integrating Imagery into Instruction, 2^nd ed. Englewood, CO: Teachers Ideas Press
Duncan, Barry, et al. (2000) Mass Media and Popular Culture. Toronto, ON, Canada: Harcourt Canada
Hobbs, Renee (2006). Reading the Media: Media Literacy in High School English. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Masterman, Len (2001) Teaching the Media. New York, NY: Routledge
Silverblatt, Art (2001). Media Literacy: Keys to Interpreting Media Messages, 2^nd ed. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers
Tyner, Kathleen (1998). Literacy in a Digital world: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Information. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates
Worsnop, Chris (1994). Screening Images: Ideas for Media Education. Mississauga, ON, Canada: Wright Communications
Keeping Up with Students!
Below are some sources for keeping up with what kids are doing online, both good and bad. They provide an up-to-the-minute overview of what is engaging kids’ interests, the risks and benefits. They also cover what parents, policymakers and the media may be worried about.
apophenia
danah boyd’s blog. (danah doesn’t like capital letters.) She’s a doctoral student at USC and has become something of an oracle about what teens and young adults are doing online. A very thoughtful and interesting commentator, she also appears in the Forum in the Summer Issue of Threshold magazine on Web 2.0 and digital ethics.

Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online Goodstein, Anastasia (2007) This is a really good description of what kids are actually doing online and why. It is informative and balanced. Anastasia also has two blogs that are useful for keeping up with what kids are doing, how they’re being marketed to, what’s important to them and so forth.

Net Family News
A nonprofit public service providing a place for "kid-tech news" focused on parents and educators. This newsletter will keep you up-to-date on news and issues relating to kids and the internet.
Willard, Nancy E. (2007) Cyber Safe Kids, CyberSavvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn to Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. book is a balanced and serious look at how to keep kids safe online and how to help them become smart, savvy and productive users of the online world.