Mit-media-literacy-journalism

JOURNALISM IN THE K-12 CLASSROOM -- WHAT'S GOING ON?

SEMINAR TITLE: Student As Researcher, Producer and Publisher: New Media, Education, and Journalism

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FULL CONFERENCE REGISTRATION / INFO ......VIEW / PRINT FLYER

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• WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009, 10:15 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
• WHERE: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Building E-51 (Tang Center) / 2 Amherst St., Cambridge MA 02142, Room 335
• CONVENOR: Bill Densmore, director/editor, The Media Giraffe Project at UMass Amherst; fellow, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, Missouri School of Journalism

In the last couple of years, a new term has been added to the lingo of media-literacy educators -- "news literacy." What is news literacy and how does it related to now well-established world of media literacy? In a breathtakingly fast 90-minute overview, nine practioners provide specific examples of journalism in American secondary-school classrooms, including the latest uses of Internet technology. We'll stream and video archive this example-packed session. Bring your examples, too.

This workshop will look at the role of citizen journalism and new media has in teaching and learning and shaping the discussion about critical social, political and technical issues with K-12 students. We will explore the use of the web, blogs, on line surveys and other social media tools and how to apply the principles of journalism in shaping their use in the classroom.

After quick videos, we'll dissolve into three breakouts, so we can all deep-dive into the presentors that are of most interest. These breakouts will last 20 minutes and will repeat, so you can attend two of three breakouts during the entire session. We'll then reconvene to share what we've learned and propose next steps.

Tentative breakouts

1. How to get started -- Tools, technologies, practical steps. With Melissa Wantz, Diana Mitsu Klos and Michael McSweeney and other presenters.
2. Building virtual and real communities, and the student as civic participant. with Dare Brawley, Melissa Wantz and Diana Laufenberg and other presenters.
3. The pedagogy of journalism -- integrating with legacy curricula. With Michael McSweeney and Alan Weintraut and other presenters.

About the convenor

Bill Densmore is director/editor of the Media Giraffe Project at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and the New England News Forum. He is a Fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. He is a co-founder of CircLabs Inc., a Bay Area startup, which is developing a new way for users to discover, share, create, discuss and exchange value with publishers. Media Giraffe, launched in March 2005, in an effort to find and spotlight individuals making sustainable, innovative use of media (old and new) to foster participatory democracy and community.

PARTICIPANTS / PRESENTERS (alpha order)

MORE DETAIILED INFO ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS

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• Dare Brawley is a high-school senior at the Poughkeepsie Day School i Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and editor of the school's feminist magazine called "Scarlet" created and read in grades 7-12. [1] / cell: (914) 475-7240
• Diana Mitsu Klos runs the the American Society of News Editor's high-school journalism program and support services, including the largest online hosting service for multimedia-student generate news. [2] / 703-453-1125
• Diana Laufenberg, teaches at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, and will talk about her election-day project in which students recorded their impressions and involvement in the 2008 presidential election. Laufenberg was a participant in the Journalism That Matters conference, "Rebooting the News," in October, 2008 at Temple University, and a signator of the "Consensus Statement on the Importance of News Literacy." [3] / (928) 607-8142.
• Joanna Marinova is co-director of programs and operations at PressPassTV.org in Boston. Press Pass TV is a youth-adult partnership non-profit whose mission is to produce socially responsible video journalism, which promotes a more diverse media, empowers communities, and increases civic engagement. [4] / work: 617-633-1659.

• Michael McSweeney is English department chair at Reading (Mass.) Memorial High School, where a new initiative asks all juniors to complete a podcast telling a community slice-of-life human-interest story. [5] / work: 781-944-8200 ext. 337.
• Dean Miller is director of The Center for News Literacy in the Journalism School at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, N.Y., and a former daily newspaper editor from Idaho and the Northern Rockies. A former Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, he advised students journalists while studying management and comparative religion. [6] / (631) 632-1893.
• Sarah Platanitis teaches journalism and English in Holyoke, Mass. Using Flip digital camera, her students will prepare a short video for Oct. 24. She is a graduate of the Reynolds High School Journalism Institute. [7] / (413) 530-7006.
• Melissa Wantz teaches at Foothill Technology High School in Ventura, Calif., where journalism -- all online -- is being re-introduced after a five-year hiatus. Wantz used Joomla! to develop an online news site "The Foothill Dragon") incorporating social-networking tools, video, polls, comments, contests and including Ning, Google wikis and Google docs for student peer editing. She is a graduate of the Reynolds High School Journalism Institute. [8] / work: 805-289-0023 ext. 2602.
• Lynn Washington runs the Convergent Media Magnet Program at Richland Northeast High School in Columbia, S.C. The program combines newspaper, broadcast, yearbook and graphic design. She is also a Model United Nations Advisor. [9] / (803) 699-2800 ext. 79751.
• Alan Weintraut teaches at Annandale High School in Fairfax County, Va., and was the Dow Jones High School Journalism Teacher of the Year two years ago. [10] / (703) 642-4229.
• Stephen Wilmarth, ran the Center for 21st Century Skills in Connecticut for four years and now heads a program teaching media skills to secondary-school students in rural China as a way of [www.ph-int.org giving "voice"] to the disenfranchised. He lectures at Ningxia Radio & TV University, Ningxia Vocational Polytechnic University and Ningxia Teachers University. [11] / (860) 227-1225.

WATCH SHORT-FORM VIDEOS (1-2 minutes each)

• Melissa Wantz -- Venture, Calif. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSNYH5FZH4A
• Michael McSweeney -- Reading, Mass. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSS_pGZiFCU
• Steve Wilmarth -- China and Westbrook, Conn. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5cJ3iddYxc (slightly longer)
• Dean Miller -- Stony Brook, N.Y. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCD0LKprCoU
• Dare Brawley -- Poughkeepskie, N.Y. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZccYjArVQpM
• Sarah Platanitis -- Holyoke, Mass. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA0pKSQNbLM
• Alan Weintraut -- Annandale, Va. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdMyS-quHqY

RELATED LINKS

• "A Consensus Statement About the Importance of News Literacy," from the Rebooting the News Conference at Temple University, Oct. 24-25, 2008.
• More about the ASNE Reynolds Summer Journalism Institute
• "News Literacy: Setting a National Agenda" -- Stony Brook conference March 11-13, 2009.
• VIDEO: The News Literacy Project: Students as teachers at Walt Whitman High School
• VIDEO: What is "news literacy?" The Stony Brook experimental curriculum.
• VIDEO: Michael Moore on why gutting education has killed newspapers. Does news/media literacy start to fix this problem?
• VIDEO: Harvard Prof. Michael Sandel on why news reading is critical to citizenship -- not consumer-ship
• Background on the ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Institute
• Participants in the ASNE Reynolds Institute.