澳门六合彩官网

A new state law is requiring Illinois public high schools to teach media literacy. Through IMEDIA, the College of Education and the 澳门六合彩官网 are helping teachers prepare to do just that.

When Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law on July 9, 2021, requiring that media literacy be taught in public high schools, Illinois became the first state in the nation to mandate such instruction.

The instruction, to begin with the 2022-2023 school year, will teach students how to analyze and communicate information from various mediums, including digital, interactive, audio, visual, and print.

Immediately after the bill was passed, the College of Education and the 澳门六合彩官网 went into action, planning how to prepare Illinois teachers to be ready to instruct students in an area made critical by the massive amount of misinformation that circulates in cyberspace.

The two colleges collaborated to form the (IMEDIA) to help fill educators鈥� needs for media literacy training and curriculum development. The goal of IMEDIA is to assist high school teachers with integrating media analysis and production into their classes and building a robust critical media literacy curriculum in Illinois schools.聽

鈥淢any of us in the 澳门六合彩官网 have been working on media literacy-related research and teaching in the last several years,鈥� said Professor Stephanie Craft, head of the Department of Journalism. 鈥淲hen we heard about the new law, we wanted to be able to turn that work into action. Teaming up with curriculum and instruction experts in the College of Education seemed an ideal way to do that.”

IMEDIA will launch a pilot program on campus from June 27-29, to both find out what teachers are already doing in the area of media literacy and to help them integrate a media literacy component into their curriculum, said Professor head of the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. The three-day workshop is for local teachers and potentially for teachers across the state.

鈥淢edia literacy is especially important in light of the last presidential election and the amount of disinformation and misinformation that is pervasive in the U.S.,鈥� McCarthey said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more and more critical that we equip students with the ability to discern what鈥檚 factual from what鈥檚 not.鈥�

鈥淧reparing Illinois students to successfully navigate an increasingly complex media environment is vital to their well-being and ability to participate in democratic life,鈥� Craft added.

The state is putting together media resources for teachers to download, McCarthey said, 鈥渂ut it鈥檚 important to have a professional development component to that, and our workshop is going to provide teachers an opportunity to do some hands-on things as well.鈥�

Early talks between the Colleges of Education and Media include the development of modules that high school teachers could download to use in their classrooms. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e also talked about in the future taking advantage of some of the credentialing programs that are in process at both the campus and state levels,鈥� McCarthey said. 鈥淏ut the first step is to get this group of teachers ready for the fall.鈥�

IMEDIA has recently received initial funding from the Office of the Chancellor. They are consulting with the Office of Foundation Relations to identify additional potential funding sources. The group also hopes to apply for Spencer Foundation funding to do a statewide survey of the media literacy landscape, to discover who is teaching what across the state. 

鈥淭he end goal is quite simple,鈥� McCarthey said. 鈥淲e want all of our students to be prepared to be critical media consumers.鈥�

In addition to Craft and McCarthey, members of IMEDIA include College of Education faculty member ; 澳门六合彩官网 faculty members Amanda Ciafone, CL Cole, and Michelle Nelson, and doctoral student Sakshi Bhalla; as well as a doctoral student at Northwestern University and founder of the Illinois Media Literacy Coalition, of which IMEDIA is a part.