The Media Spot

Over the past year, I had the opportunity to work with the inspirational staff at the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, PS 686, on a series of documentary videos on their arts, enrichment and media literacy programs.

Throughout their inaugural year, I worked with academic coordinator Nicole Nelson and principal Donna Taylor, developing a framework for how they will integrate media literacy skills and concepts into their curriculum.

Have a look at their video archive, starting with the 5-video fundraising series, A School Grows in Brooklyn, which includes our documentary on K-1 Media Literacy.

In June of 2009, 4 teachers at PS 334, The Anderson School (one of my AUSSIE schools) traveled to the Galapagos Islands to cap off the development of a school-wide multi-discipline curriculum-building initiative. To expand the potential value of this trip, we used a variety of technology-based resources including digital video and photos, collaborative online digital presentation software (Voicethread.com), an integrated online curriculum map, and a project blog to create and share re-useable custom resources, and to enable teachers to interact with students from the islands.

The teachers and students at PS 334, The Anderson School, a gifted-and-talented K-8 school Rhys has been consulting with through AUSSIE since 2008, were presented with a unique opportunity to integrate multiple technologies into an exciting opportunity bridging media literacy, traditional classroom learning, and natural science studies. All grade levels collaborated to create multimedia products that would transform their traditional curriculum and embrace the challenge of creating new learning materials to inform their own understanding of the world, while combining new acquisition and practice of technical literacy skills like video production, web development, Internet-based and collaborative annotation resources, with new literacy skills like researching information on the Internet and composing text-based documents on a computer, as well as traditional and real world competencies, like public speaking, teamwork and community building, and persuasive writing.

Today I had a glorious first day of consulting at the brand new Brooklyn School of Inquiry (PS 686), a gifted and talented magnet school in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. I'll be getting in on the ground floor this year to help the staff build media literacy concepts and integrated technology projects into their inaugural K-1 curriculum, which they will eventually expand to K-8.

Over the past few years, when I return to consult with schools in the fall, I notice that administrators and teachers, and the educational community in general, are a little more tuned-in to the role that schools must play in preparing students for the world full of flowing info and non-stop media messages they're heading into.