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2003 Annual Report, Commission on Media
The Commission on Media assessed the programs in this year’s convention that taught with and about media as text. Several of these programs were initiated by the Commission. Those sessions offered a consistent presence of media-literacy-focused models for instruction throughout the Atlanta convention.
The film festival continues to thrive in increasing attendance, and the Commission was pleased with the large venue to accommodate the larger number of viewers for films that focused on a wide range of topics, issues, and experiences. People are coming to expect the festival and are participating more actively. Thanks to Holt, Rinehart, Winston for providing us with three rooms with playback capabilities.
The Commission continues to be concerned that teachers who offer to present a session that requires A-V equipment or other types of technology must fund its use from their own financial resources. The Commission feels that this will limit the number and quality of media and technology related presentations and workshops that will be offered at the annual convention.
We were happy about the convention program book identifying programs as "Media” sessions.There were only a few sessions attended by commission members that should have been tagged with the “Media” designations, but this was a great improvement over the previous convention program.
The Media Commission welcomed members from the Alliance for Media Literate America and hope to develop a rich partnership with AMLA to create a network between NCTE and the major media literacy organizations in the U.S. and abroad.
Commission members expressed concern that NCTE doesn’t help to fund speakers and presenters from Canada, Great Britain, and Australia who are part of the media literacy vanguard.
In response to request from David Bloome, the Commission was asked to identify and define the “hot topics” related to media literacy. Also at the request of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, the Commission reviewed and responded to the media literacy standard that was in development to be added to the standards for the Adolescent/Young Adult Language Arts Standards document.
Long-range goals/short-range goals
We want to continue to develop a media literacy strand of presentations and workshops throughout NCTE’s annual convention to provide teachers with experiences that will raise their awareness of the components of media literacy and how media literacy experiences can be integrated into a broad range of language arts experiences. We also continue to lobby to advance the inclusion of a Commission member on the proposal selection committee to help improve the overall quality of media related sessions.
We want to consider how the notion of technology fits into our definition—technology is a tool but not necessarily a central focus. We feel that two of the values of media literacy are the transference of skills and an integrated curriculum. These need to be presented to the general body of teachers. We find that teachers using media are often in a position of having to defend their activities, unlike teachers using, for example, poetry or literature. We would like to help change that situation through better education of administrators and teachers, and by greater dissemination of the goals and values of media education.
We will like to explore with NCTE’s Executive Board the feasibility of sponsoring international speakers in the field of media literacy to participate in future conventions.
We would like to create a pamphlet to help teachers understand what media literacy involves on both theoretical and practical levels and how it can be integrated across the English/language arts curriculum.
Mary T. Christel,Director
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