PRESENTATION ON MEDIA LITERACY WORK

Research Form Presentation coe: http://www.coe.ohiou.edu/news-events/wan_forum.htm

NCTE AWARD 2009

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Introduction
Since mid-1990s, media literacy has been the focus of my research interest and teaching efforts. Over the years, I have published three books and 10 journal articles on media literacy education, and designed a number of curricula that have integrated media literacy education in schools and colleges. I also did numerous conference presentations and workshops on media literary education.

These activities have covered all the principles of media literacy including access, analysis, evaluation, and creation of information. Besides research publication and curriculum development, my efforts have involved collaborating with community members and media producers, mentoring new teachers and graduate students, and advocating media literacy locally, nationally, and internationally. My endeavors in promoting media literacy education in the United States and other countries have played important roles in integrating media literacy content in school curriculum through pre-service and in-service teacher training, and through raising awareness of media literacy among parents, children, and society. (Please see Table 1 for details of my media literacy education advocacy and achievement over the past 15 years.)

I. Media Literacy Principles
Reflecting on how media literacy principles are addressed, I find all four of them carry equal weight in my work (For details, please also see Table 1.).

The Media-Savvy Students: Teaching Media Literacy (Wan & Cheng, 2004) is a book aiming to help elementary teachers develop media literacy skills—the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information, among their students. Through 20 thematic units, it introduces the characteristics of mass media including television, the Internet, and digital images to young children, teaches them skills needed in evaluating TV programs, Internet information and in recognizing media biases and hidden messages in advertisements, and helps them become educated consumers of mass media. It is a ready-to-go curriculum for teachers to use (see: Example 1).

In 2008, I guest-editored (with Gut) New Media and Education in the 21st Century for Theory into Practice, an education journal. This special issue featured studies on all four principles of media literacy (see: Example 25). I conceptualized and proposed this special issue and reviewed all submissions. Some articles cover “access” media by introducing and researching digital stories and video games in instruction, multimedia projects, assistive technology in special education. One article proposes a model to evaluate student technology skills. Articles on secondary students’ media use and digital cheating in schools target at analysis and evaluation principles (see: (see: Example 24; Example 26).

My other specific activities addressing the analysis and evaluation of media include the two books that teach children how to question television and the Internet by asking questions like “Who made the message and why?,” “Who is the message for?,” “How might others view the message differently?,” “What is left out of the message?,” and “How does the message get and keep my attention?” (see: Example 3; Example 4).

Examples featuring the creation of information with multimedia tools include digital stories that pre-service teachers created (see: Example 15), class stories school children published (see: Example 21), the English as Foreign Language learning Web site with stories written by Japanese college students and teachers (see: Example 18; Example 17), and stories I created myself as samples for my students (see: Example 19; Example 20). In a general method class that I teach, my students learn to create an electronic professional portfolio.

II. Teaching of Media Literacy
Media literacy instruction has been integrated in the courses I teach and develop over the past 15 years. They exist as complete media literacy curriculum ready for adoption and as units of instruction with performance assessments for students to demonstrate their learning. The textbooks and reading materials I use in my classes include, but are not limited to, some of the articles and books I authored (see: Example 23). Here are a few examples:
•Creating Critical Viewers Through Language Arts Activities
• Integrating Media Literacy in Existing Curriculum
• Digital Cheating and Plagiarism in Schools
• Barney & Friends: An Evaluation of the Literacy Learning Environment Created by the TV Series for Children
• Virtually True: Questioning Online Media
• TV Takeover: Questioning Television
• The Media-Savvy Students: Teaching Media Literacy Skills

1. Curriculum Development
In 2004, after several years’ teaching of media literacy concepts in my own courses, The Media-Savvy Students: Teaching Media Literacy Skills (Wan & Cheng, 2004) was published as a curriculum ready for others to adopt. It contains 20 thematic units that teachers may easily adopt as a complete curriculum of media literacy or take ideas from it to integrate into their instructions of various contents. The detailed lesson plans with ideas for hands-on activities and the assessments tools allow teachers without substantial knowledge of media literacy to implement it. As we know that media literacy does not exist as a self-standing subject in U.S. schools, it is instrumental to have a curriculum flexible enough for adoption in various ways.

In 2007, Capstone Press published the Media Literacy Set with six books, to which I contributed two: Virtually True: Questioning Online Media (Wan, 2007), and TV Takeover: Questioning Television (Wan, 2007). These six non-fiction trade books have make a complete media literacy curriculum for children in 2 to 5 grades. The interactive activities recommended in the books can be easily adopted for older students.

To implement media literacy principles in teaching, I have been working with Rex Tanimoto, a professor at Osaka Gakuin University in Japan to develop a Digital Story Program, a Web-based multimedia English program that teaches English as a foreign language since 2003. The program aims to change the way that foreign language is taught in Japan hoping to make it more appealing and interesting to students. It teaches English through digital storytelling created by both teachers and students online. For samples of digital stories written by teachers and students, see Example 19, and Example 18. The article Creating Constructivist Learning Environment for Japanese EFL Students: A Digital Story Program (Wan, Taminoto, & Templeton, 2008) reflects on the development, revision, and effectiveness of the program, comparing the new approach with traditional way of language instruction (see: Example 27).

2. Integration of Media Literacy in Courses
In several teacher education courses that I teach, media literacy is addressed as units. Students learn media literacy concepts, experience multimedia production, and learn the strategies to teach it in schools in the future.

ETE 353 Elementary Language Arts Methods is a required course for elementary language arts teachers. In this class, students learn about media literacy concepts and principles, as well as skills to integrate media literacy in elementary language arts classroom. Field trips to WTVP Channel 47, a PBS station, familiarized students with PBS resources that could be used in their future classrooms. In the late 1990s, students in this class learned to teach writing by having children write, illustrate, and publish picture books. This practice represents the use of traditional print media.

The course syllabus (see: Example 6) shows course objectives, units of instruction on media literacy, assignments and rubric. Oregon Trail is an example of a class book (see: Example 21). The sample includes several selected children’s writing. Example 20 is a story that I provide my students with.

ETE 260 Children’s Literature Elementary teachers are required to take this course. After analyzing the impact of media and technology on children's literature, students write and illustrate a publishable children's digital picture book. The purposes are to experience the excitement of becoming digital authors, to understand the impact of technology in children’s literature, to get familiar with the good qualities of picture books and learn how to choose picture books for children. Students learn to create information using multimedia tools, such as audio, video, and graphics. (For syllabus and assignment see: Example 5; and for samples of stories see: Example 15; Example 16).

The article Linking Literacy Instruction with Technology: Creating Digital Stories (Wan, 2006) is a reflection and self-assessment of the digital picture book project. It summarizes the project and discusses the advantages and lessons we learn, and possible improvements for the program (see: Example 29).

EDSE 351 Secondary Teaching and Learning is a general teaching method course required for secondary teachers, as well as music, physical education, art, and foreign language teachers. Media literacy was addressed as a unit from 2004-2007 in my early years of teaching this course. During those years, students created lessons teaching media literacy with content instruction. In the past two years, media literacy discussion was even more strongly emphasized as one of the important 21st century skills that students need. My students create lesson plans integrating media literacy into their content area instruction of math, science, social studies, English, music, art, physical education, etc. Students learn through a hands-on assignment that media literacy can be integrated with their content instruction naturally. I am impressed by the creativity that my students display in their lesson plans and peer-teaching in the classroom. (For syllabus and assignment see: Example 7; and for student lesson plans see: Example 8a and Example 8b).

EDEL 605 Elementary Language Arts & Social Studies Methods, EDEL 603 Elementary Reading Methods, and EDS 606 Secondary Language Arts Methods & Assessment. I developed these three courses for the teacher education Master’s program at American University in Dubai. The syllabi attached show components of media literacy in textbook selections, course objectives, media literacy related assignments, and media literacy as topics on course schedules (see: Example 10; Example 11; Example 9).

III. Collaboration and Mentorship Role
My collaborations with and mentoring of others, and impact on media literacy education appear on multi-levels. My advocacy of media literacy starts in my own classroom and extends into local communities, and national and international arenas.

Instruction of media literacy at teacher education programs in my classrooms, workshops for local communities, collaborations with WTVP Channel 47 of PBS, and proposals for U.S. Department of Education grant represent my collaborations and impact at local and national levels (see:Example 14, Example 35, Example 22) on media literacy education. From mid-1990s to the present, all pre-service teachers who took classes with me have become well informed about media literacy and learned some strategies to integrate it into their teaching. I teach 6 to 8 classes a year with about 30 students in each class. An example of requests from local media producers inviting me to conduct media literacy workshops can be seen from: Example 34.

My national conference presentations, my books, and articles published represent collaboration, mentoring, and impact at national level (see: Example 1, Example 12, Example 13). They provide teachers and concerned public with curricula and ideas to teach students media literacy skills at elementary, secondary, and college levels. My collaboration with local educators and my mentoring of graduate students have added media literacy components to their teaching and research (see: Example 30; Example 33; Example 31).

At the international level, my comparative studies on media uses in China and the United States describe the patterns and trends in children’s media use with potential impact on education policy changes about media literacy education in these two countries. Also my collaboration with Osaka Gakuin University in Japan, and research on teaching EFL with digital stories have made a difference in EFL instruction there (see: Example 23, Example 18). Here is an e-mails request from a university professor in Iran for a copy of the digital cheating article I co-authored (see: Example 31). I also developed three courses for a Master’s program at American University in Dubai with media literacy taught as instructional units.

A recently submitted U.S. Department of Education grant proposal, once awarded, will allow me to conduct professional development for teachers and librarians, and workshops for parents on media literacy education at Meigs County Schools in Ohio, an Appalachia school district with many underprivileged children.

IV. Reflective Process of Media Literacy Activities
As I work on advocacy for media literacy education and creating curricula to teach media literacy skills, I engage in various reflective activities. I conduct research on the programs I create and implement, evaluate and make improvement on the programs. These reflections have been done for my own personal interest as well as for policymakers and other people who are interested in media literacy education. This reflective process has been published as journal articles, research reports, and books. These publications share with readers my success and the lessons I have learned in teaching media literacy, and ideas for them to borrow in their own teaching. For examples:

Media Use by Chinese and U.S. Secondary Students: Implications for Media Literacy Education (Wan & Gut, 2008) is a journal article. It reports that adolescents in both countries spend a great amount of their time using a variety of media, which provides ample rational to add media literacy education as an integral and integrated component in school academic curriculum.

From Digital Cheating and Plagiarism in Schools (Ma, Wan & Lu, 2008), readers learn that young people are developing a more lax attitude toward cheating online, thus it is important for teachers to address this issue and develop strategies to deal with digital plagiarism. This journal article also provides ideas for teachers to help children understand what digital plagiarism is and how to stay away from it.

The next two studies, Creating Constructivist Learning Environment for Japanese EFL Students: A Digital Story Program (Wan, etc. 2008), and Linking Literacy with Technology: Creating Digital Stories (Wan, 2006) evaluate the media literacy programs I implement, which have led to revisions of units and lessons as well as changes to course assignments in the programs.

The following three articles, built on reflections on my own teaching of media literacy, prove to readers that media literacy can be taught with and within other subjects in school curricula, and that the PSB children’s program, Barney & Friends, can be an effective tool to teach children reading. Here are the articles (see Example 23):

Wan, G. (2006). Integrating Media Literacy into the Curriculum
Wan, G. (2001). Barney & Friends: An Evaluation of the Literacy Learning Environment Created by the TV Series for Children
Wan, G. (1999). Creating Critical Viewers through Language Arts Activities

Conclusion
This document tells the story of my long-term passion, efforts, and achievements in advocating for media literacy education in several aspects: curriculum development, research and publication, and collaborations. I am very proud of my work and the role I have been playing in media literacy education over the past 15 years.

As our global village continues to be wired up electronically in the 21st century, media will play an increasing important role in our daily lives, presenting information, entertainment, opportunities, and challenges. They will continue to change the way we learn and teach. As “digital natives,” Generations Y and Z live a media-rich life, spend many hours a day with the media, and fluent in the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet. Considering this social context, I believe media literacy is becoming an even more critical component in education in the years to come. I will, without saying, continue my endeavors on media literacy and inspire more to join me.