The following article was submitted by Instructional Technology TOSA Jamie Sproul

School-based teams from around the district came together on May 18 to share the work that they have done this year integrating media literacy and digital citizenship into their classrooms and school culture.

Small teams, led by teacher-librarians and other teacher-leaders, set up table exhibits to showcase projects ranging from kindergartners analyzing the feelings inspired by a story to high school students updating the concept of 1984’s Big Brother to include social media algorithms.

District educators were encouraged to attend the Showcase to share ideas and collaborate on future lessons. More than 80 participants attended the event. The evening culminated with a keynote address from Jennifer LaGarde, an amazing teacher-librarian, presenter, and leader in media literacy education who spoke about the rising impact of artificial intelligence on the creation and dissemination of mis-, dis-, and mal-information.

The evening marked the culmination of the 2022-23 DII 2.0 Professional Learning Cohort. Attending educators shared the following reflections on their learning:

“Media literacy is more than determining if news is fake. It’s more about thinking about your own emotions as you look at information and considering who benefits from your feeling this way.”

“We can’t possibly know all the tech tools, but we can approach them with intention and thoughtfulness.”

“Our Avanti Symposium created a network of community stakeholders that we can and did share with everyone else in our district tonight. It takes a village.”

“It has been awesome to have this work with coworkers and to take these concepts to the staff and students in our building! Next step: families too! Great support from instructors and we found many people in the greater community who are passionate about this work.”

“I now have some go-to language to use when talking with students about things I find concerning about their media usage or acceptance. In the past I knew something fell off but I wasn’t sure what to do about it.”

“I was nervous about teaching it to Kinders but they were ready.”

“I realized all my classes and all ages need these skills, not just teens and core subjects.”