CML Professional Development Services
Traditionally, education has focused on subjects or topics — in today's parlance, content. However, the process of learning, of processing information, is what media literacy education is all about. This process is articulated in the CML MediaLit Kit, a research-based framework and collection of resources for media literacy that overviews the Core Concepts and Key Questions that underpin the skills of accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating and participating with media. The MediaLit Kit, first developed in 2002 and continuing to grow as a resource for teachers, is now the cornerstone for all CML's work with teacher training.
CML provides the following types of customized programs:
1. Licensed Professional Development Services. Some organizations, such as school districts or museums, have a cadre of trainers who provide professional development programs or institutes for teachers. For those who wish to incorporate a media literacy approach using CML's media literacy framework and the resources of the MediaLit Kit in conjunction with their own program offerings, CML provides a licensing program that supports a "train the trainer" model and provides a research-based, consistent, and quality approach. Licensing provides collaborating organizations the assurance of using a proven approach to media literacy and receiving expert assistance in their own staff development and implementation of training programs. CML structures these relationships according to the needs of the training organization, and through its CML MediaLit Kit, offers a collection of resources and professional development to support implementation. For more information, contact Tessa Jolls.
2. Workshops and Events. CML designs and delivers programs that involve one-time events or workshops to reach teachers both online and off. Some examples of customized programs that CML has organized include:
- Production of online professional development modules to complement a new nutrition education program, also delivered to students online and utilizing a multi-media platform.
- A workshop on social media, with a special emphasis on bullying prevention.
- A 'mini-conference' of 10 integrated workshops held within the annual convention of a major national education organization meeting in the Los Angeles convention arena. Over 1000 teachers from 25 states participated in one or all of the sessions on topics such as: "Media and the Message of Beauty," "Critical Thinking for the 21st Century," and "Media Literacy: Driver's Training for the Information Superhighway."
- A day-long in-service event for 90 middle school health teachers, focusing on core principles of media literacy and their application to health education, particularly smoking cessation, nutrition and body image. A joint effort of a county health office and a county school district in the Midwest, the day was supported with funding from the state's share of the national tobacco settlement.
- Keynote address on the topic of media violence to 1000 persons attending the annual conference of a state association of school boards.
- Full-day staff development for a school district on the complex topic of violence in the media with an overview orientation in the morning followed by afternoon workshops tailored to grade levels: elementary, middle school and high school.
Participation on a national team of media educators conducting a week-long grant-funded summer institute for school teams of high school language arts and social studies teachers under the theme: "The ReVisioning Project: Teaching Humanities in a Media Age."
3. Demonstration Projects: Online and Off
CML actively seeks partners with whom to work on training programs that involve both teacher training and the development of curriculum resources both online and off. CML's projects provide for professional development teachers, which our research shows is the cornerstone for success. These projects can be custom made for the design, delivery and evaluation of curriculum PLUS consultation and training and coaching of teachers.
- Media Literacy: A System for Learning Anytime, Anywhere
- Beyond Blame: Challenging Violence in the Media
- Project SmartArt
- A Recipe for Action: Deconstructing Food Advertising
- Breakfast Epiphanies: Project Based Learning through Media Literacy and Nutrition
- Smoke Detectors! Deconstructing Tobacco Use in Media
- Teaching Democracy
Topical Seminars and Events
Periodically, and with funding support, CML organizes or collaborates with other organizations to present topical workshops, seminars or other events for classroom teachers as well as religious educators, youth leaders, afterschool coordinators and other community-based educators.