Educational Standards and Media Literacy

Part 4: Four Steps to Success
The need to further "integrate media literacy across the curriculum" is the major challenge of the US media literacy movement in the 21st century. This requires the coordination of four interrelated tasks.

1. One task is to identify where media literacy skills and competencies can "fit" not just in language arts but also in social studies, health, the arts, even math and science. Incorporating media literacy throughout each state's education standards is key, and refining and strengthening these standards is essential. In October 1999, Education Week published a state-by-state survey of media literacy in curriculum frameworks and state standards: "Has Media Education Found A Curriculum Foothold?" by Frank Baker, a South Carolina media educator and Robert Kubey, PhD, of Rutgers University. Baker updates the survey on a regular basis, but it will take the work and contribution of many people to identify the multiple connections media literacy can have throughout the curriculum.
   
   
2. A second task is to introduce media literacy into the various systems that underpin the education world and make up the everyday fabric of school administration. These systems include policies and practices on state, district and school levels, standardized tests, curricular frameworks and approved resource lists, teacher evaluation and compensation systems, and communication with administrators, teachers and parents. Transforming these systems means change management – and school managers need training and assistance to rethink and reorganize the systems that will support teachers and students in this 21st century approach to education.
   
   
3. A third task is the training of teachers through in-service education, graduate study, peer mentoring and other Professional Development programs. Although some pioneering work has been done by a number of enterprising individuals, universities and organizations such as CML, (link to entire Professional Development section) much remains to be done to define criteria for professional competence, establish teaching credentials for the field, organize graduate programs, and integrate the teaching of media literacy into undergraduate teacher education programs. The establishment in 2001of a professional membership organization – the Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA) – now fills the need for an organizational entity to call and organize national conferences, coordinate regional activities and exchange information through the Internet and peer review journals.
   
   
4. A fourth task is to find and/or create and disseminate teaching resources (lesson plans, videos, CD-Roms and DVDs, websites, curriculum packages, etc.) Explore the CML Resource Catalog for the best teaching materials currently available and sign up for CML C*O*N*N*E*C*T newsletter to keep informed of new resources as they become available. This website and its many links also provides a wealth of practical ideas and classroom tested activities for every grade level and subject area.

• Part 1: Integrating Media Literacy Across the Curriculum
• Part 2: Significance of Standards
• Part 3: Linking Media Literacy to Standards-based Education
• Part 4: Four Steps to Success
• Part 5: Into the 21st Century