Media Mindfulness

The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania has created a great classroom Internet news tool, FactcheckED. It has very practical advice for helping students detect fraud in political advertising and propaganda. Another good source for researching PR and spin is the site, PR Watch.
FactcheED provides this simple and awesome checklist for detecting [...]

I was a big fan of Lost, but since moving to Europe I have not been able to watch it. ABC blocks foreign access to the free viewings available in the US. Though news of the Lost college course is being offered is old news, I found the following post interesting. Some critics still think [...]

Anastasia Goodstein of YPulse and author of Totally Wired refers to a great article in Wired about how some classrooms are getting smart about incorporating online social networks rather than resisting them. At the center of this paradigm shift is an interesting software package, Elgg. I think the idea of a DIY social network [...]

This nice little animation of Alan Watts commenting on the folly of education and other things. Very nice. Enjoy! (Thanks Rob!)

Technorati Tags: Alan Watts

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I wish I could be there this summer! Click the link for more info.
Tufts University New Literacy:
Rather than squander the energy and attention that most students give to media, savvy educators know that it’s better to direct it in positive and pro-social ways.
But in the era of “accountability” and “standards-based education,” where does media literacy [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ou6_Dv8Heo

A fun opportunity. Check it out.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxYACTGPzAE

From the family that brought you the Iraq War now comes a curriculum that profits from No Child Left Behind funds. Rest assured, your child’s future is in good hands. For example, view the sample lesson from their COW (Curriculum on Wheels) system in the above video. It’s on the history of “Habeas Corpus”; you [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

This video by Kansas State University’s Mike Wesch explains so much better than text as to why new media are in many ways vastly superior modes of production and communication, which begs the question: how is an education system based on 19th Century modes of thinking going to deal with this emerging reality? More [...]

Lately I’ve taken a break from teaching to focus on writing about education. Like most of us, I am pretty depressed about the state of our schools, and even more distraught that there is little criticism of No Child Left Behind coming to public attention. I truly hope the Democrats advocate for the abolition of [...]

Marketplace: Iraq war justified? Maybe for Baby Einsteins:
By targeting babies, companies are marketing not just products but lifelong habits, hardwiring dependence on media before babies even have a chance to grow and develop the way they do it best, through hands-on creative play. And it’s through playing that children learn, among other things, skills essential [...]

The story of National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)refusing a donation of DVDs by Inconvenient Truth co-producer Laurie David is flying all over the blogosphere right now. The following post from the Think Progress blog has a great link to the kind of oil and coal industry curricula the NATA does accept (it’s about a teen [...]

I’m currently writing a chapter on Native America, education and digital learning for the MacArthur Foundation, who is publishing a seminal six book series on the subject next year. My chapter will be in the “Race and Ethnicity” volume. MacArthur is investing a lot of resources ($50 million!) into this project and is making a [...]