Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

12.3.09 | Project New Media Literacies, a research initiative based at University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, has a community site for educators that is hosting a live chat on Tuesday, Dec. 8, from 3 to 4 p.m.

The discussion will focus on forming groups, forum topics and future chats. See more details and RSVP at http://projectnml.ning.com. Sign-up is required.

The community site already has more than 1,000 members. Members have access to a Learning Library and teachers’ strategy guides (examples of which can be found here and here on the New Media Literacies website; Spotlight also previewed some of the library videos earlier this year). Members can also join groups and discussions, create their own media and blogs, and take part in monthly webinars that focus on building new media literacy skills.

The partners in Project New Media Literacies include education, technology and arts groups and individuals. Its purpose is to explore “how we might best equip young people with the social skills and cultural competencies required to become full participants in an emergent media landscape and raise public understanding about what it means to be literate in a globally interconnected, multicultural world.”

Principal investigator Henry Jenkins, a professor of communication, journalism and cinematic arts at USC, has identified new literacies that students must master. You can read a summary of the new skills at Spotlight, or download a white paper on new frameworks and models for media literacy.