April 11, 2008

The 6th annual Northeast Media Literacy Conference

April 11, 2008

University of Connecticut, Storrs

The New Media Literacies for Today’s
Plugged-In Generation!

Whether you are a teacher, parent, counselor, or others who work directly
or indirectly with young people, the upcoming 6th annual Northeast Media
Literacy Conference should be of great and timely interest.

The Conference on April 11, 2008 again features an unusually diverse group
of innovative leaders and topics in the study of the mass media and its
great impact upon today’s young people and their thinking, priorities,
decisions, actions, and their values.

For our 6th annual conference, we are focusing on some of the new media
literacies and their needs and realities in light of today’s rapidly
changing technologies and their impact upon and growing involvement by our
children and youth.

Featured are two outstanding, innovative leaders as keynote speakers,
providing up-to-date, fresh approaches and perspectives to the growing media
literacy field:

Dr. Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist and digital enthnographer
from Kansas State University, recently uploaded a short video to YouTube
called Web 2.0, the Machine is Using Us. The video dramatically demonstrates
how the Web is changing how we communicate and how fast. This production
quickly became the most viewed video on YouTube, watched by over 3 million
people. He is also author of a new film, A Vision of Students Today, and a
timely blog, Digital Ethnography. Wesch is a true activist for media
literacy. He teaches teachers how to use the Web, because, he believes,
students are good at being entertained by technology, but they’re not
particularly good at using it to locate, identify, and sort valuable
information.

Anastasia Goodstein, author of Totally Wired - What Teens and Tweens Are
Really Doing Online, has great insight into how being a teen today is very
different from what it used to be and what teens are really doing on the
Internet and with technology today, including such timely activities as
social networking, blogging, and cyberbullying.
What are LiveJournal, Xanga, Facebook, and MySpace and how have they
become so much a key part of young people’s lives? Why is it critically
important for parents, teachers, and other adults to be knowledgeable about
and better understand these expanding, ever-present media forms? Goodstein
examines the threats of today’s technology to young people, but also
provides “fresh insights into the positive ways young people use the wired
world in their lives.”

In addition, the full day’s conference program includes twenty timely
workshops based on key media literacy related areas - The Role of Today’s
Advancing Technology, Mass Media’s Depiction of Today’s Culture and Values,
Philosophy and Theory, Standards and Curriculum, Classroom Activities,
Research and Evaluation, Teacher Education, and Media Production.

Please mark your calendar - Friday, April 11, 2008.

Proposals for Workshops will be accepted until December 15, 2007. Access
the Proposal Form at our conference website at
http://medialiteracy.education.uconn.edu

Check our website periodically for conference updates.

We hope you will join us!