Renee Hobbs explains the value of university-school partnerships that connect college and university students to local schools. University-school partnerships are helping us explore video documentation as a research and teaching tool. We are discovering that connecting university students to local community schools builds dispositions towards collaboration, civic engagement and advocacy. Finally, we are observing how educator motivations for teaching media and technology shape their instructional practices.

1. The Importance of Media Literacy and Strategies
for Teaching It at the College Level
Renee Hobbs
Harrington School of Communication and Media
University of Rhode Island
Association for Journalism and Mass Communication
Washington DC
August 8, 2013

2. University and college students develop their own
media literacy competencies while they help
children and young people develop knowledge,
skills and dispositions

3. ACCESS
ANALYZEE
CREATE ACT
REFLECT
ACCESS
Digital & Media Literacy Learning Process

4. 1. Why video documentation is a powerful research and
teaching tool
2. How connecting university students to local community
schools builds dispositions towards collaboration, civic
engagement and advocacy
3. How educator motivations for teaching media and
technology shape instructional practices
What we are Learning from University-School Partnerships

5. Powerful Voices for Kids is a
university-school partnership
program that advances the quality
of digital and media literacy
education in K-6 schools

6. www.powerfulvoicesforkids.com

7. Video Documentation
VIDEO

8. Talking Back to the News Media
VIDEO

9. Exploring the key competencies of
digital and media literacy with children
and youth helps university students
reflect on the complex interaction
between media institutions, education
institutions, individuals and culture
Participation in university-school
partnerships may improve skills of
collaboration that advance civic
engagement, self-efficacy and
advocacy
REFLECT
ACT

10. Exploring Educator Motivations for
Teaching Media & Technology

11. www.powerfulvoicesforkids.com

12. THE DEMYSTIFIER
As a teacher, you “pull back the curtain” to help students see
how various forms of information and knowledge are
constructed. You emphasize the practice of critical thinking,
helping students ask good “how” and “why” questions.
THE ACTIVIST
As an educator, you want to make society more just and
equitable by promoting democratic participation. You use
media in the classroom as a catalyst for students to
understand how they might have a voice in improving the
quality of life in their communities and in the world.

13. THE TASTEMAKER
You want to broaden your students’ horizons. You want them
to have exposure to the kinds of media experiences that put
them in touch with historical, aesthetic, and critical
appreciation. You know that a key component of students’
future interactions will require them to draw from a variety
of cultural sources both classical and popular.
THE ALT
You are an inventive, perhaps “DIY,” teacher. You’re always
ready to challenge students with alternative ways of finding,
using, thinking about, and making media in the classroom.
Whether you use open source programs on school computers,
encourage students to start alternative clubs or magazines, or
introduce students to media that’s “off the beaten path” of
mainstream and mass media, you are likely a key proponent
of broadening students’ understanding of the many different
ways that people can communicate in the world.

14. THE TECHIE
You’re the educator who loves tablets, apps, programs, plug-
ins, widgets, websites, and other types of educational
technology because you have a passionate curiosity about
new tools. You see much potential to engage students with
the technology tools they love and use in their everyday lives.
THE TRENDSETTER
You’re tuned into pop culture and curious about kid culture.
Maybe your own most-loved popular culture isn’t too far
removed from that of your students. You are inquisitive about
the trends and hot topics that make up a crucial component
of the fabric of your students’ everyday lives. You want school
culture to meet kids where they live with the popular culture
they know and love.

15. THE PROFESSIONAL
You have high standards for your students’ work, and you may
be seen as the go-to media professional in your school. You
know how to push your students to understand and emulate
the professional conventions that is important to being taken
seriously in the world of media creation. To help students
enter the real world of media creation, you bring other
authors, professionals, and media-makers into your classroom
to enrich the learning experience.
THE WATCHDOG
You are a natural critical thinker, aware of how economic systems
and institutions influence our everyday lives, particularly through
the media we use. You want your students and your peers to be
more mindful of the ways that things are bought and sold. Who
owns and controls the media content that we see, hear, read, and
play with? You feel responsible for giving your students a “wake-up
call” about the economic and institutional inner-workings of the
technology and the world that surrounds them.

16. LOVE HATE
PRINT VISUAL SOUND DIGITAL
Educators’ attitudes about media, technology and popular
culture shape their work with learners

17. Hobbs, R. & Moore, D. (2013). Discovering media literacy: Teaching digital media and popular culture in elementary
school. Thousand Oaks: Corwin/Sage.
Hobbs, R. (2013). Improvization and strategic risk taking in informal learning with digital media literacy. Learning,
Media and Technology, 38(2), 1 – 28.
Hobbs, R. & RobbGrieco, M. (2012). African-American children’s active reasoning about media texts as a precursor
to media literacy. Journal of Children and Media 6(4), 502 - 519.
Grafe, S., Hobbs, R., Boos, M., Bergey, B. (2012). Teachers´ motivations for media education in Germany and in the
United States. Paper presentation at Digital Media and Learning(DML) Conference, Los Angeles.
Hobbs, R., Ebrahimi, A., Cabral, N., Yoon, J., & Al-Humaidan, R. (2011). Field-based teacher education in elementary
media literacy as a means to promote global understanding. Action for Teacher Education 33, 144 – 156.
Hobbs, R., Yoon, J., Al-Humaidan, R., Ebrahimi, A. & Cabral, N. (2011). Online digital media in elementary school.
Journal of Middle East Media 7(1), 1 – 23.
Hobbs, R. “Messy Engagement and Strategic Risk Taking as an Instructional Strategy in Informal Learning,” Paper
presentation, International Communication Association (ICA), Phoenix, AZ. May 28, 2012.
Hobbs, R. , Cohn-Geltner, H. & Landis, J. (2011). Views on the news: Media literacy empowerment competencies in
the elementary grades. In C. Von Feilitzen, U. Carlsson & C. Bucht (Eds.). New questions, new insights, new
approaches. The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media. NORDICOM. University of
Gothenburg, Sweden (pp. 43 – 56).

18. Renee Hobbs
Professor and Founding Director
Harrington School of Communication and Media
University of Rhode Island USA
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
Twitter: reneehobbs
Web: http://mediaeducationlab.com