I’d like to extend my congratulations to Helen McKissock for being named as a presenter at the Northeast Regional Media Literacy Conference in Providence, Rhode Island, USA!
In November Helen will facilitate a workshop on media representation entitled, Why does media representation matter? A New Zealand perspective. This workshop is an exploration of media constructions and their lasting impacts and will take senior school teachers through an encounter with the media representation of a minority community.
Helen explains, “This aspect of the media is critical in the current context. Students need to be critically aware of the constructed nature of identity within the media – both of others and for themselves. Many students lack the tools or strategies to ensure they are competently literate to deconstruct or construct these images.”
This workshop falls during Helen’s sabbatical where she will be exploring current best practices in Media Literacy and meeting up with some of the USA’s leading research academics. On her agenda is a few days at GAIL sister school Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire where she will explore their cross-curricular approaches to Media Literacy and Information Literacy. Likewise, visits are scheduled to a multitude of media relevant museums and organisations which include The Museum of the Moving Image (NY), The Museum of Broadcasting (Chicago), The Lamp Organisation (NY), Newseum (Washington), the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media (LA), and the Hollywood Museum. The conference hosted at Rhode Island University will be a significant opportunity for Helen to interact and interview a range of teachers and academics who share a passion for Media Literacy and its vital role in preparing our young future for their future world.