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  SPARK CONVERSATION!

We are Sparking Conversation this summer with topics and questions

that bring people together from around the country and around the world!

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Questions for the Conversation

  • How does inquiry and curiosity influence how you interact with media and affect digital participation?

  • What does inquiry look like as part of a curriculum? 

  • How do we communicate the importance of inquiry to all educators? 

  • Are there core components of digital inquiry that cut across different ages of learners? 

  • What role do administrators play in promoting and creating spaces that value digital inquiry? 

Related Workshops

Cultivating Culture of Curiosity in the Classroom

Research in an Inquiry Classroom

Personal Digital Inquiry

Social Justice
Digtal Inquiry
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Questions for the Conversation

  • How do teachers teach “controversial topics” without feeling threatened by the push to ban classroom content at the core of the “controversies”?

  • Who is left out of the standard classroom history textbook or school library?

  • If representation matters, why are there so many calls to ban books with representation at the core?

  • How do we use media literacy questioning to help students decipher fact from fiction? or identify bias in the national debate about banning books

  • How do you encourage students to take action? How can students create media to share their voices and take action?

Related Workshops

Culturally Responsive Teaching with Technology

Teaching Truth in a World of Controversy

Teaching Historical Literacy through Inquiry

Supporting Educators
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Questions for the Conversation

  • How are literacies across the curriculum becoming more expansive and inclusive?

  • What inspiring ideas have you collected across the school year that have expanded the implementation of digital literacies? 

  • What does supporting a digital literacy agenda look like at a classroom, school, or district level?  

  • What theories and frameworks guide your work? 

  • Where do you go to gather support and access new ideas? 

  • What kinds of support help educators gain competencies and confidence?

 

Related Workshops

Extended Professional Learning Communities

Cycles of Uptake That Promote Continuous Change 

Connecting School and Community to Extend Learning

Collaboration Matters

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Questions for the Conversation

  • What are the roadblocks and frustrations that may occur when people compose media? 

  • What are some of the constraints placed on create-to-learn pedagogies in your work context? How might you overcome these?

  • How can we best prepare educators to become creative collaborators and support investigation and media design in the classroom?

  • What kind of media creation framework might support educators who have no background in journalism, design or production?

  • What are the essential steps in any media creation project? What are some of the best practices?

  • What kind of resources help educators make the transition from instructors to collaborators in their classrooms?


Related Workshops

Video Editing Workshop

Teaching Visual Design 

Assessing Student Media Projects

Media Literacy
Create-to-Learn
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Questions for the Conversation

  • What is media literacy and how is different from information literacy and digital literacy?

  • How do you curate a collection of lesson plans for integrating media literacy into the curriculum?

  • How do beginning teachers work with more experienced educators when developing a media literacy initiative?

  • How to build awareness and consensus about media literacy education at the state level? 

  • How do you attract diverse leaders for media literacy advocacy goals?

 

Related Workshops

Building a Statewide ML Initiative in Illinois

Media Literacy in Urban Public Schools

Measuring Implementation of Media Literacy Education

Persuasion & Propaganda
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Questions for the Conversation

  • Where do you or your students encounter propaganda? 

  • What does propaganda look like today? How might it differ from historical propaganda?

  • How do you teach about persuasive media? How are persuasive genres relevant to your content area?

  • What skills, strategies, and concepts are integral to teaching about propaganda and persuasion? 

  • How do you help students challenge stereotypes and misinformation present in propaganda?

  • What roadblocks have you faced in teaching about propaganda? How are you dealing with or overcoming them?

Related Workshops

War Propaganda

Teaching About Conspiracy Theories

Comparing Historical and Contemporary Propaganda

Political Campaigns as Propaganda

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Questions for the Conversation

  • How do we promote active, collaborative learning that encourages students to use technologies in robust, critical, and creative ways?

  • What elements of instructional design, authentic assessment, and multimodal delivery are necessary for all higher ed faculty, regardless of subject area expertise? 

  • How has professional development through campus-based teaching and learning centers adapted (or not) to move beyond simple checklists for designing “quality” online courses?

  • As we move into an endemic stage of teaching and learning in the COVID era, what models of “seat time” and flexible scheduling are emerging to both be responsive to students’ academic needs, as well as their health and safety? 

 

Related Workshops

How the Summer Institute Design Became My Class

Hybridity Issues in Higher Education

Create to Learn in Graduate School 

Literacies
Higher Educaton
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Questions for the Conversation

  • What is disciplinary literacy? What is it not?

  • What are the arguments for this approach?

  • What concerns have been raised? How are these concerns addressed?

  • How do my colleagues and I read the texts of my discipline?

  • How can I embed disciplinary literacy into how I teach essential content in my discipline?

  • How can disciplinary literacy strategies be used along with culturally responsive teaching practices?

  • How can inquiry challenge and motivate students toward knowledge creation within a discipline?

 

Related Workshops

Assessing Student Media Projects 

What the Research Says

Building Sustainable (Local) Professional Learning Communities

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Questions for the Conversation

  • What qualities do you most admire in leaders?

  • What are some examples of positive changes you’ve seen in your world of work? 

  • What are some critical factors that lead to success?

  • How can federal funding through programs like the CARES Act be used  to advance digital literacy in your community?  

  • If you received a $1 million grant at your institution, how would you recommend spending it?

 

Related Workshops

Best Practices in Change Management.

Applying Appreciative Inquiry to Leadership 

Skills vs Tools 

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Questions for the Conversation

  • What are some of the gaps, needs, and pain points that might be addressed by media literacy entrepreneurs, in families, schools, the workplace, and the community? 

  • How are media literacy initiatives funded? What are some deliverable options to consider? 

  • What role do you envision for yourself in a media literacy initiative? What strengths do you bring to the projects? What skills would you like to develop?

 

Related Workshops

Designing Solutions to Advance Media Literacy

Strategies for Success (with Tessa Jolls, Center for Media Literacy) 

Entrepreneurs
Leadership Matters
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Questions for the Conversation

  • How can informal walking tours through your community become spaces for reflection, education, and social change?

  • What places and spaces in your community have the potential to inspire curiosity, conversations, and learning

  • How have you used digital inquiry to capture and share stories about what makes your city unique?

  • What school-community partnerships have helped to re-energize how you think about learning and digital literacy? 

  • How can opportunities for “reading your city” become teachable moments to weave into your curriculum?

 

Related Workshops

Digital Scavenger Hunts

Creation Tools in Google Earth

Digital Storytelling

City as Classroom
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