Why Collabs Matter
The YouTubers and influencers know all about the power of collaboration, and they recognize the “win-win” nature of the process when it comes to accelerating creativity. This semester, I’m thrilled to be collab-ing with Dr. Michael RobbGrieco, a media literacy scholar and educator who is one of my most valuable colleagues in the field.
I met Mike twenty years ago when he was a brand new teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire. I was spending time with teachers in the English Department, consulting with them and observing as they developed a year-long program for Grade 11 students called “Media/Communication.” At the time, I was trying to document how media literacy education contributed to academic achievement; the school district allowed me to collect data to measure changes in students’ critical analysis skills over time. That led to an influential paper in 2003 — one of the earliest efforts to measure media literacy through task performance, not self-report. It also became the focus of my first book, Reading the Media: Media Literacy in High School English (2007).
Learn more about how the members of the Concord English Department approached media literacy education here:
After Mike came to get a PhD in Communication at Temple University, we had a substantial history of creative collaboration, beginning with Access, Analyze, Act: A Blueprint for 21st Century Civic Engagement. This was an online multimedia curriculum that we developed for PBS Teachers, where we explored how to use the (then-new) technology of social media to address the 2008 Presidential Election.
But it was our collaborative work on the topic of copyright and fair use that led to a career highlight for me. As a longtime fan of Schoolhouse Rock, I had always wanted to create an animated music video — and we created 2!
Now, Mike and I are collab-ing again — on this course called Digital Authorship, EDC 534. With his help, this course will expand our horizons and with Mike’s fresh eyes and K-12 education experience, help ensure this course enables the Graduate Certificate in Digital Literacy to be the premiere leadership development program in digital and media literacy education.
