January 2012 M-Passioned Member: Frank Baker

1. What do you do?

I wear many hats: media literacy education consultant; workshop presenter; author; webmaster for the Media Literacy Clearinghouse; contributor to blogs, nings, list-servs, etc.

2. Tell me about your latest work or project in media literacy.

My third book, “Media Literacy In K-12 Classrooms,” will be published this month by ISTE, and I am conducting a webinar about the book and the topic on January 19th. Let me take this opportunity to invite all NAMLE members to sign up and participate. (To register for the Jan. 19 Media Literacy Webinar click here.)

3. Why is media literacy important to you?

Media literacy is important to me because it is under-represented in our schools, and by writing articles, books, conducting workshops with teachers—I get the opportunity to connect media literacy to teaching standards and showcase how easy it is to incorporate critical thinking about media messages into instruction, no matter what you teach.

4. What are you most excited about in the media literacy field?

It is hard to choose one thing: I am excited that media literacy has become part of the national education conversation; I am excited when I receive a request from someone who has just discovered media literacy; and I get excited when I am invited to travel around the country to bring the media literacy message to a new group of educators or parents.

5. Why did you become a NAMLE member – what benefits do you see to membership and how will it support your work?

I became a member because I wanted to learn from those pioneers of media literacy and I wanted to be more active in media literacy education nationally.  Being profiled this month is one of the benefits, and hopefully someone reading this will surf over to the Media Literacy Clearinghouse web site (http://www.frankwbaker.com) and discover something that they didn’t already know and be able to use something in instruction. And, assuming you like what you find, you’ll forward the site to another interested media educator.

Frank’s books: New for 2012
Media Literacy In The K-12 Classroom
Political Campaigns and Political Advertising: A Media Literacy Guide
Coming Distractions: Questioning Movies part of the Capstone Press Media Literacy series

Tags: Author, Frank Baker, ISTE, K-12 classrooms, Media Literacy, media literacy clearinghouse, political, politics

Category: Features, M-Passioned Members