I usually don't find myself writing my E.D. newsletter on a Sunday evening on the final day of the month but what a month September has been! In a blink of an eye, October starts tomorrow.

 

I started my September on a long plane trip home from Australia

	My favorite picture from Australia.

after spending two weeks down under as part of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Program (IIP) Speaker Program.  The trip took me to Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Canberra, and Melbourne. It was an extraordinary trip. I thought some of you might be interested in hearing more about it and seeing some pictures from my travels. I did my best to summarize it in this blog post.

 

Although not as far south, my travel adventures continued for this past week's Media Literacy and Civic Engagement Conference at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. The event was a huge success mostly because of the work of Dr. Srivi Ramasubramanian and her team at TAMU. Over 135 people including TAMU faculty and students, local high school teachers and their students, and representatives from the community non-profits and schools attended the event.  Gathering different stakeholders together brings these events alive with great conversation and various viewpoints. I especially appreciate the input from the teenagers who have so much to share. All the speakers did an incredible job talking through the issues ranging from how to talk about controversial topics in the classroom to envisioning what youth engagement looks like in 2060. 

  

 

To top it all off, there was a taco bar for lunch. Everything IS bigger in Texas! (And, yes, that's Srivi below handing out tortilla chips. She really does do EVERYTHING!) It was an absolute joy working with Srivi and the TAMU volunteers over the last six months to put the event together. My sincerest thank you goes to the sponsors and partners who made it all possible.

 

The 4th Annual U.S. Media Literacy Week is coming soon. Can you believe it's just 5 weeks away?  I can't! If you haven't yet, sign up to be a partner. Don't forget to fill out the event form so we can include your details on the calendar of events.  If you need ideas, check out the MLW Toolkit. This year, we are adding a Media Literacy Online Fair to our MLW efforts. The online fair is modeled after traditional college fairs, but takes place entirely online, allowing participants from all corners of the world to access information about the best media literacy resources and programs. Attendees learn about different organizations on the exhibitor listing page (with descriptions and video previews), and then during the live fair are able to click through into live virtual session rooms to talk or ask questions of organization representatives. To exhibit at the fair, fill out this form here. Keep an eye out on an exciting Media Literacy Week partnership we are announcing this week with truTV. 

 

Earlier this month, we announced the call for proposals for the 2019 NAMLE Conference taking place in Washington, D.C. June 26-28.  The conference theme,  "A Path Forward: Elevating Conversation, Unifying Voices"  aims to provide a platform for including voices from diverse disciplines as we explore the future of media literacy in a rapidly shifting media landscape.  Interested educators, researchers, practitioners, and students are invited to submit proposals through the online submission portal until November 1, 2018. Full details of the Call for Proposals can be found here. Questions about the call for proposals or submissions can be emailed to 

[email protected]. Please spread the word to your colleagues and students!

We also launched our fall fundraising campaign this month to support all the initiatives above.  Now more than ever, we need to ensure that students, educ ators, and the general public have the media literacy skills to help them navigate the very complex and ever-changing digital world.  Our deepest gratitude to those of you who have already donated. For those of you yet to contribute,  we hope we can count on your support as we build momentum for media literacy education around the country.  Please donate today.

 

Thank you!