innovative teaching

Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative reaches out to high schools

What we’re doing

The Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative will send journalists, media policy experts, and media makers into schools and youth programs with an emphasis on underserved communities. Instructors — drawn from our region’s diverse community of media makers — will offer a series of interactive, highly visual presentations exploring online privacy, the role of journalism in our democracy, how to find quality information online, and international media coverage. 

The program is capped by a weeklong intensive Summer Institute hosted by the University of Washington and administered by the Common Language Project. The Institute will offer a crash course in audio and video production, web tools such as blogging and online writing, and basic media editing software. Local storytellers and educators will help participants produce thoughtful multimedia projects of relevance to their lives and communities. Their projects will be featured on PugetSoundOff.org.

Why we’re doing it — and why we’re doing it here

Young people are born into a media-saturated world — certainly in the United States, but globally as well — that is innovating at light speed, yet they are rarely given the conceptual and hands-on tools to understand and navigate today’s new media landscape. Digital and media literacy are an ideal framework for providing students with the 21st-century life skills they need: critical thinking, self-expression, technological fluency and global awareness.

The Seattle region is a leader in technology, media, and online journalism, and the moment is right for this city to emerge as a leader in the increasingly vital field of digital media literacy.

Who we are

The Initiative is headed by the Department Of Communication, the Master of Communication in Digital Media, and the Common Language Project, working in close partnership with a collection of educational, nonprofit, and private organizations including Newspapers in Education, Reclaim the Media, and the World Affairs Council.

What’s next

During this first year we’ll visit 10 to 15 high schools four times each and offer the summer program to 30 students. We’ll also put on teacher trainings and workshops for undergraduates, alumni and the public here at the UW, and produce a series of educational articles on media issues to be published in The Seattle Times.

In coming years, we’d like to see the Initiative grow to include more schools and youth organizations and a web platform that continues conversations beyond the classroom. We hope to encourage schools to include digital literacy as part of their regular curriculum so that the next generation will be empowered as educated consumers and critics of — and producers and participants in — today’s complex media world.