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As one of the co-founders of Media Think (a media literacy center for the education of parents, teachers, educators, students policy makers) this issue is not going to go away, not ever. My whole thought on media literacy changed when I became a step parent of two media savvy teens several years ago. My interventions and education in this area (I'm a trained media literacy specialist) went out the window. Instead of fighting them, I learn from them. Instead of banning it, I redirect them (no "electricity" night, building a tree house, board game night, etc.). We draw the line at inappropriate use of media when we're aware of it but really we can't control it since they go to friends, when we're at work, when we're asleep. While we have the only computer in a common area of the house we will conviscate personal cell phones when over used, bad grades, bad behavior, or missed homework assignments. I cannot imagine what parents or teachers deal with this who are not trained in this area. At Media Think, we advocate media literacy education in gardes K-12 liek they do in new Mexcio, Canada, Australia, and other countries. Until this time, Media Think provides classroom education and trainings, salon classes for parents, opportunities for analyzing and creating "healthy" media and a resource for DVDs, books, cds, and training manuals.www.mediathink.org.

Erik Vidstrand (MediaLitMan), Board Member                                 Media Think

posted 3 years, 1 month ago
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