Ithaca College

Media literacy is a global concern.

Story contributed by Ben Koch, IC Park School Sports Media Major 

Project Look Sharp (PLS), the media literacy program at Ithaca College, has been asked to bring its unique approach to media literacy to Turkey. 

Turkish educators recognized PLS from an article published in Edutopia which highlighted the work PLS did with high school students. The U.S. Consulate invited the PLS directors to work with educators in Turkey on media literacy, critical thinking and “Fake News.”

“For us if you are interested in transforming education through media literacy then it is important to do it everywhere,” said Cyndy Scheibe, executive director and founder of PLS, “our primary focus is in the U.S. because that is where we are, but we would be delighted to go anywhere else to do it because it is a message that resonates with people.”

This is not the first time that PLS has received an invitation to work in another country. In 2015, Dr. Scheibe and Project Look Sharp’s director of curriculum and staff development, Chris Sperry, worked in Iran as a keynote speaker to help organize Iran’s first international conference on media literacy. In 2012, they were brought by the government of Bhutan to teach media literacy trainers. In July of 2016, Sperry worked with teachers and administrators in Kenya and in January of 2017 with educators in India on integrating media literacy into the curriculum.

“Clearly this work and this approach to teaching and learning resonates not just in the United States but around the world” said Sperry.

After forty years of teaching, Sperry believes media documents provide the most effective way to reach students of all backgrounds. In this model of teaching, the teachers present the class with challenging topics and questions while the students do intense critical thinking.

“The use of diverse media forms, this goes back to the 70s for me,” said Sperry, “it made learning much more engaging.”

Since 1996, PLS has worked with educators in Central New York to develop materials and approaches for teaching both core subject area content and media literacy skills for diverse grade levels. Beginning in 2002, PLS began publishing lesson plans and curriculum kits online. To date, PLS materials have been downloaded in 175 countries.

“The core critical thinking and questioning habits that we must help our young people develop if we’re going to have a rich and thoughtful democracy, that can be done through incorporating and integrating constructivist inquiry-based media decoding throughout the curriculum” said Sperry.

Sperry, an alumna of Ithaca College, credits IC for the creation and growth of PLS. In the late 1970s, when he was a student at IC he formed his own major around the idea of media literacy. Forty years later, IC and the Park Foundation are instrumental in spreading media literacy around the world. Both Dr. Scheibe and Sperry thanked IC for its support.

The Turkey trip will be the first time that PLS has collaborated directly with the U.S. State department on work overseas. As they each prepare for their trips to Turkey, they hope to return with cultural insights that will help PLS to spread media literacy globally.

“We have always been interested in talking with people from other cultures,” said Dr. Scheibe, “in part because in the U.S. we get so little information, so little news, about what goes on around the world.”

For more information about Project Look Sharp, visit our website or contact Sherrie Szeto, program manager -  sszeto@ithaca.edu