Even though it’s black today (or perhaps because it is), stop by Wikipedia to check out their call to action. Share this article. Join the conversation, learn more and take a stand and show Congress you care about an open Internet.

Students learning about video in a LAMP workshop

Begin the new year by giving back! We are in need of four volunteers coming up in February, but also need help with our LAMPlit resource guides and LAMPpost blog. Click here to send an email letting us know if you’re interested in any of these opportunities. (Psst: If you’re interested in teaching with us, volunteering is the way to start.) We hope to see you soon!

Help fourth-grade students break commercials!
Two dates are available for this opportunity in February:

Day 1: Monday, February 6, 2012; 8:45am-2:30pm
What: Help fourth grade students edit their own ‘broken’ commercials (see examples of broken commercials)
Where: Manhattan public school, to be provided upon volunteer commitment
Skills required: Basic iMovie editing
Number of volunteers needed: Two
Ready to get started? Click here to send an email!

Day 2: Monday, February 13, 2012; 8:45am-2:30pm
What: Help fourth grade students edit their own ‘broken’ commercials (see examples of broken commercials)
Where: Manhattan public school, to be provided upon volunteer commitment
Skills required: Basic iMovie editing
Number of volunteers needed: Two
Ready to get started? Click here to send an email!

Ongoing Opportunity: Translate LAMPlit!
The LAMP has four LAMPlit resource guides, which are available for download and used in workshops and presentations. We would like them translated to reach a wider audience. If you are fluent in a foreign language–Spanish, Haitian, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, etc–please email info@thelampnyc.org for details!
Ready to get started? Click here to send an email!

Ongoing Opportunity: Blog for The LAMP!
If you’re interested in media literacy and media criticism, and looking to sharpen up your writing skills, this is the perfect opportunity for you! Join LAMPpost bloggers Emily Long and Emily Breitkopf by contributing pieces on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, with deadlines that work for you. Email Emily Long for more information.

Here’s a portion of the stunning infographic mentioned above. For the full piece, click here.

Click here to support The LAMP!

LAMP students watch their finished video pieces

When you give $11 to The LAMP during our Annual Appeal, you’re supporting what we call ‘lightbulb’ moments–when a student lights up with revelation and empowerment at understanding how media shape the way we live. LAMP facilitator Jules Beesley describes one such moment with middle-school students while remixing an ad for the war video game, Battlefield 3:

“One group added to the commercial the text, “People can’t dodge bullets!” A few boys in the room replied, “Yes they can!” We worked hard to deconstruct this myth and explain the reality of warfare. I spent a good amount of time trying to get them to think about what is not being shown in a commercial like this: blood, bodies, suffering, pain, death. Many did not know that there are real wars being fought right now. Some students thought wearing a bullet-proof vest made soldiers invincible…These students had not spent much time examining how their views on violence and war have been shaped by media. They have been thoroughly desensitized to violence. It’s been both challenging and gratifying to help them begin to question their assumptions.”

This is just one example of how LAMP programs fill a void in learning, but lightbulb moments can’t continue without your help. All we’re asking for is $11–for you, maybe that’s one less cocktail at a holiday party, or a subway home instead of a cab. For our students, it’s an investment in their future. When you make your $11 gift, you’ll be added to an exclusive mailgroup to receive advance notice of upcoming public workshops, and news about how your gift is working through the year. Make your $11 gift right now!

French President Nicolas Sarkozy addresses EG8 forum on May 24, 2011. Photo by Reuters.

As the G8 summit concluded last Friday in France, world leaders released a statement titled “Renewed Commitment for Freedom and Democracy.” Fortunately, the statement included a section about the Internet, seemingly born from the Arab Spring, and acknowledging the Internet as a critical tool for a vibrant democracy. The final statement was also likely impacted by discussions which took place at the eG8 forum which took place prior to the G-8 summit itself. Unfortunately, the Internet statement had nothing to say about fair use or education.

Although token credit was given to the Internet as a key component for innovation and global economies, the G8 statement failed to outline any concrete steps that need to take place in order to support its use in these ways. To be fair, I’m not sure that this was the purpose of the document, which seems written merely as a record of principles as agreed upon by the G-8 leaders, but it is still troubling to me that the importance of teaching people how to be responsible citizens and critical thinkers in a digital world does not make the final cut as one of the top issues regarding the future of the Internet. During the eG8 forum, technology leaders like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Eric Schmidt of Google warned that increased Internet regulation may stifle many of the same Internet freedoms and resources that were so crucial to the Arab Spring.

This is true, but the ability of the Internet to continue as a tool for democracy is also stifled if the ability to use it effectively is concentrated in the hands of the relatively few, or if people simply don’t learn to think critically and ask questions about the media content which Internet access makes available to them. Overlegislation could spell the death of an open Internet, but undereducation is just as dangerous. And, currently, most of us are undereducated. While measuring the presence of basic media literacy in public schools is a sticky process–we don’t yet have a universally accepted assessment model, there is a dearth of media literacy training for educators–I am confident in the claim that we have a long way to go before every student is learning how to live and work in digital landscape. The LAMP is working to fill this cavernous gap, and we certainly have our work cut out for us.

Moreover, while the G8 statement has plenty to say about intellectual property and transparency, it is silent on the issue of fair use, which is largely responsible for the Internet’s function as a hub for innovation and economic growth. In an article for Wired’s Threat Level blog, David Kravets discussed a study which found that for the year 2007 alone, fair use economy accounted for $4.7 trillion in revenue to the United States. Yet fair use is also one of the least understood components of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act: in a March 2010 study by the Center for Social Media, nearly half of the participating communications scholars expressed a lack of confidence in their understanding of fair use and copyright law. If communications scholars find it difficult, imagine what it might be like for teachers in general to know when they’re crossing the line in using books, articles, movies and other media in class. Follow this with the fact that it is impossible to teach media literacy without using media, and you can see how the need for increased awareness of fair use rights walks hand-in-hand with media literacy (*cough* LAMPlatoon *cough*).

Acknowledging the importance of Internet transparency and openness without taking a stand for the tools which enable transparency and openness is a rather hollow endorsement. I know there are people who would call me naive for expecting more from a statement of principles by global leaders, but I do, and I believe that the ‘more’ of which I speak is possible.

–Emily Long
Follow me on Twitter: emlong

Join The LAMP with other educators, school leaders, guidance counselors and families at the February 2010 K-12 Education Expo. You’ll meet over 60 representatives from a wide variety of K-12 education programs and services, attend workshops, and enjoy free performances and giveaways throughout the day. The Expo is kid-friendly so feel free to bring your students. Register at linkeducation.org/educationexpo for free admission, and be sure to stop by The LAMP’s booth!

When: Saturday, February 12, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Where: NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South

Is not having broadband like not having water?

Broadband Internet access in this country is a problem, and as many of you probably know, the FCC is currently drafting a plan to change that. In findings released yesterday by the Department of Commerce, 40% of Americans do not have broadband access, and 38.9% of people who don’t have Internet access at home cite high costs as the reason. The federal government has taken on the task of increasing broadband access in part because it expects that increased access will improve the economy, as well as provide more opportunities for health care and education–all of which are cornerstones of the Obama Administration’s agenda for change. As I watch the development of the broadband debate, one question springs to mind: Has broadband access to the Internet become a public utility?

A public utility can be defined as “a business that furnishes an everyday necessity to the public at large.”  Gas, electricity and water are all considered public utilities, as is telephone service. In strictly legal terms, there is also a regulatory component in the public utility definition, but here I am concerned with the “everyday necessity” portion. One of my college professors spoke about a problem he was having with his neighbor, who wanted cable television. At the time, the only way the  neighbor could get cable service was by running a cable under my professor’s lawn (at least this is what he was told). When my professor arrived home to find his lawn in ruins, the neighbor claimed that cable television was a public utility, and so he had a right to dig up personal property in order to receive cable TV. My professor disagreed, took the neighbor to court for damaging private property, and the judge determined that cable was not an “everyday necessity.” Thus, the neighbor was denied what he believed was his right to HBO via my professor’s lawn.

I agree with the judge that cable television is not an every day necessity. It is a luxury. However, just as the Internet is a major source of information, so is cable television; the difference, I believe, is interactivity. A lack of cable TV does not make it more difficult for someone to search for a job or apply to school, and I would count both employment and education as necessities. You may be able to learn about general health-related issues on TV, but with so many health care plans and resources now being diverted almost exclusively online, it will soon be very difficult to manage your personal health needs.

I don’t recall an argument ever being made by the government that people not having cable is an issue for real concern, but this seems to be the case with the Internet. Equally important as having Internet access is learning media literacy; otherwise we’re in a world of trouble. One thing I frequently hear is that people already know how to use the Internet, so what can media literacy do for them? My response is usually something along the lines of, “They may know how to put the key in the ignition, but that doesn’t mean they should be on the road.” It’s easy for those of us living in a big city like New York to assume that everyone has access to the Internet, and everyone knows what they’re doing. After all, you can’t get on a subway here without seeing smartphones, mp3 players and handheld video games. But the truth is that not everyone has access, whether you’re talking about New York City or the entire United States, and this is a problem because the Internet is quickly becoming essential to daily life. It may have been ridiculous to say this ten years ago, but I do believe broadband Internet access is a public utility; as websites continue to get more sophisticated, low-speed access is less and less useful . My hope is that, together with building the infrastructure to strengthen this utility, adequate attention is paid to the media literacy education which must accompany this growth.

–Emily Long

I think it’s most useful to take the long view here when thinking about how to adopt any kind of new technology into education.  There can be good and bad applications of any form of communication in learning, even face-to-face communication.  The standard lecture format really stinks in many instances because it can be so darn boring, even for us analog types who really enjoy listening to a good speaker.  Not everyone learns well that way, and sometimes that method actually inhibits learning.  Likewise, the use of television in the classroom can be good, if used the right way.  Courses taught remotely via television have, for years, been beneficial to those who are geographically (or otherwise logistically) separated from a place of learning (remember “Sunrise Semester”?).   A recent U.S. Dept. of Education study on on-line learning shows that students who take on-line courses often do much better than those who sit in a large classroom for the same course, and that those who take a hybrid course using both online and face-t0-face communication do best.  Using the Internet for formal educating seems to be gaining acceptance, despite years of negative opinions on the matter (even by me, I must admit).  These things take time.  It’s hard to break old modes of learning, especially by educators like me who like to do it the way we’re used to doing it.

Let’s be realistic, though.  We have to recognize that our communication technologies and styles have been changing for centuries.  These technologies change so much of who we are, and how we see the world, and we don’t keep up well in all areas of our  social/civic lives.  In particular, our education methods are far behind our modes of communication a lot of the time.  It’s not entirely the fault of educators.  They’ve been trained to use certain models of learning that keep them in tight communicative control of the learning situation, even with differentiation for learning styles (a hats off to special education teachers here).  The revolutionary digital era that we’re enmeshed in is changing us very quickly and it’s hard to think about having  everything change with it.

But not everything has to change, and not that quickly.  However,  cell phone technology ought to be seriously considered as one of many communicative tools that could be used in some education settings some of the time.  Note that I’m not suggesting it replace anything else being used right now.  I think that, as a mode of communication, cell phones are very engaging for students of many ages who take to it like ducks to water.  Texting, twittering and surfing the net are ways in which youth and many adults engage with the world.  Let’s not ban it altogether in their learning, but try to embrace it somehow where it makes sense, or at least try to experiment with it a bit.  That will mean we have to give up some of our dyed in the wool ideas about what learning settings are to look like.  And I don’t mean just learning settings where we’re teaching about technology.  I mean all learning settings, from mathematics, to ELA, to history, to even home economics (is that still taught?).  

I challenge you to stop some of your short-term fluster for a bit and put some deep thought into what a different paradigm of learning might look like.  For a short time, try not to worry about which cell phones will be used in the classroom, who will pay for the service, how will we get the DOE of wherever to change their policies, how will we keep control of the kids when they can’t pay attention to us because they’re so attached to their hand-held devices, etc., etc.  

I challenge you to think about changing your habits as educators, parents and even students.  Maybe there’s a hybrid method of learning we can consider where different types of communication can be used for different learning purposes.  We’re going to try it at LAMPcamp next week when we get to work with middle-school aged kids from Brooklyn who are attending a YMCA camp that we’ve been invited to.  Instead of having the campers check their cell phones at the door, we’re going to welcome their sidekicks and phones into the room, and we’re going to have the kids text us, and, most importantly, we’re going to try to have them really talk to us about their communication lives.  We’re psyched.  We have no idea how it’s going to go, but we’ll definitely keep you posted.   

–Katherine G. Fry