MEDIA LITERACY EDUCATION AWARD

FRANK BAKER
Media Literacy Advocate/Trainer
Media Literacy Clearinghouse
Columbia, SC
Cable System: Time Warner Cable

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With the goal of helping teachers connect the visual world of popular culture to the world of education, and helping them effectively teach students about media, Frank Baker has spent more than 20 years promoting media literacy. From conducting annual workshops, to creating the Media Literacy Clearinghouse Web site, to contributing to a national media literacy listserv, Baker is spreading the messages and resources teachers and parents need to help develop a media literate generation.

Baker's Media Literacy Clearinghouse website, called "the internet encyclopedia of media literacy," was designed to help teachers understand what media literacy is, where it fits in instruction and what resources are available to help them teach it. His daily contributions to a national media literacy listerv offer news stories about propaganda, persuasion, advertising, film, television, technology and other media that help teachers connect the real world to media literacy.

Baker hopes his work allows educators to see the media as something to be welcomed and embraced. His recent efforts with the South Carolina Department of Education encouraged the English Language Arts curriculum writing team to see the value of including media literacy in their standards, Baker is now working with the South Carolina Writing Improvement Network to show teachers the important connections that writing has to all media.

"Media literacy is critical for 21st Century learning. This work is necessary because teachers tell me their students tend to believe everything they see, read or hear on the internet. It motivates me to know I have inspired schools to teach media literacy and to get their students engaged in creating, producing and evaluating their own media." Frank Baker