The Association for Media Literacy was founded in Ontario in 1978 and is dedicated to promoting media literacy in Ontario schools. Our mission statement affirms this role: "Promoting the understanding of culture and technology through media education." With approximately 400 members, AML is the largest organization of media educators in Canada and has served as a catalyst for the formation of counterpart groups in other provinces and in the United States.
Except for Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, there is a media education organization in each Canadian province. An umbrella group, CAMEO (Canadian Association for Media Education Organizations) with current president, John Pungente SJ of the Jesuit Communication Project in Toronto, facilitates sharing common concerns at a national level.
AML has held over 60 workshops for our members, six major conferences and three summer institutes. Our conference in 1992 was international in scope and was the largest ever held in the world until our last conference, "Summit 2000," in May 2000 held at the Convention Centre in Toronto. This international conference sponsored by AML and the Alliance for Children and Television was attended by 1400 people representing 55 different countries and gave a high profile to the AML. This was a landmark achievement and will probably not be repeated for some time.
The AML publishes Mediacy on-line: it is our official newsletter, offering exclusive access for members to articles, reviews, lesson plans, debates and feature articles on topics such as the Oscars, commercialized media intrusions in the classroom, and media and the Titanic. We have published The AML Anthology and a supplement, a binder of lessons plans written by Ontario media teachers. (This may be purchased from Theatrebooks in Toronto.)
In 1986, we wrote the widely circulated Media literacy Resource Guide for the Ontario Ministry of Education. (Published in 1989, it has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. It is available for $7.00 at the Government of Ontario Book Store.) Structured by media genres, the guide offers practical approaches to teaching about the media. Key concepts were used throughout, such as media constructions, ideology, industry and audiences.
Under the new curriculum mandate, media literacy is now a strand in all English/ Language Arts courses from K to Grade 12. In 1995, AML was asked to write evaluation guidelines for media literacy, Grades 1-9 for Language Arts.
In 1998, after learning that the Ministry of Education 's new government regime intended to eliminate the stand-alone media credit, AML launched a long, difficult but successful campaign to have it reinstated. In the process, we emerged stronger and gained the support and admiration of our colleagues. To our credit, members of the AML executive were asked to join the MET team that wrote the expectations for the media strand in senior English - grades 11 and 12- and the new grade eleven media studies course. The new credit is classified as a grade 11 open credit and we trust will be well received by Ontario secondary schools. We are aware that media education is relevant well beyond the domain of language arts and should be regarded as an essential component in numerous courses in the arts, social sciences and communication technology.
Members of the AML executive have been active in important educational areas: teaching faculty of education, University of Toronto and York University media studies courses for Additional Qualifications; publishing media textbooks and special teacher resources such as Meet the Media (Globe Publishing), Media Works (Oxford), Media: Images and Issues (Addison-Wesley), Mass Media and Popular Culture (Harcourt - Brace, Toronto) and Screening Images and Assessing Media (Wright Communications); and video and film series such as Scanning Television and Scanning the Movies through CHUM Ltd and a CD-ROM "Between the Lines" for the National Film Board.
We have presented workshops and keynote addresses to over 15,000 teachers throughout Ontario and around the world, including international media education conferences such as the 1995 international media education conference in La Coruna, Spain; the 1998 conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the much acclaimed Summit 2000 conference in Toronto in May 2000. At the Brazil conference, AML was presented with an international award from the World Council on Media Education, which recognized that AML was the most influential media education organization in North America
With a major political shift to the right because of the Mike Harris - led Conservative government, media teachers are cautiously optimistic that the revised Ontario secondary school curriculum will encourage significant media literacy practices The challenge will be to overcome a pervasive teacher malaise, financial cutbacks, and decreased P.A. days. However, with so many new teachers being hired in the next five years who are generally sympathetic to the goals of media education, the AML is confident that we can make significant inroads. Basic to realizing any success will be effective teacher training through board in-service sessions, AML workshops and basic media education courses for pre-service teachers and, for practising teachers, the Additional Qualification courses.
Our goals in 1999-2000 include the following; launching a membership campaign; conceptualizing the role of the new and converging communication technologies within the framework of media literacy; increased emphasis on elementary school media education because of the new Ministry of Education mandate; interpreting the new media expectations for secondary schools; and establishing liaison with faculties of education and teaching AQ courses.
A special think tank for C.A.M.E.O. leaders and the AML executive will be held in Toronto, August 22-25. Our goals include: sharing some common concerns such as working with federal copyright, increasing membership,fighting political battles and learning about new resources for the media classroom. In addition, we hope to reach consensus on some important new media education initiatives and make important recommendations, which will be published in a short monograph.
e-mail: baduncan@interlog.com