Media Literacy and Cultural Understanding of People in the Middle East

The Media Education Lab is working in collaboration with the Alliance of Civilizations, the Roberts Elementary School in Wayne, PA, and faculty and students at Kuwait University to explore how media literacy can be used as a means to promote global understanding.

We developed a project where media literacy was used to promote global understanding with students at the Roberts Elementary School.

Learn more about work during the 2008-2009 school year on our collaborative wikispace, where we have placed lesson plans and activities. You can see samples of student work here. This video overviews the program:

On May 13, 2009, filmmaker Raouf Zaki visited to share and discuss his film, "Santa Claus in Baghdad"with students at Roberts Elementary School. Elementary children havebeen corresponding with college students enrolled in a technology ineducation course at Kuwait University, under supervision of Dr. RawiaAlhumaidan, to learn more about media, children, technology andcross-cultural understanding.

With leadership from Sharon Kuznick, Principal of the RobertsElementary School, we are exploring how to integrate media analysis andmedia production activities into the K-4 curriculum in ways thatpromote student engagement, literacy, creativity, collaboration skills,and critical thinking. This project is sponsored by a grant from the Alliance of Civilizations.