Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative
The Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative will be launched at the University of Washington in 2011. Read the announcement here.
Sarah Stutevile of the Common Language Project, one of the originators of SDLI, offered this overview:
The Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative is a partnership between the UW’s Department Of Communication, the UW’s Master of Communication and Digital Media program, the Common Language Project, the World Affairs Council, the Seattle Times’ Newspapers in Education program, Reclaim the Media, Stony Brook University, Cocoon House (Homeless Youth) and teachers at Seattle-area public high schools including Chief Sealth, New Start, Kent-Meridian, Roosevelt and Nathan Hale and Denny Middle School.
The Seattle region is an international leader in the development of ground-breaking technology, media and journalism and we believe the moment is right for this city to emerge as a leader in the increasingly critical field of news and digital-media literacy.
In this spirit, the SDLI will send journalists, media policy experts and media makers into select schools and youth organizations with an emphasis on underserved youth and communities. In a series of visits they will offer interactive, highly visual presentations that explore contemporary media issues such as online privacy, the role of journalism in our democracy, how to find quality information online, and international media coverage.
The program culminates in an intensive summer journalism and media production camp offering students the skills to research and tell the stories of their own communities through media. At the end of this program youth will feel empowered as educated consumers and critics of – and producers and participants in – today’s complex media landscape.
The SDLI expands beyond the classroom visits and Summer Institute as a broader initiative that includes a series of teacher trainings, digital literacy and media production workshops for UW alumni and the public and a series of educational articles on media issues to be published in the Seattle Times.
SDLI was essentially born at the 2010 Journalism that Matters conference in Seattle. One of the emergent themes was a challenge to media makers to think of themselves as educators as well. Many attendees articulated a belief that media/digital literacy should be considered one of the most crucial topics for media makers today.
In that spirit, JTM participants interested in pursuing a broad media literacy initiative in the Seattle area joined together in conversation and the SDLI's exciting partnership was born. Once again JTM has proved itself as a innovative space for journalists, media makers, community members and storytellers interested in re-imagining journalism for the 21st century.