A project featuring educational curriculum created by researchers from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s College of Education and Human Sciences and Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts is educating youth about online media literacy, a kind of driver’s ed for navigating the digital landscape.
Media Stamped is a new show that empowers young people to be more aware of the impact of online messaging.
“These challenges we’re facing with technology, social media, screen time, are universal,” said Guy Trainin, professor of education in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education. “They’re happening all around the world.”
The show was created, written and hosted by award-winning writer and actor Nicole Stamp. Media Stamped was commissioned by TELUS and produced by 26-time Emmy Award winners Sinking Ship Entertainment. Media Stamped can be watched on international advocacy organization Global Citizen’s YouTube channel.
Media Stamped has episodes on topics such as screen time and how what people see and hear online affects perceptions. Kristen Friesen, a graduate student in Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, created curriculum guides to supplement the lessons. Sam Bendix, media arts specialist in the Carson Center, designed the guides.
The guides include activities, worksheets and further reading to reinforce the lessons.
“We want kids to be wary and be careful,” Friesen said. “We want to educate students to make the best choices for themselves.”
We want kids to be wary and be careful. We want to educate students to make the best choices for themselves.
Trainin said working on the project was a great opportunity to collaborate not only with another university department, but with an external organization. It allowed each team to play to its strengths.
“There are certain things other organizations do better,” Trainin said. “Shooting that kind of complex video is beyond our scope right now. We came in complementing their work.”
The approach used in Media Stamped interested Friesen because it acknowledged the realities of technology’s presence in everyday life while encouraging people to maintain control over the messages they receive.
“We’re not going to get rid of technology,” Friesen said. “It didn’t say technology was a bad thing. It just talks about how our brains are affected by this constant gratification and the pros and cons of that. It’s saying, ‘You need to be in the driver’s seat if you’re going to be using this.’”
Lindsey Clausen, project manager for Edgeworks at the Carson Center, said covering these topics was a perfect fit for the center, where students learn every day about new media and how to use it effectively and responsibly. Megan Elliott, director of the Carson Center, was also part of the team.
“We need to equip the next generation with skills to navigate our ever-changing media landscape,” Clausen said. “That’s what we teach here so that’s what we want to put out into the world, as well.”
While these topics are applicable to people of all ages, Trainin said children in the target audience of Media Stamped can be especially susceptible, and the program can help them be more aware of when they need to apply these tools.
“This is a period when the brain starts reorganizing, so this is a point when they’re very vulnerable to these external stimuli,” Trainin said. “This is also the point in time where many individuals are getting a phone for the first time, or the devices are getting more sophisticated, and supervision goes down.”
Trainin said eventually the team would like to create a curriculum for parents, as well. Children today are growing up in an environment completely different from that of their parents, he said, and Media Stamped can help parents and teachers understand issues they might not have dealt with in their own youth. Ultimately, the goal is to give all users a toolkit for dealing with an online world that increasingly creeps away from screens.
“The digital world is a real world,” Trainin said. “Things are happening there. You have conversations there. Some people work there. The lesson plans connect it with the rest of the world. These things have ramifications beyond the digital world.”
