Tag Archives: Italy

A Loss to the Global Media Literacy Community

13 Oct

You Will be Missed!

I was deeply saddened by news this morning that one of the founders of the Italian media literacy community, Roberto Gianatelli, passed away on October 12.

I first met Roberto in 1990 at the legendary Guelph conference, where media literacy educators from around the world first gathered, and where only a handful of American scholars and teachers were present. His passion for teaching was evident from the moment I met him. After that, we met (nearly annually, it seems) during the 1990s as the international media literacy community began gathering steam. In 2000, we participated in Summit 2000: Children, Youth and the Media: Beyond the Millennium, an amazing onference held in Toronto Ontario, which brought together media educators, media producers and more from around the world. At this event, more than 1500 people from 53 countries participated — it was the largest gathering of media literacy educators in the world.

But it was only when Damiano Felini spent time with me in Boston when he was finishing his dissertation in the late 1990s that I had the chance to really understand the sources of momentum that were propelling the media literacy education community in Italy. I decided to spend my sabbatical leave in 2001 in Italy, where I got to meet with Damiano, Roberto and other media educators, including Alberto Pellai and Pier Cesare Rivoltella. Since then, I have had the great opportunity to meet many brilliant Italian media literacy educators including Maria Ranieri, Alberto Parola, Luciano di Mele, Isabella Bruni, Roberto Farne, and many more.

After sharing ideas with the Italian delegation at the World Summit on Children and Media in Karlstad, Sweden in 2010, I was especially delighted to collaborate with Damiano Felini and Professor Gianna Cappello (president of MED, the Italian media literacy association) to create a special issue of the Journal of Media Literacy Education where we worked under the auspieces of two journals devoted to media literacy education: the Journal of Media Literacy Education (sponsored by the National Association for Media Literacy Education) and the Italian Media Education: Studi, Ricerche, Buone pratiche (sponsored by MED, Associazione italiana per l’educazione ai media e alla comunicazione).

I offer my condolences to the many Italian educators who are mourning the loss of their mentor, guide and friend, Roberto Gianatelli. An ordained priest in the Salesian Roman Catholic order, he was a warm, kind and brilliant man. His sense of humor was infectious. Because of his leadership, the Italian media literacy community embraced the contributions of elementary and secondary teachers as well as university faculty and he inspired many to “think big” about this emerging field. It was such a treat to be with him in the summer of 2011 in Corvara, a beautful village in the Dolomite Mountains where the Italian media literacy community gathers for its annual summer course in media education.

This weekend, Italian media educators will gather at the University of Udine for a professional development gathering entitled, “Media Education: Crsecere e insegnare nella societa dei media.” In spirit, I will be there to lift a glass in memory to this Italian lion of a leader in the global media literacy comnunity. I am confident that the Italian media educators will carry on and extend the legacy that Roberto helped begin.

Tags: , , ,

Summer School for Media Education in Corvara Italy

14 Jul

Lucky me – I was invited to participate in the Summer School in Media Education in Italy! What a pleasure it is to join my Italian media literacy friends for this important program of professional development. And of course, the Italians have always been key players in the international media literacy community. When I met Roberto Gianatelli at a conference in Toronto the late 1980s, he was beginning to plan a gathering of Italian media educators at about the same time I was trying to develop a teacher education summer program at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

He first hosted the first Summer School in Media Education in the summer of 1991 at the lovely resort town of Corvara in Badia, high in the Tyrolean Alps of Northern Italy, surrounded by the majestic Dolomite Mountains. Every year, this group meets in Corvara for an annual gathering and it’s easy to sense the vitality and depth of collegial relationships that have developed as a result of this tradition.

I have always felt a special kinship to Roberto and the diverse community of Italian media educators, who have followed a course quite parallel to that of the American media literacy movement, developing a professional membership organization for media and communication in education, MED, and recently launching a journal for scholars and practitioners, Media Education: Studi, Richerche, Buone Pratiche.

Now the Summer School in Media Education is celebrating its 20th anniversary July 11 – 17, 2011, with more than 60 educators from across the nation gathering for a rich program of professional development, networking and sharing. Co-directed by Gianna Cappello, Roberto Gianatelli and Alberto Parola and coordinated by Luciano Di Mele, this program offers a combination of lectures, discussion groups, methodological seminars, and production workshops for media professionals and educators working in primary, elementary, secondary and out-of-school settings.

Peccato non parlo bene italiano, but thanks to my dear friend and colleague Damiano Felini, I can make some sense of the program. Because this year’s Summer School theme focuses on the cinema, many of the production workshops explore the use of film in the context of media literacy education. For example, in a session on videogames and cinema led by Max Andreoletti and Anna Ragosta, participants explored the videogame, “The Movies,” which is a Sims-style simulation game where you get to control a movie studio and produce short films. Participants discussed various possibilities for using this software with children.

In a session on digital storytelling led by Alessia Rosa and Isabella Bruni, participants created short films exploring the representation of teachers in the movies and movies that made a difference in their lives. One group of educators explored the power of the 1964 film “Mary Poppins,” with each team member writing reflectively about a song or story element of the film with special personal significance to them. Another group, led by Filippo Ceretti, learned strategies of film analysis by selecting film stills from a short film and re-creating them to better understand the constructedness of visual imagery. It’s a real thrill to share my passion for media literacy with this talented group of educators!

You can read my keynote speech here.Hobbs speech 7.17.11

Tags: , , , ,

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 2,106 other followers