ACMA - The ACMA families and media literacy research forum

The ACMA Families and Media Literacy Research Forum was organised by the ACMA as an opportunity for industry representatives, researchers and educators to contribute to the ACMA’s consideration of media literacy issues, including insights provided by three new reports from the ACMA’s 2007 study, Media and Communications in Australian Families.

Research forum programme
Presentations

Families and Media Literacy Research Forum - Introduction by Chris Chapman, ACMA
- ACMA and Media Literacy
  - Speech - Lesley Osborne, ACMA
  - Presentation - Lesley Osborne, ACMA
- Media use by young people
  - Presentation - Margaret Cupitt, ACMA
- Changing media use by young people
  - Presentation - Margaret Cupitt, ACMA

Forum participants

List of attending organisations
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)	Disney	Screen Australia
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)	Entertainment Insights	Screenrights
Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS)	Free TV Australia	Telstra & Telstra Foundation
Australian Subscription Television & Radio Association (ASTRA)	Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University	Network Ten
Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF)	Intuitive Media Australia	The Learning Federation
Australian Institute of Family Studies	Ipsos Australia	University of Canberra
Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM)	La Trobe University	University of New England
Commercial Radio Australia	Media Access Australia	University of Western Sydney, Centre for Cultural Research
Communications Alliance	Microsoft	Urbis
Consumers' Telecommunications Network (CTN)	Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI)	United Telecommunication Services (UTS)
Dept of Broadcasting Ccommunications and Digital Economy (DBCDE)	nineMSN	Walt Disney TV
Deakin University	NSW Commission for Children and Young People	Young Media Australia

Participant resources

Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) ACTF’s Learning Centre provides online teaching resources to support all Educators (early years to tertiary). These include Learning Activities based on ACTF television programs; detailed production information and a section called Exploring Television and Film, which explains the technical features of television production (animation and live drama) with linked classroom activities. www.actf.com.au/learning_centre/introduction.htm
Australian Teachers of Media, (ATOM) ATOM is an independent, non-profit, professional association promoting the study of media. ATOM publishes Metro magazine Screen Education magazine; study guides and education kits; The Moving Image series of monographs; and web sites for feature films, documentaries and television programs. ATOM’s membership primarily includes teachers and lecturers from across subject disciplines at all levels of education. The membership also includes media industry personnel, a range of media and education organizations and, increasingly, the general public interested in the media. The Education Shop is a website for teachers, lecturers, parents, students and the general public with an interest in education, who are looking for materials to help them with their teaching and learning at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. The website provides articles, study guides, interviews, reviews, books, videos and DVDs covering the arts, humanities and science curricula. Print resources are available in both electronic (AU$4.95 each) and hard copy formats (AU$9.95 each). www.metromagazine.com.au/shop.html www.metromagazine.com.au/shop/default.asp
The Le@rning Federation through The Curriculum Corporation The Le@rning Federation is an intiative managed by the Curriculum Corporation, a partnership of all Australian Education Ministers. The Le@rning Federation distributes learning objects and digital resources to education authorities to support teaching and learning in the classroom. The Le@rning Federation through Curriculum corporation has developed resources in partnership with the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) for australianscreenonline Australianscreenonline is an educational resource providing worldwide online access to information about the Australian film and television industry. It enables educators and teachers to use Australian moving image in the classroom to engage students and assist their learning in the networked, multimodal environment. It contains information about and excerpts from a wide selection of Australian feature films, documentaries, television programs, newsreels, short films, animations, and home-movies produced over the last 100 years. It also includes teachers’ notes that identify and describe the educational values of many of the film clips. www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/for_teachers/whats_new/whats_new.html australianscreen.com.au/
Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) The ACMI provides both screen education programs and study guides. ACMI organises special screenings, lectures and innovative hands-on workshops for primary and secondary school students, tertiary students and educators. Study Guides are designed to complement ACMI's Screen Education programs and provide high quality study materials to students and interested viewers of film, television and screen-based art. www.acmi.net.au/learn.htm www.acmi.net.au/education_resources.htm www.acmi.net.au/studyguides.htm
Screen Australia – Digital learning resources Screen Australia provides different activities promoting digital learning Digital Resource Finder is a search engine that enables educators and teachers to search and download video clips from Screen Australia’s archive—one of the nation’s largest and most historically significant collections. Clips are matched with print-friendly two-page resource sheets that include background information and engaging student research and classroom activities written by leading teachers. No registration or log in is required. The resources are FREE FOR EDUCATION. FREE teachers notes accompany Screen Australia titles. The notes contain suggestions for using the programs as an integrated educational resource, providing summaries, curriculum links, activities and discussion questions. Online notes can be viewed and printed directly from the website by clicking on the link. Many are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Printed notes can also be obtained from Screen Australia. Teachers and educators can become online members and be sent details about new releases, screening dates and teachers notes in regular email updates. dl.screenaustralia.gov.au/ dl.filmaust.com.au/t_new www.filmaust.com.au/programs/default.asp?content=teachers_notes
Screenrights Screenrights is promoting the use of film and TV in teaching through the website Enhance TV. Enhance TV is an online resource center for educators. The site provides an online guide highlighting upcoming educational broadcasts and directs educators and teachers to free resources such as study guides. Study guides are produced by Screen Australia and prepared by Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM). www.enhancetv.com.au/

Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF)

ACTF’s Learning Centre provides online teaching resources to support all Educators (early years to tertiary).

These include Learning Activities based on ACTF television programs; detailed production information and a section called Exploring Television and Film, which explains the technical features of television production (animation and live drama) with linked classroom activities.

www.actf.com.au/learning_centre/introduction.htm

Australian Teachers of Media, (ATOM)

ATOM is an independent, non-profit, professional association promoting the study of media.

ATOM publishes Metro magazine Screen Education magazine; study guides and education kits; The Moving Image series of monographs; and web sites for feature films, documentaries and television programs.

ATOM’s membership primarily includes teachers and lecturers from across subject disciplines at all levels of education. The membership also includes media industry personnel, a range of media and education organizations and, increasingly, the general public interested in the media.

The Education Shop is a website for teachers, lecturers, parents, students and the general public with an interest in education, who are looking for materials to help them with their teaching and learning at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. The website provides articles, study guides, interviews, reviews, books, videos and DVDs covering the arts, humanities and science curricula. Print resources are available in both electronic (AU$4.95 each) and hard copy formats (AU$9.95 each).

The Le@rning Federation through The Curriculum Corporation

The Le@rning Federation is an intiative managed by the Curriculum Corporation, a partnership of all Australian Education Ministers.

The Le@rning Federation distributes learning objects and digital resources to education authorities to support teaching and learning in the classroom.

The Le@rning Federation through Curriculum corporation has developed resources in partnership with the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) for australianscreenonline

Australianscreenonline is an educational resource providing worldwide online access to information about the Australian film and television industry. It enables educators and teachers to use Australian moving image in the classroom to engage students and assist their learning in the networked, multimodal environment.

It contains information about and excerpts from a wide selection of Australian feature films, documentaries, television programs, newsreels, short films, animations, and home-movies produced over the last 100 years.

It also includes teachers’ notes that identify and describe the educational values of many of the film clips.

Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI)

The ACMI provides both screen education programs and study guides.

ACMI organises special screenings, lectures and innovative hands-on workshops for primary and secondary school students, tertiary students and educators.

Study Guides are designed to complement ACMI's Screen Education programs and provide high quality study materials to students and interested viewers of film, television and screen-based art.

Screen Australia – Digital learning resources

Screen Australia provides different activities promoting digital learning

Digital Resource Finder is a search engine that enables educators and teachers to search and download video clips from Screen Australia’s archive—one of the nation’s largest and most historically significant collections. Clips are matched with print-friendly two-page resource sheets that include background information and engaging student research and classroom activities written by leading teachers. No registration or log in is required. The resources are FREE FOR EDUCATION.

FREE teachers notes accompany Screen Australia titles. The notes contain suggestions for using the programs as an integrated educational resource, providing summaries, curriculum links, activities and discussion questions. Online notes can be viewed and printed directly from the website by clicking on the link. Many are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Printed notes can also be obtained from Screen Australia. Teachers and educators can become online members and be sent details about new releases, screening dates and teachers notes in regular email updates.

Screenrights

Screenrights is promoting the use of film and TV in teaching through the website Enhance TV.

Enhance TV is an online resource center for educators. The site provides an online guide highlighting upcoming educational broadcasts and directs educators and teachers to free resources such as study guides.

Study guides are produced by Screen Australia and prepared by Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM).

www.enhancetv.com.au/

Outcome: Digital media literacy issues for further research

During the ACMA’s digital media literacy research forum, participants were invited to share their views in relation to themes and issues of interest for further research. Participants’ suggestions have been summarised in the table below:

Summary of forum participants’ suggestions for further research

Access & Use	Identifying people who don’t have access to digital media and communications technologies, and why they don’t have access Patterns of access and use among different segments of the population. Participants were particularly interested in gaining a more detailed understanding of possible differences of access, understanding and participation on the basis of age, gender, ethnicity, location and special needs.
Participation, content creation	Some participants thought that there should be more research into the range of content that people access, rather than simply focusing on platforms. User generated content. Participants wanted more research into who is producing content, what sort of content they produce, and how frequently they produce it. They were also interested in exploring possible differences on the basis of gender and ethnicity.
Digital media and young people	Participants mentioned a range of issues relating to internet & mobile use by children and young people. Of particular interest were questions that participants thought were generally overlooked in research studies, either because the focus was more general, or because the information was intrinsically difficult to collect. These included: Use of technology in different environments, such as at school, and in completely unsupervised situations, such as late at night and alone in bedrooms Access to, interest in, and use of sexual material Experience of bullying, harassment and privacy related issues
Digital media and parents	Closely associated with the themes listed above was an interest in differences, similarities and interactions between parents and children. Some of the themes mentioned were: What do parents think children do, as opposed to what children actually do Measuring media literacy differences, dependencies and interactions Whether new media activities, such social networking and gaming were used in a communal/shared experience way within households in the same as TV
Digital media literacy in schools	Effectiveness of ML education Awareness of content available : Parents, Students, Teachers Cultural literacy-transference of skills Use of technology by schools Attitude of teachers Informal (playground) learning
Digital media literacy in society	What issues are raised by new technologies in terms of citizenship
Usage & economic factors	Participants were interested in the relationship between media and communications technology use and economic factors. For example, is cost a barrier to young people’s technology use; how do young people understand pricing on mobile phones.

The ACMA families and media literacy research forum

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