Well, I am back from St. Louis now after a wonderful conference. I met many people from around the country and even from around the world. (Jun and Kyoko from Japan were a lot of fun to hang out with!) The National Media Education Conference opened my eyes to an area of education that is overlooked but is so important. Before this week of great speakers and interesting topics, I had never heard of Media Literacy. I am sure that many educators have long, complete definitions as to what Media Literacy is, but this is what it means to me.

As the father of three children, a daughter about to turn 13, and two sons, eight and six, I like to think that I take a great interest in their growth and maturity. Both their mother and I are very involved in their lives and what they spend their time doing. There are very few channels they can watch on their own, but that does not mean they are restricted from watching TV. It's just that Natasha or I will sit down and watch shows with them. They ask questions and we answer. If they don't ask a question when I think a particular topic or situation needs commentary, I will ask the question. (A quick plug for PVRs here: If you do not have one, get one! Life is full of interruptions. Being able to pause the TV and carry on conversations with your loved ones is priceless.)

So one of our favorite topics is, "What is the message behind the message?" My daughter loves playing detective and figuring out the behind-the-scenes thinking that goes into commercials, the news, and movies. What is going on behind the hype? How does this make me feel? What might others feel about this?

I had no idea we were practicing Media Literacy.

The conference has made me a big proponent of Media Literacy. I am the newest disciple.