Media Literacy in Minnesota

With all this discussion about media literacy I thought it may be helpful to discuss technology and information (media) literacy education as it stands in Minnesota.

From the early 1990s through 2000 the State Board of Education and the Department of Children, Families and Learning worked to create what was known as the Profiles of Learning. Embedded within these result-oriented graduation standards was the desire to prepare students for the changing world and workplace including an understanding of the need to the technically literate. When the profile of learning was repealed in 2003 it was replaced by a set of academic standards in five core areas (language arts, science, math, social studies and the arts) which did not include any treatment of technology or information literacy. Though districts were free to create or implement such standards on their own they would neither be required or developed by the state.

In 2006 recognizing the importance of media literacy to the future of students the Minnesota Educational Media Organization (MEMO), which represents school media and information technology professionals, and the governor lobbied for the inclusion of technology and information literacy. Senator Kelley former chair of the Education Committee described technology and information literacy as “essential to function in a world flooded and mediated by technology skills.” During the 2006 legislative session a bill (co-authored by Sen. Kelley) was passed which directed the commissioner of education to “…revise and appropriately embed technology and information literacy standards consistent with recommendations from school media specialists into the state's academic standards and graduation requirements...” While the bill did not require separate media literacy standards be adopted ti did require that as existing standards came up for revision and new standards were created they should include some media literacy as appropriate.

As standards come up for revision they are being modified to include technology and information literacy to some extent but perhaps the standards with the most information literacy embedded are the Language Arts standards. These already include some information literacy skills but have not come up for revision since this bill was passed. This gives some hope for the future if more information literacy skills are embedded when they come up for revision.