About the Part One Course

“I found that it made me a lot more observant about the media around me. I couldn’t help but notice media and all the key concepts – everywhere…” – Diana M

“I’m a Grade 1 teacher . . . I had quickly grown to love the course. It taught me to rethink how I think, and how I teach, and how I interact with others. And I believe that this course has not only made me a better teacher but a better person …” – Amanda Bujdos, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Media are the oceans in which we live and communicate. Sometimes calm; sometimes turbulent; always changing. As with oceans, we need media but must know how to navigate and use them. This is why media literacy is the most important skill, and why we cannot be too media literate.

Teachers need to know and exercise media literacy because students learn and demonstrate their learning via media. AML knows Ontario’s media literacy curriculum because we wrote it, making Ontario the first educational jurisdiction in the world to mandate media studies in every core English/Language course.

Our instructors have worked in K-12 classrooms, and we employ our exceptional colleagues as guest speakers and mentors. We seek out and collaborate with global scholars and classroom teachers on the cutting edge of media literacy education, combining pedagogical theory and its grounding practice.

We recognize the challenging work/life balance of teachers, so there is much opportunity to apply your learning practically and immediately to your own classroom.

What will you gain from this course*?

• you will learn how to develop lessons from unfolding media environments and experiences
• you will build a personal collection of resources and lessons
• you will learn to integrate critical thinking about equity and social justice into Secondary and Grades K-8 cross-curricula
• you will learn to integrate critical thinking about pop culture, social and informational media, digital technologies, and literature (& more) into Secondary and Grades K-8 cross-curricula
• you will refine/expand your media production skills & those of your students
• you will learn how to integrate media production (image, video, audio) into your practice, in order to enhance and support reading, writing, speaking, listening, group, research and media literacy skills
• you will learn how to assess and evaluate students’ media literacy work
• you will have FUN!

*Registrants must have wi-fi, software and hardware to operate Google Meet.

This is an Ontario Schedule D course. It is QECO and OCT-approved.

It is currently the only Media AQ being offered in Ontario.

• Successful OCT members in Part 1 will have Additional Qualification Media, Part 1 added to their teaching qualifications. Non-OCT members will receive AML certificates
• Part 2:
  • The Part 2 course is offered as a standalone course, concurrently with Part One and Specialist (Part 3)
  • Candidates registered in Part 2 will deepen and extend their Part 1 skills through collaborative and leadership experiences
  • The Part 2 experience will offer greater flexibility and independent choice
  • OCT member participants registered in Part 2 will receive a Part 2 Qualification. Non-OCT members will receive AML certificates
• Part 3 (Specialist):
  • The Part 3 course is offered as a standalone course, concurrently with Part One and Part Two
  • Contact us at associationformedialiteracy [at] gmaildotcom if you are interested in the Specialist level.

Read OCT’s prerequisites for the AQ certificates.

Note on refund/withdrawal policy: No course refunds are issued after the first week of the course. Please contact us for further details.

How will you learn?

You will use collaborative inquiry, presentations and online tools to build a collection of current and personalized media-teaching strategies, including hands-on experiences, inquiry, creativity, media production, self-directed learning, assessment tools and strategies, collaboration, team-teaching and global citizenship to support your ongoing practice. You will hear and discover experienced guest media teachers share their current challenges and successes. And you will have private, one-on-one consultation access to course instructors as needed, in a setting with a maximum of 30 learners.