Visual Tools To Help Learners Understand The Refugee Crisis

Source: TED

In the aftermath of one of the most divisive elections in our history, and in light of the possible presidential immigration ban barring people from entering the United States, we’re left with trying to explain to our learners what it all means. Their study of human rights along with a diverse classroom population adds further importance to our role as educators in a global world.

Learners need to know that refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants fall under the category of immigration, but there is a difference. They need to understand the enormity of the refugee crisis. This includes not only where they come from but also who makes up the majority of the refugee population.

The following resources proved invaluable in helping our students put the refugee crisis in perspective. It helped them realize the massive humanitarian needs refugees face around the world.

What Does It Mean To Be A Refugee?

This animation from TED Education helps students understand what the term refugee means and how it is different from asylum seeker and migrant. The video provides the perfect introduction to the topic and can easily be used with elementary students.

The UN Refugee Agency: Our Story

This is the story of how the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) was established to help those whose lives were uprooted by conflict or natural disaster. The video explains the historic role of the UNHCR from 1950 to the present.

  

The Refugee Project

The interactive map plots the migration of refugees around the world along a timeline that begins in the year 1975. The project uses United Nations data to tell the story of the millions of registered refugees under UN protection. The circles around each country adjust in size to show the flow of refugees as they expand and contract from a particular location. The lines that branch out indicate where the refugees sought asylum.

Source: The Refugee Project

9 Maps and Charts That Explain The Global Refugee Crisis

With the number of displaced people reaching the highest levels since post World War II, these maps and charts provide students with a visual look at the statistical information regarding the spike in the number of refugees around the globe.

Source: Vox

Rescue Facts: Refugee Facts

Historically, the United States has never shut the door on refugees; yet, the political rhetoric and misinformation over the last several weeks regarding the immigration ban has confused some of our learners. This video from the The International Rescue Committee seeks to present the real facts about refugees seeking asylum in the United States and the vetting process.

UNHRC Global Trends Data 2015

The magnitude of the current global refugee crisis is highlighted in this UNHCR video. The forced displacement rose significantly in 2015, and it is the first time in history that the number of displaced persons surpassed 60 million. We believe students need to recognize this crisis beyond media blasts to ban immigration; this is about real people, and sadly many of them are the same ages as those we teach.




One of the projects our students complete each year is the study of immigration from the early nineteenth century to modern day. They learn that people leave their homelands because of political, economic, and social reasons. It’s not unusual for a student to discover or report on how their own ancestors were forced to flee their homelands. They, too, were refugees.

What Is The Electoral College? - Explainer Videos & Animated Infographics For All Ages

Source: Janet Cordahi

On Tuesday, Americans will elect their next president. While a record 200 million citizens are now registered to vote, a majority do not understand the process for choosing the commander-in-chief. With a little conversation, the seemingly esoteric nature of the Electoral College is actually quite simple to grasp. Regardless, therefore, of the particular vitriol of this year's contest, teachers and students deserve to take a moment this week to learn about our Constitutional republic. A host of helpful explainer videos and animated infographics are available to educate learners of all levels about the Electoral College.

"Electoral College" from Janet Cordahi

Electoral College from Janet Cordahi on Vimeo.

"How The Electoral College Works" from CGP Grey

"Does Your Vote Count?" from Christina Greer

"How The Electoral College Works In 6 Minutes" from Thought Monkey

"Electoral College" from Schoolhouse Rock

For more information on teaching and learning about the presidential race, see the series of posts on "Gaming The 2016 Election."

Gaming The 2016 Election - Animations & Maps To Decode The Electoral College

Source: PBS Learning Media

As the national polls and the state-by-state predictions shake out in the final month of the 2016 campaign, the focus turns even more to the Electoral College as the actual arbiter of presidential glory. Somewhat enigmatic and certainly esoteric, the Electoral College stands as a tribute to the Founding Fathers' well-founded distrust of the new republic's voting population. It also exists as a potentially genius solution to the variations in population density across the country and the unyielding desire for fairness in the democratic process.

Some argue that the electoral vote misrepresents the true(r) popular vote. Others claim that the College instead empowers underrepresented regions. Either way, until a Constitutional Amendment changes the process, electors will meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December to pick the president. Aside from a few confidence-rattling elections – such as when a Reconstruction compromise or a Congressional broker or a Supreme Court controversy determined the winner – the electoral outcome has been affirmed by both citizens and historians.

Source: PBS Learning Media

In order to explain the workings of the Electoral College to all levels of residents and students, PBS Learning Media has put together a terrific "Electoral Decoder." As a part of its Election Central page, this comprehensive and visually impressive resource demystifies the process and helps anyone become more familiar with the United States' democratic system.

For classroom teachers, a good initial stop is the video introduction to the tool and the methodology. Clear map animations lead educators and learners through the workings of the Electoral College. There is also a teacher portal that includes lesson plans and instructional suggestions.

Source: PBS Learning Media

The 2016 Presidential Predictor is an interactive map that employs a gamification approach, in which each student becomes a pundit and picks the winner of each state to see which candidate reaches the magic number of 270 electoral votes.

Users can also view the complete roster of electoral results from past contests, displayed in clear geographic statistics. The cartogram view is another valuable lens through which historians can employ design to make the data come to life. In this view, the cartogram resizes traditional map shapes to reflect a relative input, such as population or number of electoral votes. In other words, the states with more people become larger, distorting the recognizable scheme while highlighting the crucial swing locations.

In all, PBS' "Electoral Decoder" is an informative blend of straightforward geography, time-honored civics, and forward-thinking visualizations to make American elections more accessible.

Gaming The 2016 Election - Trading Cards & Virtual Interactives To Meet The Candidates

Source: PBS Kids

Educating younger learners about the 2016 presidential election poses a real challenge. The esoterica of the primary and caucus systems can be difficult to explain. The intricacies of the Electoral College require a background in both United States geography and the Founding Fathers' intents. This year's candidate quirks present a special hurdle, since many of the well-publicized comments are NSFS (Not Safe For School).

Avoiding these challenges, however, would be a disservice. Pretending that the nation picks a president simply by totaling all the votes would be unethical. Teachers might as well never introduce advanced vocabulary or higher-level mathematics.

Source: PBS Kids

Fortunately, PBS Kids has assembled a terrific array of resources in its "You Choose 2016" platform. The kid-friendly range of videos, printouts, and interactives address all of the major election aspects at a level perfect for elementary students.

Source: PBS Kids

For example, the "Meet The Candidates" page offers a bingo-style look at age-appropriate trivia about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump. The "Videos" portal presents a wide selection of movies and clips, ranging from a live-action explanation of the voting process to an animated tour of the White House.

The "Campaign Poster" interface invites children to decorate and customize their own election placards. The "Trading Cards" area includes colorful renderings of presidents and first ladies to inspire students through a gamification approach.

All told, PBS Kids does a masterful job of avoiding the hard-to-answer questions about the 2016 controversies and instead highlighting the history and the fun of the U.S. presidency.

Gaming The 2016 Election - Videos & Toolkits To Let Students Join The Debates

Source: PBS Learning Media

In the modern era, presidential debates have become must-see theater. In many cases, these general election showdowns have produced critical moments to determine the November outcomes. Even at their most pedantic, these debates are rare opportunities to hear the nation's leaders speak directly to citizens and to each other. Voters can judge how the candidates handle themselves on the world's largest stage.

The first debate between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump at Hofstra University (down the road from us here on Long Island) on Monday, September 26, 2016, is predicted to shatter television viewing records. Not incorporating this event into a day's lesson, therefore, would constitute educational malpractice.

Source: Watch The Debates

Teachers need to foster in their students an appreciation for civics. They need to guide young people toward understanding rhetoric and messaging. They need to use policy discussions as springboards to social awareness and future voting choices. One way to do this is by incorporating the practices of game interactions. This "gamification" approach to learning puts students in the driver's seat.

Source: PBS Learning Media

Fortunately, PBS has put together two terrific resources to bring the debates to life. The first is "Watch The Debates" from PBS Newshour. It allows users to view and interact with every candidate confrontation since 1960. Students can watch full encounters or highlights, and they can respond with their own verdicts.

The second resource is "Join The Debates," from PBS Learning Media. This site provides educators with a poster and toolkit to stage student dialogues in their own classrooms. Based on the Harkness Method and Spider Web discussion, these detailed guides allow children to reenact the debate format. Kids become owners of their own opinions, and they gain a better appreciation of the rigors of presidential parleys and the complexities of global issues.

Teaching With Cartoons - A Visual History Of Donkeys, Elephants, Parties, & Politics

Source: Politico

Our students are avid consumers of politics and history. They always ask, though, how the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant became the icons of the respective parties. Both animals, however strong and noble, seem somewhat incongruous to the preferred imagery of political ambition.

Political cartoonists throughout the ages have captured these two creatures in brilliant colors and tart commentaries. Skilled artists have swayed society's opinions through targeted visual satires. For their part, educators have consistently embraced these editorial cartoons as terrific tools in teaching primary sources, points of view, pictorial language, and symbolic metaphors.

Source: Politico

The curators at Politico, one of the sharpest websites for up-to-the-minute political news, have gathered together a stunning gallery of historical cartoons in honor of the Republican and Democratic conventions. They trace the legacy of the donkey — from Andrew Jackson's anti-elitism, to Woodrow Wilson's internecine war, to Hillary Clinton's divided constituency. They map the evolution of the elephant — from Thomas Nast's first salvo, to William McKinley's bandwagon, to Donald Trump's hair on fire.

Source: Politico

Both compendiums of cartoons provide excellent resources for teachers in history, government, civics, social studies, English, and language arts classes. The collections include many seldom-seen images. They also offer terrific examples of illustrations to practice the skills of graphicacy and to follow the four critical steps in analyzing an image.

Source: Politico

Source: Politico

Check out the Democratic cartoon collection here and the Republican cartoon collection here.

For other ideas about teaching with political cartoons, we recommend:

• The Design Of Political Cartoons
• Current Events Through Graphics
• Using Visual Language In The Classroom
• Students Rate The Candidates' Logos To Learn Visual Civics

Source: Politico

Source: Politico

Most College Athletes Are Failures — Learning From March Madness

Source: NCAA

Cheer for the stumbles

The he-shoulda-had-thats

And the tears that linger

For in those moments

Greatness lies

There you will find 

The provoked

The determined

The unified

It’s in those moments 

That champions are born

Most NCAA athletes are failures. They don't win the championship. They don't enter the pros. They don't take home a trophy at the end of the season. Only a handful of elite programs reap the acclaim and hardware that accompanies major spectacles like the men's NCAA basketball tournament. Most Division I, II, and III competitors are well-rounded college students giving a tremendous amount of effort for the love of their sport and their college.

Just watching one game of the March Madness media blitz is enough to make even a non-fan sympathetic to the kids with their heads hung low after a devastating loss. Anyone in an office pool knows that their bracket will be busted after the first weekend. There are no trophies for participation.

Yet these are the moments that turn kids into adults, that enforce life lessons of diligence and duty, grit and grace. That's why the March Madness tournament offers a great chance to talk to students about failure, about perseverance, and about process over product.

Ad agency Leo Burnett produced an award-winning TV spot for the NCAA last year called "Cheer." Since then, its aired over 850 times, and it's in heavy rotation again this week. It's easy to see why.

The ad is a brief masterpiece of narration and language to encourage everyone — athletes, kids, and adults — to relish the stumbles of life and the tears of as-yet-unmet goals. As the transcript reads, these moments turn disappointed players into "the provoked, the determined, the unified."

Source: NCAA

Teachers talk a lot about failure with their students, about the unreachable expectation of perfection and the inescapable necessity of hard work. This ad is a perfect companion for homeroom discussions, circle time, advisory conferences, or recess pick-me-ups.

For more ideas about teaching with the NCAA tournament, check out: "March Madness In The Classroom — Teaching With Tournament Graphics."

Kids Have Questions: Visualizations About Terrorism

Source: GTD WebGL Globe

With the constant discussion in the news about the high-tech use of social media by the terrorist group ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) to recruit members from around the globe, we know that many of our learners will have questions as we head into the new school year.

National newspapers show armed police in public places, and the threat of homegrown terrorism is a daily conversation from the networks to the Congressional floor, no matter what the media.

While we don’t want to make the discussion of terrorism a routine part of our classes, we do know that providing ways for students to process and understand what they see and hear can ease anxiety. Giving them concrete ways to visualize information provides opportunities to decipher the constant bombardment in the news on the subject.

Source: Periscopic

The World of Terror was produced by Periscopic to visualize the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database that catalogs terrorism events from 1970 to 2013. It is a fascinating interactive view that adjusts depending on the categories, including longest active group, recent activity, victims, geographical spread, and name of group. It’s color coded to show the number of incidents, and a click on the map provides more information depending on the selection criteria.

The GTD WebGL Globe from the University of Maryland is an interactive geographic visualization that plots location and frequency. The timeline of incidents sparks at different lengths in a neon show to pinpoint sites on a darkened globe. The globe itself can be rotated to view each year and the number of incidents that have occurred.

Source: GTD WebGL Globe

The last interactive graphic called Strange Bedfellows was produced by The Wall Street Journal. It shows how the spread of ISIS may be pushing enemies often at odds with each to work together against a common enemy.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The educational process is not just the prescribed curricula; it's about the need to help our learners understand to the world around them. Anytime we can provide multiple views to help them comprehend the complexities of world politics, the better off they are at making informed choices as young adults.

For other resources, please see:

• Explainer Videos: History, Religion, And Conflict 
• The Ides of March - With Syria, Not Shakespeare
• Talking To Our Kids About Syria - Visual Resources For Learning

Explainer Videos: History, Religion, And Conflict

Source: PHD Comics

In light of the world events, sometimes it is difficult for our students to comprehend just how deep-rooted in history conflicts reach. Many of them don’t have the background in history to understand the dispute over the control of Jerusalem or the origins of the caliphate in Islamic history. Even fewer realize that the region of the Middle East has been wrought with turmoil over land ownership dating back to the days of Mesopotamia.

Jerusalem Explained, produced by Ph.D. Comics, is one of the best videos that we’ve come across to illustrate the 3000-year-old history of The Temple Mount as one of the most important religious sites in the world. It describes the constant battle to dominate it. We’ve used this in the classroom with our students, and its clear, uncluttered narration of historical facts lays out this extraordinary fight for power of this piece of land in the name of religion.




The most recent conflict involving the militant group ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) began with the civil war in Syria and has now spilled over into Iraq, with the fear that it might incite further instability in other areas of the Middle East. One resource that is helpful here is the motion graphic entitled Iraq Explained: ISIS, Syria, and War, which provides an overview of the history of the conflict. It is a bit simplistic, for which it apologizes, but it's a good resource to use with upper elementary and middle school students.




Pair this with the video from The Wall Street Journal called Iraq: ISIS Sparks A Middle East Crisis, Explained to hear a different approach about the topic. Using multiple sources helps students see different points of view in delivering information. Students can look for similarities and discrepancies or take note of what types of facts were omitted. Various resources can clarify or call into question the accuracy of content, reinforcing news literacy and the role of journalism in reporting events.



Much has been documented regarding ISIS belonging to the Sunni sect of Islam with a mission to reestablish the Islamic caliphate of the medieval era. Both Sunnis and Shiites (Shia) belong to the Islamic faith. The struggle between these two groups occurred after the death of Muhammad in the sixth century in a dispute over who should be his successor. It’s about power, not religion. The difference is that Shiites believe the leader of the religion should be in the bloodline of Muhammad. A good resource to help clarify the difference between these two groups is What's the Difference Between Sunni and Shia Muslims?




Unfortunately, the media's use of the word "medieval" implies a return to the Dark Ages of violence and fear that characterized most of Christian Europe in the Middle Ages rather than the Islamic Empire. It is taken out of context. Ironically, the Islamic Empire of the medieval world was extremely advanced in trade, science, and medicine, and it was dedicated to the preservation of knowledge, with Golden Ages under both the Umayyads and the Abbasids in Spain and Iraq. Women and children had rights, and science was separate from religion, unlike the Christians in Europe who imprisoned Copernicus and Galileo for going against church doctrine. The Muslims showed tolerance to Christians and Jews, because they were considered “people of the book,” meaning the Bible. This in not what ISIS wants.

The context for content makes a difference, and we want our learners to know that. The deep-rooted conflicts of today are about gaining power, using religion for justification. We need learners to see the difference.

Veterans Day: Resources To Embrace, Engage, And Educate

Source: Wounded Warrior Project

We try to instill the patriotic spirit in our students for every national holiday. Many in our school community have family who served in World War II, the Korean War, and in Vietnam, and a few have family and friends who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’ve written about Veterans Day and service to the community; however, the following resources bring the reality of the wars in the Middle East closer to home.

Unfortunately, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have continued for over ten years, and it's hard to believe that every senior in high school has grown up with them since the second grade. Even though American combat operations in Iraq ended in 2010, there are approximately 48,000 troops still deployed there. For this reason, we pulled together a set of resources to show our students the lasting impact on those who serve our country.

The numbers from the The Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) for veterans returning from these two wars are staggering. As of August 2013 there are over 51,000 wounded, 320,000 with traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and 400,000 with post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD). The WWP has done an amazing job of helping injured veterans, and it's worth showing its video "The WWP - Year In Review 2012" to students. From its Media Room, students can watch other first-hand accounts about the help it gives to those in need.

Source: Team Rubicon

Team Rubicon (TR) is another organization helping hundreds of United States veterans returning home after fighting in ten years of war. TR unites military men and women with first responders who rapidly deploy emergency teams to disaster areas. It gives veterans an opportunity for continued service by helping them make the transition back to civilian life through repurposing their skills and experiences to help others.

Source: Team Rubicon

Since its formation in 2010, TR has impacted thousands of lives around the world, including right here in the United States. According to the data on its website, 92% of recently returning veterans state that service to their community is important to them. Many of our students were unaware that this organization existed.

Source: Team Rubican

The Story of Team Rubicon is a powerful look at how aiding others helped heal the wounds of war, some visible and some not. The call to serve helps the veterans as well as others by giving hope to them and those they aid in times of need.



Perhaps one of the most powerful visualization resources regarding veterans is the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) "The Wait We Carry." It is a tool designed to allow veterans, not the Veterans Administration, to tell their disability claims stories by completing a survey about their medical claims and the emotional and financial toll the process has taken on them. IAVA partnered with Periscopic, an industry-leading information visualization firm, and received a grant from the Knight Foundation to design this interactive tool.

Source: The Wait We Carry

IAVA created this to show that there is a person behind every piece of data. The numbers are staggering with regard to the wait time for medical help, and some did not make it as a result. This is one of those areas that, unless we are personally affected, gets lost. The information on "The Wait We Carry" wants to make the data personal.

Source: The Wait We Carry

Although the news continues to provide information about the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is often just straight reporting with little fanfare, unless it’s newsworthy such as the catastrophe in Benghazi. This is a far cry from the daily barrage of wounded soldiers shown nightly on television stations across the nation during the Vietnam War.

Perhaps it is why most adults go about their daily routines, and as a result our learners are removed as well. This disconnect is why we need to make sure our students connect. We need to take time out of the daily delivery of content to make sure that our learners appreciate and understand why it is so important to honor the men and women who serve this country. Sadly, if it were not for the private sector helping these veterans, the harm of war might be even more devastating.

Answering Questions About The National Debt

Source: The Guardian

One of our guiding questions in our history curriculum this year is, “How do economies affect the rise and fall of empires?” So in a room full of middle schoolers learning about the fall of the Roman Empire and its trouble funding its expenses, questions about the United States government defaulting on its debt were bound to come up in the class discussion.

We have to admit that our push to include current events on a regular basis has made our learners aware of the government shutdown, as well as the impending crisis looming over the country regarding the debt ceiling. While the United States is not Ancient Rome, the students were quick to see some comparisons in not being able to make payments on the government’s expenses.

Since financial literacy is also an integral part of our curriculum, we continually remind our students that you need to have the money to buy the things you want. Indeed, when they play The Stock Market Game, many do not touch their margins so as not to go into debt.

To help them better understand just how much money the government owes, we showed them this clear and concise infographic from NPR. This visual graph, called a tree map, made it easy for the students to see the breakdown of the $16.8 trillion debt for foreign and domestic expenses.

Source: NPR

For other posts on current events and financial issues, please take a look at:

• Visual Resources To Teach About The U.S. Government Shutdown
• Resource Roundup: Finance And Economic Motion Graphics
• Talking To Our Kids About Syria: Visual Resources For Learning

Talking To Our Kids About Syria - Visual Resources For Learning

Source: PBS

We’ve only been in school one week, and our students have already been probing about the situation in Syria. It’s dominated their Twitter feeds and topped the news rundown on their carpool radios. We ended up scrapping our lesson on Friday to explore the facts of the Syrian conflict with the students on iPads.

It can be challenging to explain the cultural and revolutionary dynamics in Syria without getting pinned into a “should we or shouldn’t we” intervention choice. At the same time, we found it disconcerting that three different kids in three different classes asked whether the President’s actions toward Syria would lead to World War Three. After a bit of questioning, it turned out they were all responding to a misquoting of remarks by the Syrian deputy foreign minister that had been hyped by cable news.


The syrian conflict, in 5 minutes from BOMBILLO AMARILLO ® on Vimeo.

Luckily, a host of trustworthy visual resources exist to help kids learn about Syria. These can fit into any course subject, from a social history of the tension to the science behind chemical weapons. Students can then make up their own minds regarding U.S. involvement.

The animated video above is the perfect place to start in letting students learn about the history of the conflict. Created by Wilson Liévano and designed by Bombillo Amarillo in association with Animated Press, the motion graphic is informative and age-appropriate. It offers a complete cultural timeline and an explanation of Bashar al-Assad's reactions to rebel resistance.

Source: The New York Times

For lesson plans and teacher tools, PBS lives up to its reputation for objective reporting with a "cheat sheet" of regional facts and a "What Would You Do?" simulation. The news site is an invaluable repository of classroom resources.

Source: Al Jazeera

The New York Times also presents an interactive feature on the "Evolution Of Syria's Conflict." It dates from last year, but it lays out some strong background details on the roots of the war. For infographics about possible partners in a military intervention, Visual.ly has gathered a helpful library of images, including the one above from Al Jazeera.

Source: PBS Newshour

Chemical weapons are bound to come up in conversations with students, because the President drew his "red line" at their use. Kids also worry about their gruesome effects. One approach to this discussion is via science. The diagram above from PBS Newshour outlines technology to survive possible exposure. Richard Johnson at the National Post also offers a detailed graphic that explains the different types of chemical agents that Syria might employ.

Source: National Post (full image)

Finally, refugees fleeing the Syria devastation are perhaps the most critical but least reported story. The video below from Simon Rawles, entitled "Syria's Lost Generation," is a good one to share with students, because it highlights the displacement and suffering of children their own ages and younger.


Syria's Lost Generation? from Simon Rawles on Vimeo.

Learning Environment - The Graphic Nature Of Animation

Source: The Forest

Even though we don't teach science, we find ourselves returning again and again to motion graphics that tell stories about the natural world. Maybe it's because our students' curiosity unfailingly becomes piqued by issues of earth fairness.

Children are the first to recycle and the first to insist on preserving the environment. They feel close to the outdoors, the grass, and the innocence of animals. They haven't yet been converted to the germaphobic paranoia of Purell. For kids, taking care of the earth is not a progressive versus conservative debate. It's a natural reaction to seeing litter in the garden or oil on the pond.

We've collected below a few of the best educational videos about world studies and environmental science. These infographics attest to the power of animation and computer models, as well as the need for coding and design training in our schools. More than anything, they speak to the effectiveness of visual communication over aural or literal.

Earth science courses could obviously make great hay of these clips. But any homeroom or social studies class could show them as Monday morning waker-uppers. They highlight urgent current events and speak to the role of the United States in the global community.

These films also reinforce the tools of graphicacy. They combine statistical data with arresting visual facts. They employ geography, too, in their representations of oceans, continents, and countries.

"The Forest," by Sasha Milic, reveals the impact of deforestation in Indonesia. The clip is stunning in its beauty and its narrative quality. It's a captivating feat of animation and storytelling. On the surface, it highlights a critical issue in a specific country, but more deeply, it offers an invitation to use eye-catching motion graphics in sharing revelations about science and the environment.


The Forest from Sasha Milic on Vimeo.

If teachers want students to create their own animated movies, we like the Easy Studio iPad app for producing quick, cute videos. It's not free, but it offers a host of features and shapes to generate surprisingly fluid clips. Check out this video for a preview of its functions.

If you're skeptical about the nonverbal communication power of graphics, check out the Water Saving Campaign clip posted on YouTube and Video Infographics. The narration is entirely in Arabic, but a viewer of any language can easily understand its message.

Take a look at these other masterful animations about the environment, all available from YouTube, Vimeo, or Video Infographics. They are as much works of art as works of science:

Ending Overfishing


Ending Overfishing from OCEAN2012 on Vimeo.


Bill McKibben's Thought Bubble: The Fight Of Our Time


Bill McKibben's Thought Bubble: The Fight of Our Time from Thought Café on Vimeo.


Let's Talk About Soil


Let's Talk About Soil - English from IASS Vimeo Channel on Vimeo.

News Literacy: It's Essential For Today's Learners

Source: Newseum Videos

Just how many times did the news media make mistakes in reporting the tragic events at the Boston Marathon or the ricin-laced letters to government officials? The answer is: too many. Between the implicit bias repeatedly stated on CNN that law enforcement officials were looking for a "dark skinned man, possibly African American" in a dark hooded sweatshirt, to the misinformation about the certainty of the letters testing positive for ricin, it is no wonder that our students were confused about the facts.

Source: Newseum

The Huffington Post reported Al Sharpton calling John King's comments on CNN about a "dark-skinned male" shameful, and Politico described it as "the media's marathon meltdown." The implicit bias in reporting the Boston teen, Salah Eddin Barhoum, as a bombing suspect on the Internet and the front page of the New York Post was front and center. This young man was afraid to leave his house. All of this harkens back to the Richard Jewell case at the summer 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, Georgia. Jewell went from heroic security guard to suspect and then back to hero. The media was ruthless in its pursuit of Jewell, who was innocent all along.

Given all of these scenarios, we decided to make a concerted effort to help our students better understand the news. To do this, we used several videos from the Newseum Digital Classroom. Each of the dozen video lessons available for education is an excellent starter for an open and frank discussion about problems in reporting. The site also provides a list of essential questions for each video to use as a guide.

The first video we showed was "Getting It Right." It documents many of the errors in fact that have occurred over the last several decades. The kids were in awe over the number of mistakes made by the media, and perhaps the most impressionable was the error about the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. They were equally receptive to the video on "Bias" and the often lack of objectivity in reporting the news.

Source: FastCoDesign

Most students, and perhaps adults, don't realize that the news media is controlled by a small group of companies. The competition for top ratings, for being first, or for getting exclusives can push the need to rush a story onto the air without due diligence in checking the facts.

The infographic from FastCoDesign shows that 90% of media is produced by a handful of "Mega Companies," making the competition for viewership fierce. The consolidation of the news industry went from 50 companies in 1983 to just 6 in 2011. Perhaps more outstanding is the statistic that roughly 232 media executives control the media for approximately 277 million Americans. That's power, and it's all the more reason that we need to have our students question the news for accuracy and integrity.

Today, these news agencies are not only competing against each other, but also against individuals using social media. We don't have to wait for the evening news to get the scoop. Most often, someone has already tweeted it out in real time. Take a look at the infographic "Social Media and News Consumption for 2012" from State of the Media, from the Pew Research Center's Project For Excellence in Journalism.

 

Source: State Of The Media

There's no denying that mobile devices and the social media factor have changed the way we get the news. Additionally, our students could easily be apart of the "news-making." The idea that information can surface from anywhere is all the more reason to constantly encourage our students to be vigilant about the source of the stories. This is no different from the skills we teach them when they're researching for our classes, and we should build these same skills into their learning to decipher the news for fact and fiction.

Interestingly enough, within one year, the outlook regarding the news has changed again. In the updated study, it's apparent that economics is a major player in the news industry. Have the students compare the "2013 The State of the News Media: The Challenges Intensify" infographic with that of 2012.

Lastly, the video "Why the News Isn't Really the News" is a thought-provoking look at how news agencies, or the "mega companies," get the latest information. It's a cynical look at the news-making from Ryan Holiday, the author of Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator. In the video he "shares a bit about how he has manipulated media to get bogus, anonymous stories to the front-page of news media outlets." He questions whether news stories can be trusted since the way news outlets get their stories is flawed. Holiday leaves us with the thought that "the news may not really be the news at all."


One thing is certain, if we want our students to contribute to the news or challenge its validity, we need to make it an active part of our classroom instruction on all grade levels. Questioning the news is current events at its core.

Other resources on news literacy:

• The News Literacy Project

• Schools Demanding News Literacy Lessons To Teach Students How To Find Fact Amid Fiction - The Washington Post