When Lynbrook High School Library Media teacher Amy Ashworth attended California Library School Association teacher-librarian conferences, she started to brainstorm ways in which FUHSD could adopt CLSA’s mission of promoting media literacy.
Networking with fellow teacher librarians at CLSA conferences introduced her to the News Literacy Project. The News Literacy Project was founded in 2008 as a nonpartisan education nonprofit dedicated to incorporate media literacy education in United States high schools. Their driving mission is to “ensure all students are skilled in news literacy before they graduate high school.”
As a teacher librarian at LHS, Ashworth spends time teaching students to identify credible web sources for research and other media literacy content. A group of FUHSD educators, Ashworth included, applied for a grant at the News Literacy Project in June of 2024. Upon receiving the three-year $30,000 grant, FUHSD was accepted into the News Literacy Project’s Fellowship Program to support the development of media literacy education.
This is on par with what Ashworth hopes to accomplish, starting small with district-wide surveys and data collection. Ashworth hopes that these surveys will shine light on which departments have already implemented media literacy curriculum and how to best support their practices.
“I think media literacy is important because we are in the information age,” Ashworth said. “We have access to so many different places where we are accessing information, and it’s imperative that we have skills to help us to navigate that world ethically and mindfully and safely.”
Ashworth comments that her personal involvement in the News Literacy Project has assisted her in crafting more engaging presentations in teaching media literacy at LHS, working closely with Cupertino High School Library Media teacher Julia Hedstrom.
Upon receiving an email a while back inviting FUHSD to apply for the News Literacy Project grant, Hedstrom and Ashworth volunteered themselves to this endeavor.
Hedstrom believes people of all ages are vulnerable to misinformation, hence involving herself in the News Literacy Project.
As teacher librarians, Hedstrom and Ashworth collaborate with classroom teachers to provide students with reliable and credible sources, such as FUHSD student research resources. FUHSD Chief Technology Officer Menko Johnson said in an email that he is the administrator supporting the News Literacy Project team. Johnson is a close colleague with the FUHSD Library Technology Teacher team, of which Ashworth and Hedstrom are members — both of whom later approached Johnson for the News Literacy Project Grant.
Johnson has also been an advocate for adapting district curricula following the plethora of AI tools at students’ disposal in recent years. FUHSD has ventured to establish AI task forces and committees to address this.
“I just feel this generation is facing a unique challenge as all information is broken into tiny chunks and remixed and reshared so rapidly that it’s difficult to know what is true and what isn’t and according to whom,” Johnson said in an email. “With AI generating images and text as well, this question becomes ever more essential.”
