Workshops

Social & emotional learning with kids’ media (90-minutes to 3-day workshop)

Many are concerned about children and adolescents’ wellbeing even prior to the pandemic as their use of media grows. This hands-on workshop comes to show how to address issues of media addiction, cyberbullying, internet safety and misinformation, through engaging and playful activities based on 20 years of research at the Media Education Lab. Whether children, youth or adult media mentors, participants will explore their own media use first and how their complex relations of love and hate of popular culture shape their consumption habits. Then, moving to collaborative work, participants will collaboratively create a PSA using a media platform of their choice (video, website, song, image, social media posts, etc…). As part of the production, the participants will inquire about another method of coping with various beneficial and harmful effects of media. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to have a media artifact to highlight to others as well as to remind them of various aspects and methods to address social and emotional wellbeing with digital media.

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® for nonviolent communication (90-minute to 3-day workshop)

In this hands-on workshop, we will practice the use of LEGO® as a form of enabler for Nonviolent Communication in a team. With a humanistic approach to media and play, we will practice the four elements of Nonviolent Communication (neutral observations, expressing own emotions, defining own needs and requesting feasible actions). Participants will be able to experience the various strategies of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to create a more agile team workflow. Depending on the length of the workshop, participants will be able to do apply Nonviolent Communication as a reflective practice with themselves and then deploy it in their teamwork in the workshop and beyond. By the end of the workshop, the participants will be able to recognize the four Nonviolent Communication practices and incorporate them into play strategies and teamwork. Typically, this workshop is offered at the workplace with co-workers or colleagues to enhance collaboration and transparency.

Exploring digital empathy & civic media (90-minute to 3-day workshop)

Following my research on Digital Empathy and inclusive practices of media production, this workshop explores with participants the affordances and challenges of digital media to connect with others and drive social change. During the workshop participants will learn and apply the five principles of civic media (Participatory, Accesibility, Reflection, Impactf, & Sustainability – based on the PARIS model of Dr. Friesem, 2021). Participants will choose their platform and medium to create with as they go through stages of production and learning various techniques to be socially, emotionally and cognitively more connected to each other and their community. Depending on the length of the workshop, participants will be able to do 1-3 iterations of the media practice applying the civic media PARIS model and empathizing with each other as well as looking beyond the workshop. By the end of the workshop, the participants will be able to share their collaborative work and lead more participants in the practice of Digital Empathy and civic media. The workshop can be offered either as an in-person, fully online or hybrid per request.

Youth media & community engagement (3-hour to weeklong workshop)

This production-based workshop can be tailored toward multiple audiences, including children, youth, instructors or community members. Depending on the length of the workshop, participants can delve deeper into the practice of conveying a mediated message to address social change and community needs. During the workshop participants will learn the stages of UNISEF Theory of Change. The youth will start with an inquiry of their community and move to produce influential media to inspire civic engagement with their age group. As a production workshop, we will cover the pre-production planning, production and all the technical aspects, and finish with post-production and screening the final product to the community. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to transfer the practice of producing media as community engagement from theory to reality by mobilizing others to join in creating solutions to their community needs.

Truth, Lies & Accuracy in the digital age (90-minute to 3-day workshop)

This hands-on workshop is designed to develop better skills in finding accurate information and assessing its reliability. Based on information and media literacy curriculum that I developed at Columbia College Chicago and wrote in an article published in 2019 in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, this workshop will provide a plethora of resources to analyze and evaluate media messages from lateral reading to the media literacy app. During the workshop, participants will learn to locate information using various academic and non academic sources online; evaluate their findings using digital tools to check for their reliability and validity; synthesize data from different sources using digital devices; and sharing the results with colleagues and patients in a respectful and thoughtful way. By the end of this workshop, participants will know how to search, analyze, consolidate and communicate data from online sources.