Friday, February 1, 2008

Blog Created

It's been a long time coming, and HOME, Inc. now has a blog. This blog will feature frequent updates on what's going on with our various projects. For those that are just finding us now, you can take a look at our website: www.homeinc.org, or simply continue reading.

HOME, Inc. ("Here-in Our Motives Evolve") is a 30-year old, non-profit organization.

Our mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of young people.

We teach video production and media analysis to educators and youth to foster confident, creative, individuals with the ability to think for themselves.

Our programs help students develop creative media projects that foster teamwork and communication skills. HOME's media projects and programs focus on teacher and student collaboration and the ability to effectively evaluate media messages, in order to enhance critical thinking skills.

1 comment:

Alan Michel said...

It is nice to see the video and blog up. I just came from two days of conferences at Boston High Schools where we had a chance to see the work of students, from the Media and Technology High School , and some of the other media programs ( Fast Forward) and U. Mass. programs. It was great to see the work of others and to take the pulse " of the field locally. It was clear that students were struggling to find their own voice, and it was a welcomed struggle, the kind that yields great results and accomplishment. I thought the interchange was particularly healthy and brought our small group advocatating for teen voices to the forefront for a snapshot of where things are now. There are some great opportunities for collaboration and support among us.

One of the key questions that was discussed was how to measure our progress. I pointed out that we already have the tools to measure the effectiveness of media literacy
to evaluate it's appropriateness in schools.

We can easily track over time and compare student attendance, grades, and MCAS scores. As an example, we tracked a small group of students over three years at one of our schools and found that our students' performance on Language Arts MCAS was 25% higher than the general student body and their attendance at school improved significantly after they began participating in their media courses.

Of course, not all media programs are the same. For example, Renee Hobbs from Temple University, pointed out at her keynote yesterday, that showing video or using media in teaching is no guarantee that students' academic performance is going to improve.

Active engagement, where students are creating, investigating and learning, is the key and solid supportive adult, teen and peer relationships are central to risk taking that allows students and teachers to reach beyond their comfort zone and expand their capacities.

Let's keep up the good work and dialog.