Cen Campbell - Becoming a Media Mentor: A Guide for Working with Children and Families

2 | Media Mentorship
Research and Implications for Libraries

3 | Media Mentorship and the Three Cs
Content, Context, and the Child

5 | Media Mentors
Working with Parents, Families, and Community Needs

APPENDIXES

CHIP DONOHUE, PHD

Dean of Distance Learning and Continuing Education, Erikson Institute Director, Technology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center, Erikson Institute Senior Fellow and Advisor, Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Childrens Media at Saint Vincent College

I recently watched a video on Facebook in which well-known celebrities thanked a particular teacher who helped them along the way and influenced who they became. It got me thinking about teachers, role models, and mentors and how these important adults can impact the life of a child, never knowing just how great a difference theyve made. Fred Rogers said:

Each one of us here has people who have helped us come this far in our lives. Nobody gets to be a competent human being without the investment of others. (Fred Rogers, keynote address, Annual Conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Anaheim, California, 1993)

Who helped you navigate your childhood? Perhaps it was a parent or sibling, a friend, or a neighbor. Maybe it was a teacher, a coach, or a librarian.

Every child needs a media mentor. Every parent or caregiver needs a media mentor. But in the fast-paced digital age, where do we find these trusted tour guides and role models? In the past few years Ive been delighted to see the emergence of media mentors for children and parents in many settings, including libraries, childrens museums, out-of-school-time programs, child-care programs, schools and early childhood settings, and home visiting programs.

Media mentorship is being embraced by librarians and literacy specialists, childrens museum staff, early childhood educators, child life specialists, pediatric health providers, home visitors, parent educators, and others who support children and their families. Ive come to understand that media mentors come in all shapes and sizes, from formal and informal learning environments, with diverse academic backgrounds and preparation, and with a wide range of attitudes and dispositions about the role of technology and digital media in the lives of children. But what does it take to become a trusted source, role model, and media mentor who can guide children, parents, caregivers, and families as they select and use media?

In this wonderful and timely book for librarians and literacy specialists, Cen Campbell (my media mentor) and Claudia Haines describe what media mentorship is and what it can look like in libraries. They offer tangible and authentic examples and case studies of what it looks like when librarians take on the role of media mentor for children, parents, and the community. Theyve assembled a tool kit for would-be media mentors to help support children, parents, caregivers, and families in their media use and choices.

Campbell and Haines have identified trends in digital media that have had or will have an impact on libraries and librarians, including apps, e-books, and multitouch screens as well as coding and makerspaces that promote the child as a media creator, not just a media consumer. They have described what it means to be a digital-age librarian working at the intersection of child development, early learning, literacy development, and childrens media. And they have reminded us that librarians are well prepared and uniquely suited for media mentorship, with knowledge and skills in curating and evaluating high-quality, age-appropriate media, matching media tools and content to the individual child, and modeling effective, intentional, and appropriate use of all types of media with children.

Twenty-first-century learners need twenty-first-century teachers and role models. They need media mentors who have strengthened their own digital media literacy and are curious about the when, how, where, and who of new media tools. They need media innovators who want to address access and equity issues, promote language and literacy, open new doors for communicating with families, and create new opportunities for technology-mediated professional learning through collaborating with other librarians and connecting with media mentors in informal and formal settings.