Marisa Naughton
Senior Director, Marketing & Communications, Common Sense
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Common Sense Media's Vice President of Education Programs shares her thoughts on media literacy, mental health, and ChatGPT.
Meet Kelly Mendoza, Our Expert Supporting K–12 and Early Childhood Educators
Common Sense Media's Vice President of Education Programs shares her thoughts on media literacy, mental health, and ChatGPT.
Topics:
EdTech
Quality Media
Teacher Training and Professional Development
Teaching with Technology
Technology in the Classroom
Common Sense News
Our "Meet the SME Series" uncovers our team's superpowers and showcases the unique human talent behind our mission to improve the media landscape for kids and families. Read our first installment here.
Kelly Mendoza oversees content and strategy for Common Sense Education, including their award-winning Digital Citizenship Curriculum. Her goal is to create curricula and programs that help students think critically about the media they consume and create, and to help schools establish a positive culture around media and technology. She also has developed educational resources for Classroom Champions, Resilient Educator, Lucas Learning, Media Education Lab, and PBS's Frontline.
Tell our readers how you came to this role. What attracted you to Common Sense Media?
I've always been interested in the power of the media to shape our perspectives and our identities. My background is in media literacy education. I was working on my PhD at Temple University at the same time that social media and smartphones were going mainstream. Through my work with the Media Education Lab led by Dr. Renee Hobbs, which at the time was at Temple University, we developed media literacy curricula and conducted outreach to schools to implement media literacy learning.
Common Sense was the only organization doing what they do, and I really admired their work. The idea of reaching parents, educators, and students in a bigger way was exciting to me, and had so much potential beyond what I felt I could achieve at a university. I joined the team in 2010 and have had the opportunity to work on important programs in the area of digital media as well as its impact on students and families.
There is amazing research happening in this field, but oftentimes it's only visible in academic circles. It's important to me that we translate and distribute new findings in a way that influences curricula, programs, and resources for educators, parents, and kids.
How do you define media literacy in today's environment?
Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. It is an integral part of technology and learning, and it requires many different skill sets. We want kids to be able to think critically about what they see, read, and hear.
Media literacy is one of the six core topics and competencies we teach students within Common Sense's K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum. The Curriculum continues to evolve to reflect the rapidly changing landscape. It's been rewarding to see progress as we integrate tech more and more into teaching, and try to harness the benefits but minimize the drawbacks of media and tech in kids' lives.
One thing I love about our whole-community approach to the Digital Citizenship Curriculum is that we always provide resources for parents within our lessons. We also have family engagement materials for schools, such as materials to host parent education workshops . We know from research that when parents are more engaged with the media and their children, it really does have a positive impact. Having a family movie night, or asking your teen to share with you what they're seeing on social media—even just funny videos—can help with media literacy too. It opens up important conversations and the chance to ask questions, and it keeps the lines of communication open.
Why is Common Sense's work with educators so important?
Media literacy is an integral part of educating kids. Media is ubiquitous, and we need to teach kids how to "read" websites, apps, videos, etc. to encourage students to ask questions about what they see, read, and hear, and to think critically about the information and messages that surround them every day. Media literacy is also required by more and more states because it is increasingly being recognized as an essential academic and life skill.
Educators have a lot on their plates, and they face many stressors—especially now. We want to equip a typical classroom teacher to easily help their students learn about these concepts in an engaging, relevant way that has real-world application. Media literacy is an essential set of skills for students to thrive in today's world.
What's your take on ChatGPT's impact for educators?
The trend of AI content creation is completely shaking up a lot of industries, including education. Things are changing fast, and there's really no clear answer. We're seeing some districts ban ChatGPT, and some embrace it. However, AI functionality is being integrated into search tools, workflows, and edtech tools, so the issue is beyond using ChatGPT to write an essay. It's the Wild West right now, and although I'm interested in the potential of AI for learning, I'm concerned about the technology's unreliability and lack of safety.
What I find really fascinating is the creative, artistic side of AI. It's creating another area of consideration for digital citizenship that I hope to explore.
What's coming up for you and your team?
We're learning a lot about mental health from what we're hearing from schools, and it's a huge issue we are grappling with. The U.S. surgeon general called mental health the public health crisis of our time. So many kids are reporting symptoms of anxiety and depression, but the average classroom teacher is not trained to address these challenges.
Schools need more support, and we partnered with the forthcoming Center for Digital Thriving at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on this new set of lessons and resources for schools that foster students' digital well-being. We've also been doing market research into what schools and teachers need now and exploring a lot of big questions such as, what are the current challenges and pain points schools are facing? And how can Common Sense best support educators and students with those challenges?
What was your favorite movie when you were a kid, and why?
There are so many, but I would say Labyrinth by Jim Henson, with Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie. I can't tell you how many times I watched that movie. It's the ultimate coming-of-age story in which a girl does have to grow up, yet she keeps this creative, fun side through her adventures in the labyrinth. There's even a little bit of darkness and danger in it. This is pre-digital animation using puppets, costumes, and real-life sets. And surprisingly, my tween daughter also likes Labyrinth. It's been great sharing it with her.
Check out more of Kelly's perspectives:
Our "Meet the SME Series" uncovers our team's superpowers and showcases the unique human talent behind our mission to improve the media landscape for kids and families. Read our first installment here.
Kelly Mendoza oversees content and strategy for Common Sense Education, including their award-winning Digital Citizenship Curriculum. Her goal is to create curricula and programs that help students think critically about the media they consume and create, and to help schools establish a positive culture around media and technology. She also has developed educational resources for Classroom Champions, Resilient Educator, Lucas Learning, Media Education Lab, and PBS's Frontline.
Tell our readers how you came to this role. What attracted you to Common Sense Media?
I've always been interested in the power of the media to shape our perspectives and our identities. My background is in media literacy education. I was working on my PhD at Temple University at the same time that social media and smartphones were going mainstream. Through my work with the Media Education Lab led by Dr. Renee Hobbs, which at the time was at Temple University, we developed media literacy curricula and conducted outreach to schools to implement media literacy learning.
Common Sense was the only organization doing what they do, and I really admired their work. The idea of reaching parents, educators, and students in a bigger way was exciting to me, and had so much potential beyond what I felt I could achieve at a university. I joined the team in 2010 and have had the opportunity to work on important programs in the area of digital media as well as its impact on students and families.
There is amazing research happening in this field, but oftentimes it's only visible in academic circles. It's important to me that we translate and distribute new findings in a way that influences curricula, programs, and resources for educators, parents, and kids.
How do you define media literacy in today's environment?
Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. It is an integral part of technology and learning, and it requires many different skill sets. We want kids to be able to think critically about what they see, read, and hear.
Media literacy is one of the six core topics and competencies we teach students within Common Sense's K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum. The Curriculum continues to evolve to reflect the rapidly changing landscape. It's been rewarding to see progress as we integrate tech more and more into teaching, and try to harness the benefits but minimize the drawbacks of media and tech in kids' lives.
One thing I love about our whole-community approach to the Digital Citizenship Curriculum is that we always provide resources for parents within our lessons. We also have family engagement materials for schools, such as materials to host parent education workshops . We know from research that when parents are more engaged with the media and their children, it really does have a positive impact. Having a family movie night, or asking your teen to share with you what they're seeing on social media—even just funny videos—can help with media literacy too. It opens up important conversations and the chance to ask questions, and it keeps the lines of communication open.
Why is Common Sense's work with educators so important?
Media literacy is an integral part of educating kids. Media is ubiquitous, and we need to teach kids how to "read" websites, apps, videos, etc. to encourage students to ask questions about what they see, read, and hear, and to think critically about the information and messages that surround them every day. Media literacy is also required by more and more states because it is increasingly being recognized as an essential academic and life skill.
Educators have a lot on their plates, and they face many stressors—especially now. We want to equip a typical classroom teacher to easily help their students learn about these concepts in an engaging, relevant way that has real-world application. Media literacy is an essential set of skills for students to thrive in today's world.
What's your take on ChatGPT's impact for educators?
The trend of AI content creation is completely shaking up a lot of industries, including education. Things are changing fast, and there's really no clear answer. We're seeing some districts ban ChatGPT, and some embrace it. However, AI functionality is being integrated into search tools, workflows, and edtech tools, so the issue is beyond using ChatGPT to write an essay. It's the Wild West right now, and although I'm interested in the potential of AI for learning, I'm concerned about the technology's unreliability and lack of safety.
What I find really fascinating is the creative, artistic side of AI. It's creating another area of consideration for digital citizenship that I hope to explore.
What's coming up for you and your team?
We're learning a lot about mental health from what we're hearing from schools, and it's a huge issue we are grappling with. The U.S. surgeon general called mental health the public health crisis of our time. So many kids are reporting symptoms of anxiety and depression, but the average classroom teacher is not trained to address these challenges.
Schools need more support, and we partnered with the forthcoming Center for Digital Thriving at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on this new set of lessons and resources for schools that foster students' digital well-being. We've also been doing market research into what schools and teachers need now and exploring a lot of big questions such as, what are the current challenges and pain points schools are facing? And how can Common Sense best support educators and students with those challenges?
What was your favorite movie when you were a kid, and why?
There are so many, but I would say Labyrinth by Jim Henson, with Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie. I can't tell you how many times I watched that movie. It's the ultimate coming-of-age story in which a girl does have to grow up, yet she keeps this creative, fun side through her adventures in the labyrinth. There's even a little bit of darkness and danger in it. This is pre-digital animation using puppets, costumes, and real-life sets. And surprisingly, my tween daughter also likes Labyrinth. It's been great sharing it with her.
Check out more of Kelly's perspectives:
