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Armenian Delegation to the United States Hones Skills in Media Literacy Education
27 October, 2017, 01:31
The delegation of Armenian media specialists and educators is back in Armenia after a working visit to the United States from September 27 to October 7, where they learned about the latest trends and practices of media literacy education in the greater Boston area, Massachusetts. Hosted by the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association, the visit was initiated by USAID Armenia and supported by the Open World Leadership Program, a U.S. Congress-funded initiative that brings emerging leaders from participating countries to the United States to give them firsthand exposure to the American system of participatory democracy and free enterprise.
The goal of the “Media Literacy Education in Schools” program was to expose the Armenian delegation to the U.S. experience and different approaches of teaching media literacy in schools and universities, including the regulations and policies that support media literacy education in the United States, as well as develop a network of media literacy proponents and educators for further collaboration.
After a day of orientation lectures and a visit to the Newseum in Washington D.C., the delegation embarked on the thematic part of the program organized by the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association (CYSCA). The program included meetings and class observations at a number of schools and colleges, including Cambridge Public Schools, Emerson College, Swampscott High school, Lesley University, and Wheelock College; visits to the MIT Media Lab and the National Public Service Broadcaster affiliate WGBH; meetings with non-governmental proponents of media literacy education (Media Literacy Now), as well as high level meetings with Massachusetts State Representatives, David M. Rogers and Jonathan Hecht, and Cambridge Vice Mayor, the Honorable Marc McGovern.
Armenian participants also had a chance to visit the office of Armenian Weekly of Hairenik Association and the Armenian Mirror Spectator, the first English language Armenian weekly in the United States, as well as meet with Armenian-American journalist Stephen Kurkjian, winner of Pulitzer Prize and formerly a member of award-winning The Boston Globe Investigative Spotlight Team.
Toward the end of the visit delegates shared their experiences during the visit, as well as their thoughts on the opportunities and challenges of media literacy education in Armenia during a panel discussion co-sponsored by CYSCA and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research/Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lecture Series on Contemporary Armenian Issues.
The Armenian delegation included Siranush Galstyan, smart room coordinator, Children of Armenia Fund (COAF); Nina Ganjalyan, smart room coordinator, COAF; Lusine Grigoryan, media literacy specialist, Media Initiatives Center; Armine Khloyan, sociology teacher/head of robotics lab, National Engineering University of Armenia (Foundation); Shushanik Ohanyan, project manager, Goris Press Club NGO; and Anahit Khachatryan, facilitator for the group, currently project management specialist at USAID Armenia.
Check our page for more photos from this interesting visit, and learn more about the program through the press coverage links below: