In these final days of summer vacation, here’s a quick Media Monday recommendation from the Left Coast: some websites from KQED, an NPR and PBS affiliate in northern California. I’m recommending their KQED Education site, and in particular the new KQED Teach site. I’m also recommending the KQED Art School site. These sites, with most of their materials also available on YouTube, are just overflowing with intriguing videos aimed at both educators and students. Watch out—once you and your kids start exploring, you may find yourselves awash in video goodness from which there’s no escape!

KQED Education on YouTube and online has a lot of helpful information on art, politics, race, science, and media. Every time I look at it I find something pretty cool that I want to share with my daughter.

New this summer: a separate site called KQED Teach that has online, self-paced courses to help educators develop media literacy. I think many of the lessons would be useful for middle and high school students who want to create innovative multi-media projects, but the assumption when you sign up is that you’re an educator, not a student. The courses are designed to help participants:

participate in online communities
learn to decipher and manipulate digital imagery
gain competence in making and sharing original media

Courses are free, and the introductory material for each module is available on YouTube, as well as through the KQED website. But you can’t fully participate in the learning without signing up and logging in.

KQED Art School has an inspiring number and variety of videos for kids—and many made by kids. In the videos, you can find how-tos related to the arts, interviews with adult and young artists, and a lot more. The arts represented include painting, animation, photography, dance, fashion, sound recording, ceramics, puppetry, printmaking, quilting, political activism through art, and more. I really cannot get enough of these videos, most of which are 5–8 minutes long. Here are a few recent examples to brighten and enlighten:

Shelley Sperry