The Nova Scotia Department of Education and Culture conducts initial leadership workshops for board implementation support teams. Summer institutes are also offered each year. Implementation of new curricula is the responsibility of school boards.
In spring 1997, the department provided a week of implementation workshops in English Language Arts (including a media component) to leadership teams representing each of the province's school boards.
During the 1997/98 school year, the regional school boards of Nova Scotia conducted implementation workshops for teachers that included media literacy components.
Since the new Atlantic English Language Arts curriculum was implemented, professional development has focused on developing the capacity of students and teachers to "construct" media, rather than taking the "deconstruction" approach. This has been encouraged and made possible through the Information Economy Initiative (IEI) which also made possible the installation of $36.5 million of technology into all Nova Scotia schools, (Grades 7-9). The equipment encompasses powerful computers, Internet connections and production technology, including digital still cameras, video cameras and editing software. The Department of Education sees many opportunities here for professional development related to media literacy. Several summer institutes and professional development events have been held throughout the province, including training in Web awareness through a provincial licensing agreement with the Media Awareness Network for its Web Awareness Canada program.
The department evaluates and authorizes learning resources to support curriculum implementation. These include print, visual texts, multimedia and computer software. Criteria for selecting resources are clearly articulated and include evaluation for bias. Individual schools decide which resources to select and how to use their resource credit allocation. As a result, some schools support media education more than others.
Last updated, July 2002
