These are the projects I'm working on now. I also list some others that I have been involved in over the last 20 years, that I think have made some contribution to the development of education for media literacy.

2009
I'm part of the research team for Reframing Literacy, a BFI/UKLA/CLPE project led by Dr Jackie Marsh with funding from the QCA.

I am working for Ofcom as a consultant to help develop a teaching resource on media literacy for people with learning disabilities. The resource is being piloted during the academic year 2008-2009; its working title is Switch On! Media Literacy for Beginners.

I am the Development Officer and a member of the Executive of the Media Education Association (MEA), a subject association for media teachers at all levels and sectors of 3-19 education in England.

2008
I worked with the OCNLR to develop seven units of assessment for media literacy at Entry level 3 in the Foundation Tier for Learning. Centres registered with OCNLR can use these units and should contact them to find out more. The units are based on the topics addressed in Switch On! (see my 2009 project with Ofcom, above).

I was a Project Leader on the News Network, an English and Media Centre (EMC) project funded by the Training and Development Agency (TDA) to explore new approaches to teachers' continuing professional development (CPD). The News Network's first phase involved five London schools and nine teachers, was focused on teaching critical approaches to news media at KS3 (ages 11-14) and was completed at the end of June 2008. I am now working with the EMC and the MEA to raise finance to extend the project into a second year.

1999-2007
I initiated and led the BFI's short films project, which continues under the title Reframing Literacy. During this period the BFI developed and published seven teaching resources for primary and secondary schools, based on high quality short films sourced from around the world. From 2005-2007 the teaching approaches to film and literacy exemplified in the resources were disseminated to over sixty local authorities in England through a training scheme for "lead practitioners". An evaluation of this scheme by Professor Jackie Marsh and Dr Eve Bearne suggests that critical analysis of film makes a significant contribution to literacy.

2005-7
I was General Secretary of the 8-nation Steering Group for the European Charter for Media Literacy, which aims to build consensus and networking around a common concept of media literacy in Europe. Click here to see and sign the Charter.

2005
Watch This! was a BFI-Barbican debate on the question "are there films that all children should see by the time they're 14?" held on 13th July 2005. Click here to see the "top ten" and "top fifty" lists of films for children recommended by experts on children's films from across Europe.

2002-04
I was a member of the steering group for Meda-Educ, an EC-funded consortium setting up an online observatory for media education in Europe and directed the international conference, Media Education in Europe, Belfast, 13-15 May 2004, as part of the Media-Educ project. Click here for the conference report.

2002
Persistence of Vision, a joint BFI-Tate Modern seminar chaired by Sir Christopher Frayling, on Creativity, Young People and the Moving Image in October 2002. Click here for the edited highlights.

2000-2002
The School-Cinema Project in Devon was funded by DfES Partners in Study Support, and enabled two rural schools to develop after-school screenings with local art cinemas. Click here for the report of the project, You Might Change the Way people Think.

1999-2001
I was co-convenor of the BFI/Northern Ireland Film Commission Education Policy Working Group, 200. Click here for the policy document A Wider Literacy, which proposes a programme for the development of media education in Northern Ireland.

1998-9
I was secretary of the Film Education Working Group, convened at the
request of the DCMS, 1998-1999, which produced the report Making Movies Matter, with 22 recommendations for the development of moving image education in the UK. Click here to download the report.

1993
The Commission of Inquiry into English: Balancing Literature, Language and Media in the National Curriculum, at the National Film Theatre in November 1993. The transcript of the Commission was published by the BFI in 1994 as Report of the Commission of Inquiry into English.

1991-2
I was one of the Course Team Leaders developing Media Education: An Introduction, a distance-learning in-service teacher training pack co-developed by the BFI and the Open University in 1991-2. The course reader of the same title, edited by Manuel Alvarado and Oliver Boyd-Barrett, is still a good introduction to the field.

1990
The first global conference on media education, New Directions in Media Education, in Toulouse, France, in July 1990 was attended by 177 delegates from 45 countries. The conference report, New Directions: Media Education Worldwide edited by Evelyne Bevort, Josiane Savino and myself, was published in both French and English by the BFI, CLEMI and UNESCO in 1992.

1986-1989
The BFI Primary Media Education Working Group, which published Primary Media Education: A Curriculum Statement (BFI 1989): the UK's first comprehensive outline of a media education curriculum for primary age children.