Frank Baker SC Artist-in-Residence Roster #3137


EXPANDED BIO
Frank W. Baker is a graduate of the University of Georgia (ABJ, Journalism). He worked in television news from 1977 to 1986, at stations in South Carolina, Maryland and Florida. In 1987, he joined the Orange County (Orlando, FL) Public School System as an administrator in the areas of Instructional TV/Distance Education. While there, he collaborated with both Time Warner Cable and The Orlando Sentinel's Newspapers-In-Education (NIE) to bring media literacy education to teachers and students in the nation’s 16th largest school district. (See 1995 article from Orlando Sentinel; 1996 article from Cable In The Classroom magazine.) Upon returning to South Carolina in 1997, he co-taught a college level media literacy course for educators and developed a nationally recognized media literacy resource website.

In 1999, he chaired the National Media Literacy Conference (St. Paul MN). That same year, his content analysis of all 50 state's teaching standards  revealed that almost all state's standards included "elements of media literacy." He is past president of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (formerly The Alliance For A Media Literate America) and past vice-president of the National Telemedia Council (NTC).

He is a frequent presenter at schools and conferences across the  United States. He has presented at the national conferences of the International Reading Association, The National Middle Schools Assn., and the National Council of Teachers of English.

Frank worked for the South Carolina Educational Television (PBS network) from February 1998-mid June 2003. 

He has assisted the SC State Department of Education's English Language Arts and Visual & Performing Arts teams in revising the state teaching standards to include elements of media literacy.

He has been published in Education Week, Cable in The Classroom, Telemedium (The Journal of Media Literacy), Middle Ground: The Magazine of Middle Level Education, Library Media Connection (LMC) and Screen Education (Australia). 

He served on the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) "Commission on Media" from 2005-2008. Currently, is a member of the newly formed "Media and Digital Literacies Collaborative."

He has hosted webinars for NCTE, ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development), and
the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE).

His first book, "Coming Distractions: Questioning Movies," was published by Capstone Press (2007). In June 2007, Frank's work was recognized by the National PTA and the National Cable TV Assn. with the national "Leaders In Learning" award. He contributed a lesson plan to: "Lesson Plans for Creating Media-Rich Classrooms" (NCTE 2007). His second book, "Political Campaigns & Political Advertising: A Media Literacy Guide"  was published by Greenwood Press (2009). He authored a chapter on media literacy in the ASCD text "Curriculum 21: Essential Education for A Changing World" (2010). His third book, "Media Literacy In The K-12 Classroom" was published by ISTE in January 2012.

In the Winter of 2009, he traveled to Singapore to consult with the Ministry of Education on incorporating media literacy in the schools and has reviewed their media literacy curriculum materials.

He is a regular contributor to USA TODAY's Teacher's Lounge education blog.

Currently, he is an educational consultant.