The invitation in my mailbox said:

” The U.S. Embassy in The Hague, in cooperation with Netwerk Mediawijsheid, organizes a study tour to the U.S. on “Digital & Media Literacy Education”, taking place from December 7-21, 2019. This study tour falls under the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program.

Together with Netwerk Mediawijsheid, we have selected a group of twelve experts on digital and/or media literacy we believe to have the skills, experience, and influence to make a valuable contribution to discussions on these topics, both during the study tour and after. You are one of the experts we would hereby like to invite to join this study tour. We hope you are available and willing to participate”. I thought about it for one second and “yes sure I would like to join!”.

The general purpose of the IVLP program

The general purpose of the IVLP is to cultivate lasting relationships between current and emerging professionals around the world and their American counterparts and provide opportunities for foreign opinion makers to gain firsthand knowledge about U.S. society, culture and politics.

The specific purpose of our IVLP program on Digital and media literacy

The Department of State had outlined four specific objectives for the project for us (1 to 4). To match the goals of our study tour we made a numerous number of visits in Washington, Kalamazoo and Providence. Although some visits matched more than one goal, I categorized each visit to a specific goal for my report. Therefore my report consists of 4 different chapters (1 to 4) with in each chapter the lessons learned for that specific goal.

1.Examine public-private and public-public partnership opportunities in teaching digital and media literacy skills in secondary school curricula. Here you can read about the lessons learned from the visits to:

• World Bank, Washington DC.
• New America, Washington DC.
• The Aspen Institute, Washington DC.
• The Public Media Network,
• CS4RI Summit, Computer Science for Rhode Island, Providence.

2.Learn best practices within secondary school education from curriculum design to teacher training. Here you can read about the lessons learned from the visits to:

• Edison Academy, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia.
• Albert Einstein High School, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland.
• O.U! (Youth Opportunities Unlimited), Kalamazoo.
• Loy Norrix High School, editorial board Knight Life,
• Portage public school, Kalamazoo.

3.Examine different educational methods that teach digital and media literacy skills and the use of new technologies in the classroom. Here you can read about the lessons learned from the visits to:

• The News literacy project, Washington DC.
• The Newseum, Washington DC.
• Western Michigan University, School of Communications, Kalamazoo.
• The Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island, Providence.

4.Provide participants with a better understanding of the differences and similarities between the U.S. and the Dutch education systems, including cultural activities. Here you can read about the lessons learned from the visits to:

• Federalism tour of Washington DC.
• Overview of the U.S. federal system, Meridian Institute, Washington DC.
• The U.S. Department of State, Washington DC.
• NBA Basketball game, Washington DC.
• Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur Sackler Gallery, Washington DC.
• Kennedy hall – Christmas singing, Washington DC.
• Kennedy hall – Millenium stage, Piano music, Washington DC.
• Air and Space museum, Washington DC.
• Washington monument, Washington DC.
• Lunch U.S department of State, Washington DC.
• Home Hospitality, Kalamazoo.
• ELF, the Musical, Kalamazoo.
• Lake Michigan, Kalamazoo.
• South Haven, Michigan.
• Designmuseum, Providence.
• Breakers house, Newport, Rhode Island.

Brief Summary

Writing down the results of our two weeks study-tour I can conclude that it truly was a life changing event. With an interesting group of people making so many great visits with our wonderful liaisons and overwhelming hospitality.

On the topic Digital and Media Literacy there is still a huge amount of work to do. The challenges we face in the U.S. and the Netherlands are very similar so we can learn a lot of each other’s best practices. Collaboration can speed up the process which is essential to deal with the pace in which learning with digital technology develops. For students who grow up in a digital society it is essential they learn the skills to let the technology work for them. That means there needs to be a vision of how that can be done, fairly well digital trained teachers, content and equipment.

To give equal opportunities to all students some kind of common standards on Media and Digital literacy would be helpful. In the Netherlands a start for that is made with the Curriculum.nu process. In the U.S. 16 states now have a state coordinator and try to make agreements on the topic. Still, in both countries a lot of work has to be done and this study-tour contributed to further working motivation to pick up the challenges together.