ABSTRACT
Professional development is vital to the process of any type of education reform and renewal. This chapter explores four approaches to digital and media literacy education for teachers in the United States such as curriculum resources, training and conferences, learning communities, and formal education. It identifies the underlying assumptions, core principles, and concepts that underpin them. Philanthropists promote leadership within the media literacy community through innovative models of professional development. Trainings, summer institutes, and conferences are certainly the oldest and most common approach to professional development in digital and media literacy. Pre-service teachers may gain exposure to media literacy education integrated into their methods classes or as a separate subject. Learning communities were developed within the media literacy community in the 1990s. Each of the four approaches to professional development in media literacy have developed from activist educators, working inside or outside institutions who utilized the available resources to support the learning needs of educators.
