Research, Scholarly and Creative Work: A Selected Sample

(1) Media Education

(a) Oxford University Press stay tuned for Research Write, Create: Connecting Scholarship with Digital Media.

Welcome to scholarly research in the age of new technology! Advances in information and communication media are altering institutions, the economy, society, and culture as well as changing the way we learn, work, play, and relate. Universities, archives, libraries, and museums are reorganizing and retooling to remain relevant to the needs of users in a highly technological society. Academic labour is as computer enabled research is incorporated into scholarly traditions. Even staid humanities disciplines are in transition as computationally intensive research techniques are combined with traditional methods.

Today, students can experiment with tools, techniques, and approaches on the leading edge of technological developments in academic research. Innovative methods and devices build on traditional approaches and provide new ways to address long-standing questions, theories, and methods. Ultimately, using new technologies for academic research raises questions and suggests avenues for scholarship that were not open using traditional means. Rarely have there been more opportunities for student researchers to make their mark on scholarship.

(b) Facebook as a Functional Tool & Critical Resource was released (March 2011) in the digital collection entitled Learning Through Digital Media: Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy.

There’s a growing divide about digital media use among the faculty on my campus. Some have embraced the world of digital media and others have dug in their heels, particularly taking a hard line against laptops in the lecture hall. Despite much controversy, I have taken up Facebook in my large lecture halls for a variety of reasons using a number of pedagogical approaches. I challenge myself to consider the social media world from the point of view of today’s students. In this paper, I explain how I teach both about and through Facebook, applying it as a critical resource and a digital tool.

Facebook as a Functional Tool & Critical Resource

(c) Media Education Project: Media Education Project is a collaborative effort of Canadian educators. This monograph series is a collectively authored document that incorporates the ideas and activities of a varied and diverse group. By talking with many stakeholders, one of our goals is to exchange and mobilize knowledge about research, curriculum, and pedagogical approaches for insertion into teacher education, professional support, and professional development programs. Through the constant back and forth among the vast number of teachers, researchers, and other educators, we have developed this series of monographs to address critical issues in media education. By building on the experiences and practices of teachers these monographs provide a clear and conceptual framework of issues that emerge from both everyday teaching practices and current media education research.

The intention is to encourage further discussion—to get more people to talk about teaching and learning. Many of the ideas presented here will not be new for experienced teachers. In fact, many teachers are already doing media education on a regular basis. These monographs make explicit that media education approaches emerge from research-based practices, from programs that work, and from everyday classroom experiences. Please share these monographs to instigate further discussion about curriculum and pedagogy, teaching and learning. While there are several excellent, free resources available for any teacher, the goals in this monograph series are to frame some of the larger conceptual and theoretical issues in the practice of teaching media. These highlight the importance of (1) integration, (2) metacognition, (3) creativity, and (4) assessment.

• Media Education: Integration. Canadian Teachers’ Federation, Media Awareness Network. Toronto, 2008.
• Media Education: Metacognition. Canadian Teachers’ Federation, Media Awareness Network. Toronto, 2008.
• Media Education: Creativity. Canadian Teachers’ Federation, Media Awareness Network. Toronto, 2008.
• Media Education: Assessment. Canadian Teachers’ Federation, Media Awareness Network. Toronto, 2008.
• “Testing Media Literacy: Observations about Copyright for Canadian Media Educators.” Orbit: Journal of Education. Ed. K. Dehli, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2005.

(Also see Lipton’s current public presentations about Media Literacy available on the social web at <prezi.com> under the username <marklipton>.)

(2) Visual Communication

Visualizing the Web: Evaluating Online Design from A Visual Communication Perspective. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.

The technical work and digital infrastructure for the Media Education Project is closely related to Lipton’s research about visual communication. In this work, edited with Sheree Josephson and Susan Barnes, provide foundations for mapping the Web’s vast visual landscape.

The transdisciplinary nature of this work draws on numerous disciplines concerned with the creation, perception, and interpretation of visual messages. This approach allows us to see the networked world from new visual vantage points—metaphorical, cultural, and rhetorical; cognitive, perceptive, and evaluative.

(3) Performance Studies, Queer Identities and Media Analysis

• “Queer Readings of Popular Culture: Searching [To] Out The Subtext,” in  Queer Youth Cultures: Performative and Political Practices. Ed. S. Driver. New York: State University of New York Press, 2008.
• “Queer Comes the Bride.” Canadian Journal of Communication. 31 (2006): 937-945.

(4) Media Activism, Health Messaging & Patient Literacy

“The Politics of the Tobacco Industry-Sponsored Curriculum Wise Decisions: A Guide to Smoking Prevention.” Research report for the OMA and Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco. 2004.

Smoke Screens: From Tobacco Outrage to Media Activism, with M. Dewing and Children’s Media Project. B. Clemens, designer. Children’s Health Initiative, NY State Dutchess County Executive’s Office, W. Steinhause, 2002. Please access information about this work at: Children’s Media Project Smoke Screen’s Page.

Smoke Screens: A Teacher’s Guide, edited by Mark Lipton. Children’s Media Project. Children’s Health Initiative, NY State County Executive’s Office, W. Steinhause, 2002.

Smoke Screens: Tobacco Use Prevention Media Education — a student workbook, with Sarah Bramley, Penny Lane, and Children’s Media Project. I. Paige, designer. Children’s Health Initiative, NY State Dutchess County Executive’s Office, W. Steinhause, 2001.(4) Social Media Lipton’s  non-traditional, online publications (e.g., blog contributions, OERs, wiki resources) and related activities (e.g., microblogging) are both useful and relevant research & communication dissemination activities. I invite you to shadow, lurk or actively join any or all of my social networks. I’m easy to find on Facebook, Delicious, Twitter, Tumblr and other networks of social media activity.

Research, Scholarly and Creative Work: A Selected Sample

(1) Media Education

(a) Facebook as a Functional Tool & Critical Resource was released (March 2011) in the digital collection entitled Learning Through Digital Media: Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy.

There’s a growing divide about digital media use among the faculty on my campus. Some have embraced the world of digital media and others have dug in their heels, particularly taking a hard line against laptops in the lecture hall. Despite much controversy, I have taken up Facebook in my large lecture halls for a variety of reasons using a number of pedagogical approaches. I challenge myself to consider the social media world from the point of view of today’s students. In this paper, I explain how I teach both about and through Facebook, applying it as a critical resource and a digital tool.

Facebook as a Functional Tool & Critical Resource

(b) Media Education Project: Media Education Project is a collaborative effort of Canadian educators. This monograph series is a collectively authored document that incorporates the ideas and activities of a varied and diverse group. By talking with many stakeholders, one of our goals is to exchange and mobilize knowledge about research, curriculum, and pedagogical approaches for insertion into teacher education, professional support, and professional development programs. Through the constant back and forth among the vast number of teachers, researchers, and other educators, we have developed this series of monographs to address critical issues in media education. By building on the experiences and practices of teachers these monographs provide a clear and conceptual framework of issues that emerge from both everyday teaching practices and current media education research.

The intention is to encourage further discussion—to get more people to talk about teaching and learning. Many of the ideas presented here will not be new for experienced teachers. In fact, many teachers are already doing media education on a regular basis. These monographs make explicit that media education approaches emerge from research-based practices, from programs that work, and from everyday classroom experiences. Please share these monographs to instigate further discussion about curriculum and pedagogy, teaching and learning. While there are several excellent, free resources available for any teacher, the goals in this monograph series are to frame some of the larger conceptual and theoretical issues in the practice of teaching media. These highlight the importance of (1) integration, (2) metacognition, (3) creativity, and (4) assessment.

• Media Education: Integration. Canadian Teachers’ Federation, Media Awareness Network. Toronto, 2008.
• Media Education: Metacognition. Canadian Teachers’ Federation, Media Awareness Network. Toronto, 2008.
• Media Education: Creativity. Canadian Teachers’ Federation, Media Awareness Network. Toronto, 2008.
• Media Education: Assessment. Canadian Teachers’ Federation, Media Awareness Network. Toronto, 2008.
• “Testing Media Literacy: Observations about Copyright for Canadian Media Educators.” Orbit: Journal of Education. Ed. K. Dehli, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2005.

(Also see Lipton’s current public presentations about Media Literacy available on the social web at <prezi.com> under the username <marklipton>.)

(2) Visual Communication

Watch for Lipton’s new book about Visual Communication and Web Design from Peter Lang, 2010.

Visualizing the Web: Evaluating Online Design from A Visual Communication Perspective. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.

The technical work and digital infrastructure for the Media Education Project is closely related to Lipton’s research about visual communication. In this work, edited with Sheree Josephson and Susan Barnes, provide foundations for mapping the Web’s vast visual landscape.

The transdisciplinary nature of this work draws on numerous disciplines concerned with the creation, perception, and interpretation of visual messages. This approach allows us to see the networked world from new visual vantage points—metaphorical, cultural, and rhetorical; cognitive, perceptive, and evaluative.

(3) Performance Studies, Queer Identities and Media Analysis

• “Queer Readings of Popular Culture: Searching [To] Out The Subtext,” in  Queer Youth Cultures: Performative and Political Practices. Ed. S. Driver. New York: State University of New York Press, 2008.
• “Queer Comes the Bride.” Canadian Journal of Communication. 31 (2006): 937-945.

(4) Media Activism, Health Literacy & Tobacco Politics

• “The Politics of the Tobacco Industry-Sponsored Curriculum Wise Decisions: A Guide to Smoking Prevention.” Research report for the OMA and Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco. 2004.
• Smoke Screens: From Tobacco Outrage to Media Activism, with M. Dewing and Children’s Media Project. B. Clemens, designer. Children’s Health Initiative, NY State Dutchess County Executive’s Office, W. Steinhause, 2002. Please access information about this work at: Children’s Media Project Smoke Screen’s Page.
• Smoke Screens: A Teacher’s Guide, edited by Mark Lipton. Children’s Media Project. Children’s Health Initiative, NY State County Executive’s Office, W. Steinhause, 2002.
• Smoke Screens: Tobacco Use Prevention Media Education — a student workbook, with Sarah Bramley, Penny Lane, and Children’s Media Project. I. Paige, designer. Children’s Health Initiative, NY State Dutchess County Executive’s Office, W. Steinhause, 2001.

(5) Social Media

Lipton’s  non-traditional, online publications (e.g., blog contributions, OERs, wiki resources) and related activities (e.g., microblogging) are both useful and relevant research & communication dissemination activities. I invite you to shadow, lurk or actively join any or all of my social networks. I’m easy to find on Facebook, Delicious, Twitter, Tumblr and other networks of social media activity.