In this hands-on course you will
- Learn photographic and design techniques to effectively communicate a message, story or emotion
- Make your own photo essay for instructional use
- Develop a standards-aligned (CCSS, NGSS) lesson plan in which students create a photo essay to demonstrate learning
Who Should Take This Course
K-12 educators in all subject areas who want to develop skills and confidence with media making and media literacy.
Course Features
Learn online at your own pace with step-by-step videos and hands-on activities. Join live events with instructors and peers. It’s completely free!
Certificate of Completion
Earn a Certificate of Completion for 10 hours of professional development and get started on earning a PBS Media Literacy micro-credential.
Learning Objectives
Master the basics of communicating with graphics and images needed to enhance instruction and support student learning, including:
- Explore how visual design fundamentals, like color choice, layout, and framing work together to tell a story
- Create lesson plans for classroom projects that align with Common Core and other curriculum standards to ensure that time spent using visuals to produce graphics or interactives result in student learning you want to see
- Develop strategies for allocating and organizing resources to best facilitate visual media projects in a classroom environment
Course Curriculum
Enroll now for free!
You will have four weeks to complete the assignments in this course and receive a Certificate of Completion. If you would like to continue to access the course content after those 4 weeks, you are welcome to re-enroll. There is no penalty for taking the course multiple times.
Your Instructors
We support educators in integrating video storytelling, audio podcasts and other media literacy skills into their teaching practice.
Angel Valerio
Angel is KQED’s program manager for STEM professional learning. Previously, she worked in South Los Angeles and East Oakland for 8 years as a high school life science teacher and instructional coach. She is passionate about the intersection of science, social justice, and uplifting youth voice.
Rachel Roberson
Rachel is KQED’s program manager for humanities professional learning. Previously, she was an English and social studies classroom teacher and teacher leader in San Francisco, Oakland, Austin and internationally. Before becoming a teacher, she was a newspaper reporter in the Bay Area.
Rik Panganiban
Rik is the manager of online learning and educator certification at KQED. Rik was the head of Digital Learning at the California Academy of Sciences and the instructional design lead for Science Action Club.
PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification by KQED
This course helps prepare you to apply for the Making Media for Classroom Use: Images, Graphics and Interactives micro-credential on Digital Promise.
Earn all 8 micro-credentials (MCs) to become a certified PBS Certified Media Literacy Educator.
Recommended Learning Path
Ready for more? Try one of these courses next.
About KQED
KQED is a nonprofit, public media station and NPR and PBS member station based in San Francisco that offers award-winning education resources and services free to educators nationwide. KQED Teach is a collection of professional development courses that empower educators to teach media literacy, make media for the classroom and lead media-making projects with students in K-12.
All course content unless otherwise noted is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This license excludes all user generated content unless explicitly labeled for reuse by the user. Permission to reuse user generated content should be directed to the individual creator.
Have a question? Email us at [email protected] or check out our FAQ. Find out about our district supports here.