Cooney Center publishes blog post co-authored by UW–Madison alumna Nixon


UW–Madison alumna Jessie Nixon co-authored a blog post published by Sesame Workshop’s Joan Ganz Cooney Center that is titled, “Youth Voice for Teacher Empowerment.”

Nixon earned her PhD from the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Currently, she is an education engagement specialist at PBS Wisconsin Education focused on 3rd- through 12th-grade content.

Nixon co-authored the blog post with Megan Monday, the executive producer at PBS Wisconsin Education.

Their post describes how the Education Department at PBS Wisconsin moved beyond creating high-quality classroom media for young people, and instead supported and empowered young people to create their own media as well.

Among their efforts, Nixon and Monday highlight a partnership with the UW–Madison School of Education, called “Click Youth Media,” which they developed with UW–Madison faculty Rich Halverson, Erica Halverson, and UW–Madison doctoral students.

As Click grew, they write, “we also began to involve staff throughout the PBS Wisconsin station. One of our most popular offerings was our field trips where teachers could bring their digital journalism classes on a full-day tour of the station. Students met producers, animators, set designers, and journalists, and learned about potential careers in media. They went behind the scenes of live recordings and got to sit on working television sets.”

They continue: “Our colleagues appreciated having the Education department coordinate the logistics, freeing them to arrive and share their passion and their work. And they loved the passion and excitement of the students and appreciated the opportunity to meet with an audience from across the state in a way that was new and inspiring.”

The post is part of a series, from the Cooney Center’s joint initiative with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, that is aimed at exploring the role of public media in the lives of young people by taking stock of the current landscape and imagining a future that public media can build alongside teens and tweens.

Read the full article, here.

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