IC Professor Honored by National Media Literacy Organization

By Dave Maley, November 1, 2024

Cyndy Scheibe recognized for her pioneering work in the field.

Faith Rogow introduced Cyndy Scheibe at the NAMLE award ceremony held via Zoom.

Dana Professor of Psychology Cyndy Scheibe has been honored by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) with its prestigious Elizabeth Thoman Service Award for her contributions and commitment to the field.

Scheibe is the founder and executive director of Project Look Sharp, an initiative of the School of Humanities and Sciences that provides support, materials, and training for the integration of media literacy across the curriculum in K-12 and post-secondary education. In that role, she helps to write and edit numerous curriculum kits, lessons, and other educational materials.

As part of National Media Literacy Week, sponsored by NAMLE and held Oct. 21-25, Scheibe was honored along with nine others at a virtual award ceremony held via Zoom.

Elizabeth Thoman was a founding board member of the organization, and the award is presented in her name to individuals or projects that have significantly contributed to the growth and quality of the field of media literacy over the course of many years.

Scheibe was introduced at the ceremony by Faith Rogow, a media scholar and the founding president of NAMLE. She called Scheibe a friend, colleague, and co-author who thrives on working collaboratively.

“If it’s essential to your practice to integrate media literacy inquiry into existing core curriculum or use NAMLE’s core principles and the accompanying grid of key question categories, or you use those categories to help students reflect on their choices when they create media and not just analyze other people’s media, or you teach students to analyze cereal boxes by looking for clues that indicate the product’s sugar or fruit content, you owe a debt of gratitude, at least in part, to Cyndy Scheibe.”

Rogow said that Scheibe has pushed the boundaries of what it means to be an educator.

“She paid a lot of attention to how students learn and gradually transformed her teaching from engaging lectures into classes filled with inquiry-based problem solving. And then she went on to help others learn how to do that, to launch their own journeys, to creating inquiry filled learning spaces. And as a result, hundreds and hundreds of educators have transformed their own teaching and the tens of thousands of students they reach have developed critical thinking skills that extend well beyond core media literacy competencies.”

Scheibe joined Ithaca College in 1986 and teaches courses in developmental psychology. In 1996 she founded Project Look Sharp, whose mission is to help K-16 educators enhance students’ critical thinking, metacognition, and civic engagement through media literacy materials and professional development.

“If it’s essential to your practice to integrate media literacy inquiry into existing core curriculum or use NAMLE’s core principles and the accompanying grid of key question categories...you owe a debt of gratitude, at least in part, to Cyndy Scheibe.”

Faith Rogow

She co-authored “The Teacher's Guide to Media Literacy: Critical Thinking in a Multimedia World” with Rogow and “Teaching Students to Decode the World: Media Literacy and Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum” with Project Look Sharp colleague Chris Sperry. A founding board member of NAMLE, she has given dozens of keynotes and presentations about media literacy education across the country and around the world and coordinates Ithaca College’s interdisciplinary media literacy minor.

In her remarks, Scheibe thanked Rogow, Sperry, and NAMLE for their support and for their commitment to ensuring that the value of this critical work has become widely respected and accepted.

“For those of us who have been at this a long time, us old folks, we didn't think this would happen in our lifetime, but it has,” said Scheibe. “It is such an honor to be receiving this award with this amazing group of media literacy practitioners. And it’s especially meaningful for me to get this award named after Liz Thoman. For those of us who were lucky enough to know her, she was just such a remarkable woman, and is really the spirit behind, I think, almost everything that we do. I owe a great deal of my spirit and my commitment and service to this field to Liz.”