Media Literacy Education Series for Students & Parents

The Swain School Campus community will be joined by Elizabeth Ortiz, Assistant Professor, Communications at Cedar Crest College to learn about and discuss Media Literacy.

Students in the fifth through eighth grade will attend mini sessions with Ms. Ortiz, Ms. Helene (our School Counselor), and Mrs. Ruffing (Swain's Technology Integration Specialist) discussing:

• Balancing the positive and negatives of time spent using technology and on social media.  
• Mental health impacts of using social media.
• The "it won't happen to me" mindset and what to do, or not do, if you end up in an uncomfortable situation while online. 
• Online Identity: how to build a positive online image. 

These sessions will take place over the course of next week, 2/7 - 2/11, with their homeroom or advisory. 

Families will also have the opportunity to learn from Ms. Ortiz in a Parenting Education Series webinar on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 7:00 PM.   Ms. Ortiz will share tips and tools on how to help students navigate technology and social media, provide feedback about what the students learned in their sessions, and answer questions.  

Elizabeth Ortiz has served on the faculty at Cedar Crest College in the Media & Communication department full time since 2003.  With master’s degrees in both Media Studies and Education, her teaching looks closely at the representations of women and girls in the media and the limited roles that these characters play.  Ortiz is currently pursuing a PhD in Teaching Learning and Technology at Lehigh University where she is researching how Black and Latina girls navigate media and negotiate mediated representations of girls and women like them.

The increasing need for our youth to be media literate is at the forefront of her coursework and community work as she strives to encourage girls and women to analyze media content and reject images that limit their potential.  She is also interested in social media and how it influences every aspect of communication and gives us the opportunity to become engaged in social media for the social good.   That is, how can we use our voices online to make the world a better place?   The work continues in her own home as the mother of 3 girls ages 9, 12, & 14. 

Ortiz currently serves on the The Boys and Girls Club of Allentown Foundation and The Rising Tide Community Loan Fund.  She has been named a Woman of Influence by Lehigh Valley Business, Lehigh Valley’s Finest by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Board Member of the Year from the Boys and Girls Club of Allentown.  Just this year she was awarded the Cedar Crest College Alumnae Award for Teaching Excellence.    

She and her husband own Cactus Blue Mexican Restaurant in Bethlehem, PA and she likes to bring chips & pico de gallo or banana & cream churros wherever she can – because nourishment makes for a stronger community.

For more information, please reach out to Megan Franzyshen, Assistant Head of School for Teaching & Learning.