Media and Information Literacy Educator Rose-Marie Farinella is being honoured with the “Legion of Honour” award this week, the highest order in France.
A journalist-turned-teacher, Farinella is known throughout the education world for her fight against “fake news” and innovative ways to educate children as young as ten years old in how to identify information, verify the sources, and understand the context of online news media. She developed her curriculum for over five years, and has been recognized at the SaferInternet4EU, UNESCO’s Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy Week in Kingston, Jamaica, the National Congress of Digital Culture and MIL in Lyon, France, the Innovative Teacher’s Forum in Paris, France, and the French Annual Congress for Journalism in Tours, France.
Media Diversity Institute (MDI) is lucky enough to have taken advantage of her expertise for our Support to Media and Information Literacy Clubs in Public Schools project in Amman, Jordan, on the behalf of Internet Sans Crainte which is an awareness program operated by Tralalere within the global European project “Safer Internet.” This role shows that Farinella’s impact extends far beyond her classroom in Taninges, France. We hope that this well-deserved honour helps spread the teachings from her crucial work to classrooms around the world. For more on her curriculum, see her website (in English and/or with English subtitles) here and her YouTube series “Hygiene Mentale” here.