Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) is an independent, not-for-profit, professional association that has been promoting the study of media and screen literacy for nearly fifty years. The membership of ATOM includes teachers and lecturers from across all subject disciplines at all levels of education. The membership also includes media industry personnel, a range of media and education organisations and, increasingly, the general public interested in the media.
ATOM represents the teachers of the next generation of Australian digital content makers, gamers, filmmakers, TV producers, journalists, critics and young audiences. We support teachers of all levels – from primary through to tertiary – who are passionate about the future of media education and screen literacy. We provide them with resources, support, advice and professional development throughout the school year. Through our yearly State Conference and now through the international Screen Futures Summit & Youth Media Festival, we provide the opportunity to widen the scope of discussion beyond the classroom to a global context. Our mission is to continue to raise the bar in media teaching and screen literacy in Australia and to ensure that creative and innovative best practice remains at its heart.
In 2016 ATOM will celebrate our thirty-fifth year of producing the ATOM Awards, which recognise excellence in the area of film, television, animation and multimedia.
ATOM publishes Metro and Screen Education magazines, study guides and education kits, The Moving Image series of monographs, and other resources, and distributes them all through The Education Shop. ATOM also produces websites for feature films, documentaries and television programs.
ATOM organises regular screenings of feature films and documentaries for teachers all over Australia via our online booking system. It has also launched The Speakers Bureau, a place for industry professionals to find audiences for talks and workshops in schools, libraries, community groups and universities throughout Australia.
Letter from ATOM National’s Co-Chair
When ATOM’s next Screen Futures Summit is held in July 2016, it will have been five years since the first conference. Since then some of the questions raised have been addressed, new questions have arisen and there are, of course, those things we don’t yet know.
The 2016 summit will re-examine the past and peer into the future. It will give us all a sense of where we may be headed. How has the analog-to-digital shift played out in culture, society, the entertainment industry and education? Is analog fighting back? Have we all become active citizen journalists? Has the new technology democratised our media or has it just led to everyone creating cat videos for YouTube? Are these questions themselves binaries? Has the medium superseded the message? Where and what is content now and in the future?
These are some of the questions driving the next Screen Futures. I hope you will join the discussion.
Roger Dunscombe
Co-chair, Australian Teachers of Media National
