This week, News Literacy Project (NLP) launched NewsLit Nation, NLP’s News Literacy Educator Network—"a community of educators from across the country that are advocating for news literacy education,” according to vice president of the Educator Network, Ebonee Rice.

Educators who register to be part of the Educator Network will have access to NLP’s content, professional development opportunities such as webinars and NewsLit Camps, message boards and forums that allow them to engage with each other, and “exclusive perks and incentives,” Rice says.

“On the network, educators can share documents, share best practices,” she says. “We really understand that educators are the experts and educators are really on the front lines in the fight against misinformation, so we wanted to create a community where educators who are doing this work can talk to each other.”

There are a lot of networking opportunities and online communities for educators, Rice admits, but she says they are typically divided by subject taught.

“We’re bringing them all together,” she says. “The end goal is to incorporate news literacy into the American education experience, allowing people to use best practices to figure out the best way to incorporate news literacy into their specific context.”

Registration is free, although in the future, NLP may offer different initiatives that give users access to services and content a “little to no cost” for members.

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Members can also get contact information for their nearest NLP ambassador. There are 13 ambassadors in 10 cities across the country. Five of the selected 13 are librarians or library media specialists. They work with NLP to create and host events and focus groups, as well as offer input on how to incentivize educators, what’s useful and impactful and what is not. And they are charged with using their voices to push for news literacy in education in their area.

“This is our effort to use a grassroots model to engage communities of educators all over at the local level,” says Rice.

Members of the Educator Network can work with ambassadors to get more involved on the issue with their local community. Educators trying to implement news literacy in their libraries and classrooms shouldn’t feel alone o

“News literacy education is more important than it’s ever been, and educators want to know how to teach it,” Rice says. “It’s really our mission to empower them.”