Tapio varis avi2009 v

© Tapio Varis, Research Centre for Vocational and Professional Education 1

MEDIA EDUCATION. POLICY, AND CURRICULA

III EAVI International ConcerencePalacio del Senado, Madrid, España, 26 November

2009

Professor Tapio VARIS, University of Tampere & UNESCO Chair in Global eLearning


Current Trends and Approaches to Media Literacy in Europe (withJose Manuel Perez Tornero, et al, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona 2007) http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/media_literacy/studies/index_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/media_literacy/studies/index_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/media_literacy/studies/index_en.htm


Applications: evaluation

• Who evaluates?

• How to decide when the learner is media literate?

• What to evaluate? Knowledge? Skills? Behaviour? Attitudes? Values?

Study on Assessment Criteria for Media Literacy Levels

Media LiteracyEuropean Commission Expert GroupBrussels 3 March 2009

EAVI Consortium - Paolo Celot (EAVI), José Manuel Tornero (UAB)

APPROACHES TO MEDIA LITERACY AND eLEARNING

Professor Tapio Varis, Finland

European Commission Workshop ”Image Education and Media Literacy”

November 16th, 2000, Brussels


Media critique and skills

• Media literacy is about understanding the sources and technologies of communication, the codes that are used, the messages that are produced, and the selection, interpretation, and impact of those messages


The Question of Definition

• Media literacy is the objective of media education

• There is no single, agreed definition of media literacy

• It is an umbrella term covering a set of personal skills, knowledge and understanding of media and communications


Practical questions

• Can we teach media literacy?

• What would be the discipline and contents?

• What are the elements of media literacy and competence?

• How to evaluate them?


What is the goal?

• To prepare people to communicate with the traditional and new media, especially multimedia using the combination of human senses

• The analysis, critique and skills are not limited to the mass media but include the Internet, computers and networks

• Media competence


Applications: the curriculum

• Curriculum (K-12): The objective? Integration to other programmes? What principles and elements should be taught?

• Should we give special skills (expected by the working life) or general preparedness for society?


Applications: teaching

• Democratic and non-hierarchial teaching approach

• Diverse ways of learning, collaborative learning


Background

• Digital literacy: e-Learning, ICT, e-Skills, digital industry

• Media literacy: image education, media education

• EU: ”a more competitive knowledge economy and a more inclusive knowledge society”

• UNESCO: Open Educational Resources (OER)• cultural diversity


Global Education 2010Publications of the Finnish Ministry of Education

2007:12

Citizenship is membership in a civilised community working on shared norms and commonly agreed principles.

World citizenship is a commitment to building a world order that offers a real opportunity to fully realise the whole dimension of humanity, irrespective of state borders and cultural boundaries.


Global Education as a concept

•means activity that guides towards the ethic of a world citizen, which in turn is founded on fairness and respect for human rights

• supports growth into a critical and media-critical citizen with the knowledge and skills to succesfully act as a member of one's own community in a globalising world


European Framework for Key Competences: Digital Competence

”Digital competence involves the confident and critical use of Information Society Technology for work, leisure and communication. It is underpinned by basic skills in ICT: the use of computers to retrieve, access, store, produce, present and exchange information, and to communicate and participate in collaborative networks via Internet”

COM (2005) 450


Digital literacy is key to:

• Learning to learn (lifelong learning)

• Learning to work

• Facilitating job opportunities

• Providing each citizen with skills and knowledge to live and work

• Providing the confident use of new tools for assessing and using knowledge

• Promoting active citizenship, democracy


From Industrial Age to Knowledge Age

• Digital literacy is a complicated process that consists of acquiring a new tekne, ability of art or craft

• Creativity and culture become essential base for the knowledge economy

• Cultural values

• Cultural diversity


The Evolution of Digital Literacy in Europe

• Phase 1: Access and connectivity

• Phase 2: Basic internet use and more sophisticated and sustainable digital competences

• Phase 3: Critical thinking, trust, confidence and multiplatform use

- community building (social web)


C. Teaching and learning Recommendations• Teaching and learning strategy should be a key element of

proposed programmes, and should be relevant to the context and nature of the activity and the groups involved;

• Make full use of informal as well as formal learning within digital literacy programmes;

• Make full use of intermediaries in motivating target groups and delivering initiatives;

• Make full use of e-learning and online platforms in delivering initiatives;

• Enable target groups and individuals to generate content and create online communities;

• Interact with relevant formal educational and related structures.


Example: The e-START Digital Literacy Network

• To build and offer a range of sustainable and high-quality information and other services on the concept, the status and the development of Digital Literacy in Primary and Lower Secondary (K-9) Education (e.g. European Observatory, analysis and review services, advisory and consultation services, etc).

• To build consensus towards a "common" curriculum framework for Digital Literacy in Primary and Lower Secondary Education (K-9) across Europe.

• To provide a discussion and policy advice/consultative forum on Teachers’ Training needs (both initial/pre-service and continuous/inservice) in order to meet the Digital Literacy challenge.


D. Content, Services and usability

Recommendation• Support the development of content and services for

all users who, for whatever reason, are marginalised or under-represented and monitor effectiveness in terms of uptake;

• Support multi-platform modes of access and participation, with particular regard for the inclusion of persons requiring assistive technologies;

• Improve information and visual design values and standards/benchmarks for content and services to take account of expected capabilities and prior experience of the target user group.


E. Critical Skills

Recommendation• Focus on the development of users' critical, cultural

and creative skills, so that they may productively and engage with content and services in the digital world;

• Broaden the understanding of 'digital literacy' and align it with an existing framework for 'media literacy', e.g., the Euro Media Literacy Charter www.euromedialiteracy.eu

• Develop strategies to promote 'quality of use';• Broaden the measurements and evaluation of digital

literacy beyond operational skills to critical thinking.

http://www.euromedialiteracy.eu/



ETHICAL / MORAL VALUE CHOICES•communicative competence•nethics and netiquette

COMPREHENSION AND INTERPRETATION•creative interpretative skills•analysis and argumentation = media critique

PRODUCTION/PUBLICATION SKILLS•writing, illustration, design, literary devices

RECEPTION SKILLS•recognition of different genres•sign systems: images, words, sounds, icons, graphs; or multimedia literacy

MOTIVATION•intellectual curiosity and basic skills in abstract thinking•basic traditional literacy•basic technical and access skills

MEDIA LITERACY staircase

SOCIO-CULTURAL ABILITIES•intercultural dialogue


PL5 - Digital Literacy: an essential life skill

• First, it must be critical, so that users can ask questions like who creates the media and its content, for what purpose, and how it works.

• Second, digital literacy must be creative, thus include being able to contribute content as well as simply being a consumer of others’ content.

• Third, it should be cultural and recognise the importance of entertainment, play, gaming, sharing videos, building identities, etc


Forms of Participatory Culture Henry Jenkins 2007

• Affiliations (memberships, formal and informal)

• Expressions (producing new creative forms)

• Collaborative Problem-solving (working together in teams, formal and informal, to complete tasks and develop new knowledge)

• Circulations (shaping the flow of media)


Need for Policy and Pedagogical Interventions

• The participation gap (unequal access, experiences, skills, knowledge

• The Transparency Problem (learning to see the ways that media shape perceptions of the world)

• The Ethics Challenge (the breakdown of traditional forms of professional training and socialization)


New Renaissance Education(www.layers.fi)

• The study of complexity has brought science closer than ever to art

• Knowledge has gone through a cycle from non-specialism to specialism, and now back to interdisciplinarity, even transdisciplinarity

• Art deals with the sensual world (media as the extension of senses) and the holistic concept of human being