It´s all about…. Media

Six partners from four European countries started their project on Media Education

The digitalization, the Internet and the broad availability of mobile devices have fundamentally changed the media world in the meantime. The convergence of old and new media, their universal availability and interactive media offerings, social online networks and media-based contents and services generate new opportunities for acquisition of information, but also lead to new challenges. On the one side, taking into consideration the benefit of the technology itself, media have a versatile didactical-methodological potential for teaching and learning, which include visual evidence, attractive contents and the formal quality.

It is able to support self-regulated learning regardless of temporal or geographical limitations, and cooperative learning through collaborative online platforms or educational tools as well. On the other side, the media world brings for the society and individual as well, risks and dangers. This means upon others, the increased potential of negligent use of media technologies and services, of reckless or irresponsible handling of personal data and of non-observance of copyright principles. Additionally, through the increased presence of the media in our everyday life, it has become a constant socialization instance. The increasingly networked Media offerings, with their dynamic symbolic and life-worlds, open up new experiences and adventure areas to youth but it has an influence on their personality too. Youth develop their moral standards, ethical orientations and aesthetic judgments in their personal and social environment, as well as in the media. Medial models, heroic figures and idols accompany childhood and youth; Self- and world pictures, argument and action pattern, role understandings and behaviors are often taken from media contexts. Therefore, the young generation need an adequate media education to critically and constructively reflect the growing media offers.

Find more about the project in our Newsletter of Media Education Without Borders:

• Interview with Ákos Cserháti from the Civil Rádió, Budapest
  about teaching media literacy
• Interview with Nadine Schaarschmidt from TU Dresden, media centre
  about media Education at the Technical University of Dresden