In one of the first blogs I wrote I talked about the difference between school and home situation regarding technical tools and devices children use. I do believe it is important to teach children how they can and should use all the technical opportunities they have. They need to learn how they can behave online and what the pro’s and con’s are. But how do they learn this? Do they learn everything simply by trying and trial and error, do the parents teach this, or is this a responsibility for the educational system. I don’t think it is a job for just one of them, something you can them at school and other things parents should teach them.
In Holland the government founded a network organization in order to enhance media literacy among the citizen and the educational system. They have distinguished 10 media literacy competences you need to be able to participate actively and mindfully in the media society.
In Holland the government founded a network organization in order to enhance media literacy among the citizen and the educational system. They have distinguished 10 media literacy competences you need to be able to participate actively and mindfully in the media society.
You can view this image on: http://www.mediawijzer.net/wp-content/uploads/ENG-10-media-literacy-competences.pdf
As you can see the competences are divided into four different groups. These groups are formed according to the way you need to interact with the media. The first group of competences are based on the understanding and awareness of media and the influences it can have on your life, on understanding how different media focus on different target groups and what effect this has en finally how media can influence how we see the world. The second group has everything to do with the working and use of media. This group might be more obvious. In order to participate in our media society you need to have the technical skills to work with different types of media, programs and applications. But it is not only about knowing how to use them, but also about chosing when to use them. In order to make a good choice you need to know what you can use and what the pro’s and con’s are. For example; what do you post on Facebook and what do you post on Linkdin?
The third group of compentences are based on communication. In order to really find information on the internet you don’t only need the technical skills to work a search website like Google, but also the understanding of how you can search, what keywords do you use? It is also about creating content on the internet. This can be writing a blog like I am doing, but it can also mean creating an attractive Linkin profile when you are looking for a job. This inevitably means partcitipating in social media. This means you have to know the target group for the medium, you need the technical skills to use it and finally the skills to put content on them and how to behave on them. The last group are the competences that have to do with strategy. In order to develop these competences you need the others competences. When you use media, you always have a goal, whether is it to find out how your favorite soccer team played last weekend, finding information for a homework assignment, or letting people know what you did last weekend. Being media literate means you have to be able to reflect on you use of media, did you reach your goals? Why did you, or why didn’t you? This also means being able not to use media, not all goals you strive can be reached by using media, or can maybe reached in a better way by not using media. It means you can make a choice to switch on or switch off. (Delver, et al.)
For the educational system these competences mean you have to teach your students. Not only by letting them type their essays in Word, but also about what to use, why to use it and how to use it. With the Skype project I am doing, the class will work on several of these media competences. Firstly I let them guess about the persons we are going to Skype with, what do they think and why do they think this? They learn to use different programs during the project such as Word, Google, Weebly, Skype and some others. But they also learn how to write a blog, when is it interesting, what do they write? And offcourse we talked about how to behave on the blog. How do they respond to what someone else wrote, can you write about someone else, and why can or can’t you? I believe it is important to make them aware of what they put on the internet. You never know who will read it or when. I mean, I never thought you would read this…
Delver, B., Evers, F., Hop, L., Lechner, D., Leek, J., Padoen, J., et al. (sd). Media literacy competences. Viewed on: 04 14, 2014, of Mediawijzer.net: http://www.mediawijzer.net/wp-content/uploads/ENG-10-media-literacy-competences.pdf
The third group of compentences are based on communication. In order to really find information on the internet you don’t only need the technical skills to work a search website like Google, but also the understanding of how you can search, what keywords do you use? It is also about creating content on the internet. This can be writing a blog like I am doing, but it can also mean creating an attractive Linkin profile when you are looking for a job. This inevitably means partcitipating in social media. This means you have to know the target group for the medium, you need the technical skills to use it and finally the skills to put content on them and how to behave on them. The last group are the competences that have to do with strategy. In order to develop these competences you need the others competences. When you use media, you always have a goal, whether is it to find out how your favorite soccer team played last weekend, finding information for a homework assignment, or letting people know what you did last weekend. Being media literate means you have to be able to reflect on you use of media, did you reach your goals? Why did you, or why didn’t you? This also means being able not to use media, not all goals you strive can be reached by using media, or can maybe reached in a better way by not using media. It means you can make a choice to switch on or switch off. (Delver, et al.)
For the educational system these competences mean you have to teach your students. Not only by letting them type their essays in Word, but also about what to use, why to use it and how to use it. With the Skype project I am doing, the class will work on several of these media competences. Firstly I let them guess about the persons we are going to Skype with, what do they think and why do they think this? They learn to use different programs during the project such as Word, Google, Weebly, Skype and some others. But they also learn how to write a blog, when is it interesting, what do they write? And offcourse we talked about how to behave on the blog. How do they respond to what someone else wrote, can you write about someone else, and why can or can’t you? I believe it is important to make them aware of what they put on the internet. You never know who will read it or when. I mean, I never thought you would read this…
Delver, B., Evers, F., Hop, L., Lechner, D., Leek, J., Padoen, J., et al. (sd). Media literacy competences. Viewed on: 04 14, 2014, of Mediawijzer.net: http://www.mediawijzer.net/wp-content/uploads/ENG-10-media-literacy-competences.pdf