September 26th
DAY 3: Media and Information literacy, TMA
project and a focus on Croatia
The third day of conference was addressed to relevant actors in the field of
media literacy as well as European telecentres. It helped to raise awareness
on the Telecentre Multimedia Academy (TMA) project, to establish new
links and connections among the participants, and to identify future joint
actions. Several conference participants representing individual telecentres
or telecentre networks expressed their interest in establishing Telecentre
Multimedia Academies in their countries as reference points for media literacy.
Organisations that meet the requirements will be able to use the TMA label,
certificates and all available learning resources (books, curriculum and CDs) for
free.
The day featured invited guest speakers from Belgium, Ireland and a number
of TMA project piloting partners as well as three local experts in the field of
media and digital skills from Croatia. Croatian member representative Zarko
Cizmar moderated the day. Firstly, Sally Reynolds (Belgium) presented the
Media & Learning Association she presides and invited TE members and other
organisations in the audience to explore collaboration opportunities such as
common EU projects and sector specific know-how for training provision.
She presented the association’s online database of good practice, website,
workshops, yearly conference and free webinars and campaigns. Their flagship
project is the MEDEA Annual Awards, set up to encourage innovation and good
practice in the use of media (audio, video, graphics and animation) in education
and to recognise and promote excellence in the production and pedagogical
design of media-rich learning resources. She announced that her association
will soon sign a collaboration agreement with Telecentre Europe and have a
mutual exchange of membership.
Secondly, Philip Penny from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and
Technology presented the EU funded iPro project that aims to enhance the
performance of education systems through media education. The project
partners have built, tested and distributed a research based model framework.
They plan to support the education sector (vocational
education and higher education institutions) to match
the curriculum of their students in (digital) Media and Arts Studies with the
professional requirements expressed by the international community of media
and arts businesses.
Igor Kanizaj, professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of
Zagreb gave an inspiring talk on the importance of Media and Information Literacy
(MIL) and the efforts of volunteers working on the ground to implement it through
workshops in schools. He made a strong argument for teaching media literacy
instead of focusing solely on digital skills. In his view purely ICT learning is only a
small percentage of ICT consumption as most children and young people spend a
large portion of their time consuming and creating various types of media on the
Internet. The problem lies in the fact that they lack the deeper understanding and
analytical skills of what they consume. MIL is in this sense not only a set of skills
but also a new platform for citizenship.
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The need for MIL amongst the general population
is high as when asked whether they think media
education should be included in the educational
system, 62% Croatian respondents in a survey said
yes. But the political will is slow to catch up with
the need: at the time of the TEAC, there were no
policies, no manuals or training materials and no
legal definition of media education. There is no
inter-ministerial body or committee and overall
responsibility of public institution in relation to MIL
programs in Croatia. This is why the Association
for Communication and Media Culture and the
Djeca Medija Foundation (that I. Kanizaj presides)
have taken things into their own hands and have
implemented 270 workshops to 3,500 children,
parents and teachers. Their website has 100,000
monthly visits, and they have been featured in
250 articles and 38 radio programmes. The biggest
surprise for the audience was to know that all of
this was achieved without any financial resources.
to a clear qualification framework with occupation
and qualification standards, study programs and
quality evaluation systems. The speaker then
presented the exact elements of a qualification
framework with details on how occupation and
qualification standards are to be developed in the
area of digital and media skills.
Nela Gudelj, Chief Learning Officer at the Croatian
Radio Television (HRT) addressed the challenge
of her station to produce more high quality
content with less
manpower. The digital
environment
helps
today the TV station
to reach audiences in
ways they could not
imagine before but
many employees' skills
are lagging behind.
The challenge is how
Mislav Balkovic, Dean at Algebra University to up-skill people
College for Applied Computer Engineering (Croatia) used to working in a
addressed in his presentation the employment completely different
opportunities in the multimedia and ICT sectors. In way. It demands an
a world where knowledge has changed its position in-house and tailored
in economic and social development, the paradigms approach
and
a
have also changed. The “job for life” motto and idea specific
curriculum
should now be replaced by the “knowledge for job” that
favours
the
motto. Knowledge is today a key to employment requirements of digital media.
and a generator of competitiveness. However,
different people and parts of society have a Peter Palvolgyi, Project manager from Telecentre
different understanding of the knowledge and skills Europe, explained to those present what the TMA
needed. In a recent EU wide survey of employers, project is about. TE has partnered with seven of
young people and education providers, both its member organizations in order to implement
employers and young people thought that young the Telecentre Multimedia Academy, a 24 monthpeople were not well prepared for the job market, long project aimed at designing, developing and
while the education providers were convinced the piloting a learning programme on media literacy
opposite was true! What addressed to adult learners. The TMA project’s goal
we should ask ourselves, was to provide adult learners with a flexible, easily
says M. Balkovic, is what implementable and modular learning pathway,
kind of knowledge we are easily transferable and applicable to a range of
producing. Knowledge diverse contexts and types of organisations. The
should be applicable, project aimed to achieve these objectives in
useful,
relevant, collaboration and interaction with stakeholders at
practical, documented the European level.
and recognized across
labour
markets
in The objective of TMA multimedia training is to
Europe. Companies and empower citizens with a combination of key
universities can also competencies, including media, information and
help to achieve this digital literacy, required for active participation in
by fostering stronger today's society. In the initial stage of the project an
connections and sticking extensive pan-European background analysis was
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