Media Education, Media Literacy and Digital Competence

Abstract

Educación para los medios, alfabetización mediática y competencia digital This article addresses some possible relationship between education and media in contemporary society and explores the role that formal education should play in both the integration of media in the curriculum and the digital literacy skills necessary for the 21st century. The authors discuss here different theories and approaches that have dominated international media studies, media education and media literacy in recent decades. Confusion and misunderstandings in terminology for contemporary literacy in a complex, global and intercultural environment are explored and the authors present some inclusive categories for 21st century literacy such as media literacy, digital, multimodal, critical and functional. Interpretations of media literacy and digital competencies are discussed with particular emphasis on the current European regulatory framework. The authors warn that reductionist interpretations that focus on applied technical competencies with devices, hardware and software have the potential to severely limit media literacy education. Instead, the authors stress critical approaches as central to media literacy. In addition to technical competency, the authors highlight the need to include a broader and deeper analysis of the social uses, attitudes, and values associated with new media tools, texts and practices. El presente trabajo aborda las posibles relaciones entre educación y medios en la sociedad actual, y el papel que le corresponde a la educación formal tanto en la integración curricular de los medios como en la alfabetización digital necesaria para el siglo XXI. Se parte de distintas concepciones y enfoques que en las últimas décadas han predominado en el estudio de los medios y en la educación y alfabetización mediáticas en el panorama internacional; se intentan subsanar algunos problemas terminológicos derivados de la riqueza idiomática del mundo global e intercultural en el que nos movemos; se buscan posturas integradoras y se propone una alfabetización para el siglo XXI que se caracteriza por ser mediática, digital, multimodal, crítica y funcional. Se analizan posibles interpretaciones de educación mediática y competencia digital prestando especial atención al actual marco normativo europeo y se advierte de dos posibles peligros: reducir la educación mediática al desarrollo de la competencia digital, y reducir la competencia digital a su dimensión más tecnológica e instrumental: centrarse en los conocimientos técnicos, en los procedimientos de uso y manejo de dispositivos y programas, olvidando las actitudes y los valores. Para evitar el reduccionismo y el sesgo tecnológico se recomienda recuperar para el desarrollo de la alfabetización mediática y de la competencia digital los enfoques más críticos e ideológicos de la educación para los medios. Media, education, literacy, digital, media literacy, digital competence, media education. Medios, educación, alfabetización digital, alfabetización mediática, competencia digital, educación mediática. 1. Introduction Rapid changes in the uses of information and communication technologies in recent decades continue to generate both subtle and signficant restructuring in every sector of society. As such, the pervasive access, ubiquity and daily reliance on multimedia devices are the «new normal». Their omnipresence is particulary resonant with younger generations of users who approach information in diverse and innovative ways that position their daily uses of ICTs and related new media practices as an essential life skill. Although education is widely seen a pathway to personal, academic and career preparation, the education sector lags in its comparative response to ICTs. On the whole, its response is piecemeal and calls into question the traditional assumptions about the design of the learning environment and its effect on widespread social and cultural needs within the context of contemporary media forms, content, skills and practices. Among the main features of the increasingly global and digital society of the early 21st Century are multiculturalism, the increased capacity to store and retrieve of information, access to broad social networks, and the ability to use computer networks to transcend time and space. Instead, it could be said that the education sector is an anachronism in its own time as it continues to prepare students for a society that no longer exists. When the number and types of literacy devices used by students outside of school are compared with the literacy tools and texts used in formal education, it is obvious that young people must unplug to participate in the classroom. In the process, they must also power down their own habitual ways of working with information and related cultural interests. As a result, students transverse a polarized existence of formal and informal learning environments. One the one hand, they spend most of their day in schools that are far removed from their own authentic media and information skills, interests and needs. On the other hand, they pursue these interests and hone their skills through peer learning and knowledge networks in the world outside of school. With few bridges between these parallel worlds, many students do not even bother to try establish connections between the informal and formal education sectors. From our point of view, the most dangerous ramifications of this mismatch is not the lack of access to digital devices or «gadgets», nor the fact that access to timely and relevant information is routinely blocked in classrooms. Instead, it is much more troubling that widespread ideals and assumptions about the mission of compulsory schooling as a preparation for social and civic life are unraveling. As schools increasingly marginalize the every day literacy skills of students (and increasingly teachers), this social contract is broken. Given the narrow versions of literacy practiced in the classroom, it obvious that formal schooling is not necessary. Students would prefer to learn about the functions of ICTs through informal environments such as peer networks, online or even at their local computer store. The social contract for formal education implies much more, with new forms of literacy at its center. To reinstate public confidence in the value of schooling for social preparation and personal fulfillment, we envision a critical, dignified and liberating concept of literacy. . Efforts to reconnect and support contemporary literacy practices in formal schooling go well beyond competencies with digital devices and networks. It is also important that formal education incorporates skills and practices that support students' critical autonomy and awareness of the relevant contexts of their media use. These efforts also go well beyond a reactive response to the commerical interests of the dominant digital media companies of the moment. A broader vision for the accommodation of new literacy skills will require significant restructuring in the education sector. With the dominance of high-stakes standardized testing in formal schooling, it remains to be seen how schools can transform widespread content delivery modes into critical, participatory designs for the learning environment. In order to prepare individuals for life in a global multicultural, digital world, formal education must also trascend the narrow focus on test scores and grades to embrace students' existing knowledge, skills and practices, learned outside schools. In this way, ICTs are central to the restructuring of most contemporary formal schooling environments and a catalyst for revisioning the mission of compulsory education to support and encourage active citizenship and self-expression in a democratic society. Many scholars stress the need to expand the concept, content and purposes of traditional literacy in order to accomodate contemporary digital, multimodal and media literacy. In prior articles, we stress that digital literacy or media literacy are foundational to basic education in an Information Age (Tyner, 1998; Gutiérrez, 2003). In recent years, a number of scholars have defined these new literacy concepts as audiovisual literacy, informational, multimodal, media literacy, digital competency and so on. Although the technical proficiencies may differ, these multiple definitions of literacy actually correspond with the same concepts, aims and purposes of traditional literacy. It is easy to envision a time in the near future when these multiple terms may be described simply as «literacy».