Media education in church schools in Malta

During a discussion I had with a class of 15 year old girls about the use they make of t.v. I found that in spite of the fact that they were preparing for the G.C.E. examination they watch approximately an average of 2.5 hours a day. (This is a bit lower than the national average which according to a study made by GALLUP LTD. in 1984 is 2.64 hours daily.) This amounts to 38 days a year. We tried to compare this with the time students spend at school. They have 175 school days a year with 5 hours every day which gives a total of 36 days a year. Both the school administrators and the students were greatly surprised with the result. This little incident helped me a lot in my meetings with different heads of schools while discussing with them the need of introducing media education in their schools.peer-reviewe

Media education technologies in developing students' professional competence

While pervasive healthcare systems bear the potential to provide patients with a new quality of medical homecare, the complexity of such systems raises fundamental questions of behavior, communication and technology acceptance. This is especially important, as users of future healthcare systems will be increasingly characterized by diversity. Relying only on highly experienced and technology-prone user groups, which might have been typical users in the last decades, is not sufficient anymore. Rather, elderly users, users with a completely different upbringing and domain knowledge, and ill or handicapped people will have to use the systems. Today, the understanding, in which way physical, emotional and cognitive abilities, caused by individual learning histories and health states, may impact the usage and acceptance of pervasive healthcare technologies, is restricted. This research contributes to this topic by investigating the acceptance motives of aged users with different health states regarding three different implementation concepts for medical technologies: medical technology implemented in mobile devices, smart environments and smart clothing. Using the questionnaire method, a total of 82 users between 40 and 92 years of age were examined regarding their usage motives and barriers with respect to the different technology concepts. Overall, it was revealed that acceptance issues and users' needs and wants should be considered in order to successfully design new medical technologies

Studying Games in School: a Framework for Media Education

This paper explores how media education principles can be extended to digital games, and whether the notion of ‘game literacy’ is an appropriate metaphor for thinking about the study of digital games in schools. Rationales for studying the media are presented, focusing on the importance of setting up social situations that encourage more systematic and critical understanding of games. The value of practical production, or game making, is emphasized, as a way of developing both conceptual understanding and creative abilities. Definitions of games are reviewed to explore whether the study of games is best described as a form of literacy. I conclude that games raise difficulties for existing literacy frameworks, but that it remains important to study the multiple aspects of games in an integrated way. A model for conceptualizing the study of games is presented which focuses on the relationship between design, play and culture

Prince Charming has Perfect White Teeth: Performativity and Media Education

This paper argues that Judith Butler’s post structuralist theory of performativity provides a valuable tool for understanding how students might contest prevailing hegemonic gender discourses in media education classrooms. It suggests an alternative to structuralist "empowerment" and "critical pedagogy" approaches, which continue to motivate many media educators, despite serious questions being asked about their effectiveness. The paper draws on data collected from a unit of work about video games, completed by year ten students at an all boys’ secondary school in Brisbane. It argues that many media related activities fail to elicit genuinely "critical" responses because they are complicit in the regulation of hegemonic discourses. It suggests that teachers are more likely to create the potential for variation in their students’ gender performances if activities are dialogic and open-ended and avoid placing emphasis on discourses of excellence and competition

Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits From Internet Access at U.S. Libraries

Examines the use of free computer and Internet access in public libraries, by income level, age, race/ethnicity, and online activity. Explores libraries' role as a community resource for social media, education, employment, e-government, and other areas

Media, Education, and anti-Americanism in the Muslim World

Recent surveys in the United States and the Muslim world show widespread misinformation about the events of September 11, 2001. Using data from 9 predominantly Muslim countries, we study how such beliefs depend on exposure to news media and levels of education. Standard economic theory would predict that increased access to information should cause beliefs to converge. More recent models of biased belief formation suggest that this result might hinge critically on who is providing the information. Consistent with the latter, we find that overall intensity of media use and level of education have at best a weak correlation with beliefs, while particular information sources have strong and divergent effects. Compared to those with little media exposure or schooling, individuals watching Arab news channels or educated in schools with little Western influence are less likely to agree that the September 11 attacks were carried out by Arab terrorists. Those exposed to media or education from Western sources are more likely to agree. Belief that the attacks were morally justified and general attitudes toward the US are also strongly correlated with source of information. These findings survive controls for demographic characteristics and are robust to identifying media effects using cross-country variation in language.persuasion, media, bias, terrorism