Educación en medios en acción : modelos, herramientas y ejemplos de buenas prácticas

Actualmente la educación en medios (EM) ya no puede ser considerada como un campo de estudio reservado a investigadores de la comunicación, ni como una práctica privilegiada de algunos profesores. Por un lado, la EM ahora es parte de la agenda de las organizaciones internacionales, que consideran el desarrollo de las competencias mediáticas como requisito necesario para ejercer plenamente la ciudadanía en la sociedad actual. Por otro lado, las prácticas de EM están cada vez más generalizadas en las escuelas e involucran a un número creciente de profesores. No obstante, la enseñanza de los medios de comunicación aún parece ser una tarea bastante solipsista, donde "todo está bien". De hecho, hay una tremenda falta de investigación sobre la calidad y la eficacia de las prácticas educativas. En su dimensión pedagógica, el proyecto On Air intenta hacer frente a estos problemas proporcionando un conjunto de herramientas para diseñar, desarrollar y evaluar las actividades de EM en las escuelas. El presente trabajo presenta y analiza sus resultados poniendo atención en la estructura general de la investigación y sus conclusiones principales.Currently, Media Education (ME) can no longer be considered as a field of study reserved for communication researchers, or as a privileged practice of some teachers. On the one hand, ME is now part of the agenda of international organizations, which considers the development of media skills as a prerequisite to exercise full citizenship in today's society. On the other hand, ME practices are becoming more widespread in schools and involve an increasing number of teachers. However, the teaching of the media still seems to be a fairly solipsistic, where "everything is fine". In fact, there is a tremendous lack of research on the quality and effectiveness of educational practices. In its educational dimension, the On Air project attempts to address these problems by providing a set of tools to design, develop and evaluate ME activities in schools. This paper presents and analyzes the results paying attention to the overall structure of the research and its main findings

The Practice of Media Education: International Research on Six European Countries

This paper presents and discusses the results of OnAir, a European project on Media Education funded by the European Commission. This two-year project aimed at collecting, documenting, and developing media education practices across Europe, especially in Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. In particular, the paper focuses on the role of documentation in improving teachers’ practical knowledge and highlights the challenging aspects at stake in this process. The analysis of collected data reveals that documentation of media education practices is often poor both in terms of information about instructional practices and in teacher reflection on their actions. Stronger collaboration between teachers and researchers may be needed to support the kind of careful documentation that leads to effective practice. The development of adequate tools that teachers can easily use during their own activities may also facilitate improved levels of documentation

Ricerca educativa, apprendimenti e medialità alla prova dell'evoluzione metodologica

The complex reality suggests to review many aspects of the epistemological and methodological issues related to educational research and teaching. The connection between contents and skills a) disciplinary, b) research and c) media, both at school and in the university, represents the way to link forms and substances of the learning and epistemic work of an entire generation of adolescents, who will pursue significant results to face the new versions of the world of work. Therefore, the three factors must be brought into dialogue to create the conditions for new links and different observational skills, thanks to the intertwining of new research methods and the various possible teaching solutions. We think that this partnership could give researchers, teachers and students an attitude of more attention to the biodigital reality and to change in reference to behaviours, mental models, learning and visions of the future, aspects that the “Covid question” brought out overwhelmingly. A variable and flexible approach, bearer of a solid link between planning, learning process, development of skills and evaluation, could develop a more motivating dialogue in relation to the need to counteract the “automatisms” in research planning, learning and media worlds, thanks to a conscious “transformative design” of the entire educating community.La realtà complessa ci suggerisce di rivedere molti aspetti delle questioni epistemologiche e metodologiche relative alla ricerca educativa e alla didattica. La connessione tra contenuti e competenze a) disciplinari, b) di ricerca e c) mediali, sia a scuola che in ambito universitario, rappresenta la via per legare forme e sostanze dell’opera apprenditiva ed epistemica di un’intera generazione di adolescenti, che dovranno perseguire risultati significativi per affrontare le nuove versioni del mondo del lavoro. Pertanto, occorre far dialogare i tre fattori per creare le condizioni di nuovi nessi e differenti capacità osservative, grazie all’intreccio tra i nuovi metodi della ricerca e le varie soluzioni didattiche possibili. Noi pensiamo che tale sodalizio potrebbe restituire, a ricercatori, docenti e studenti, un atteggiamento di maggior attenzione alla realtà bio-digitale e al cambiamento in riferimento a condotte, modelli mentali, apprendimenti e visioni del futuro, aspetti che la “questione Covid” ha fatto emergere prepotentemente. Un approccio variabile e flessibile, portatore di un legame solido tra progettualità, processo d’apprendimento, sviluppo di competenze e valutazione, potrebbe sviluppare un dialogo più motivante in relazione alla necessità di contrastare gli “automatismi nella progettualità della ricerca, negli apprendimenti e nei mondi mediali, grazie a un consapevole "disegno trasformativo" dell'intera comunità educante.

Lifestyles and socio-cultural factors among children aged 6-8 years from five Italian towns: The MAPEC-LIFE study cohort

Background: Lifestyles profoundly determine the quality of an individual’s health and life since his childhood. Many diseases in adulthood are avoidable if health-risk behaviors are identified and improved at an early stage of life. The aim of the present research was to characterize a cohort of children aged 6–8 years selected in order to perform an epidemiological molecular study (the MAPEC_LIFE study), investigate lifestyles of the children that could have effect on their health status, and assess possible association between lifestyles and socio-cultural factors. Methods: A questionnaire composed of 148 questions was administered in two different seasons to parents of children attending 18 primary schools in five Italian cities (Torino, Brescia, Pisa, Perugia and Lecce) to obtain information regarding the criteria for exclusion from the study, demographic, anthropometric and health information on the children, as well as some aspects on their lifestyles and parental characteristics. The results were analyzed in order to assess the frequency of specific conditions among the different seasons and cities and the association between lifestyles and socio-economic factors. Results: The final cohort was composed of 1,164 children (50.9 boys, 95.4% born in Italy). Frequency of some factors appeared different in terms of the survey season (physical activity in the open air, the ways of cooking certain foods) and among the various cities (parents’ level of education and rate of employment, sport, traffic near the home, type of heating, exposure to passive smoking, ways of cooking certain foods). Exposure to passive smoking and cooking fumes, obesity, residence in areas with heavy traffic, frequency of outdoor play and consumption of barbecued and fried foods were higher among children living in families with low educational and/or occupational level while children doing sports and consuming toasted bread were more frequent in families with high socio-economic level. Conclusions: The socio-economic level seems to affect the lifestyles of children enrolled in the study including those that could cause health effects. Many factors are linked to the geographical area and may depend on environmental, cultural and social aspects of the city of residence