Measuring Media Literacy in a National Context: Challenges of Definition, Method and Implementation

General consensus among policymakers and academics is that media literacy is the ability to access, analyse, and evaluate media in multiple forms and communicate competently within these forms. Yet this seemingly straightforward definition presents methodological challenges in measurement, especially within a national context. Conceptually, approaches to measuring media literacy are often broadly inclusive, without necessarily considering how media literacy is enacted or identifying specific examples of media literate actors within daily contexts. Logistically, indicators are often defined in terms of existing data or data that can be easily collected, rather than choosing stronger measures identified through empirical research. This article examines the methodological challenges associated with measuring national levels of media literacy using the recent Testing and Refining Criteria to Assess Media Literacy Levels in All EU Member States as a case study. The article concludes by recommending more focused measures that account for practices, contexts, and shifting policy priorities

Mjerenje medijske pismenosti u nacionalnom kontekstu: Izazovi definiranja, metoda i primjene

General consensus among policymakers and academics is that media literacy is the ability to access, analyse, and evaluate media in multiple forms and communicate competently within these forms. Yet this seemingly straightforward definition presents methodological challenges in measurement, especially within a national context. Conceptually, approaches to measuring media literacy are often broadly inclusive, without necessarily considering how media literacy is enacted or identifying specific examples of media literate actors within daily contexts. Logistically, indicators are often defined in terms of existing data or data that can be easily collected, rather than choosing stronger measures identified through empirical research. This article examines the methodological challenges associated with measuring national levels of media literacy using the recent Testing and Refining Criteria to Assess Media Literacy Levels in All EU Member States as a case study. The article concludes by recommending more focused measures that account for practices, contexts, and shifting policy priorities.Političari i znanstvenici dijele mišljenje da je medijska pismenost sposobnost pristupanja, analize i vrednovanja medija u različitim formama te kompetentna komunikacija unutar tih formi. Ipak, ta definicija koja se čini preciznom predstavlja metodološke izazove u mjerenju, posebno unutar nacionalnog konteksta. Na razini teorije pristupi mjerenju medijske pismenosti često uključuju mnoge aspekte i elemente, bez nužnog razmatranja kako je medijska pismenost usvojena ili identificiranja konkretnih primjera medijski pismenih aktera u svakodnevnim kontekstima. U praksi su pokazatelji često definirani postojećim podacima ili podacima koji se mogu lako prikupiti, a ne odabirom jačih mjera koje su identificirane kroz empirijsko istraživanje. Ovaj članak istražuje metodološke izazove povezane s mjerenjem medijske pismenosti na nacionalnoj razini koristeći kao studiju slučaja nedavno objavljeno “Ispitivanje i ponovno definiranje kriterija za procjenu razine medijske pismenosti u svim zemljama članicama EU”. Na kraju se predlažu preciznije mjere koje se odnose na praksu, kontekste i promjenu političkih prioriteta

of Education Psychology

Abstract: We test our hypothesis that student in-class Internet actions reflect their engagement levels. We predict that an engaging learning environment will result in students performing a higher number of on-task Internet activities. To test our hypothesis, we compare student behaviors during two types of instructional episodes. Students participate in either a traditional, lecture-based lesson or an interactive simulation exercise. To measure student engagement levels, we develop a Classroom Behavioral Analysis System (CBAS) that records all student computer actions during the observed class periods. We then count and label these actions as on-task or off-task, depending on relevance to the classroom activity. We find that students attending the simulation class perform a significantly higher number of on-task actions. These findings support our hypothesis that engaging lessons result in higher levels of on-task Internet activities. Equally important, CBAS accurately reflects student engagement levels and is therefore a promising tool for studying engagement. While engagement and learning seem innately linked, there is little research to quantify relations among classroom activity, student engagement, and positive learning outcomes (Fredricks, et. al., 2004). Part of the difficulty in determining this relation lies in the challenge of measuring student engagement. In a typical classroom situation, at any given time, some students are paying attention to varying degrees an

Interdisciplinary Knowledge Work: Digital Textual Analysis Tools and Their Collaboration Affordances

In his experimental seminar, “Literature: Cross-Disciplinary Models of Literary Interpretation,” Alan Liu asked students to form groups around topics of their choosing and perform analyses using digital tools on their materials. Our group represented four different disciplines and therefore formed around digital tools, rather than content. Each of us took a tool in which we were to become “expert,” and applied that tool to everyone's prepared data. We found that a research focus can form around a set of digital tools even if the objects are not uniform. In this chapter, we discuss how we applied technology to our research goals and collaborative work. We address the main goals of our collaboration, as they emerged through our work together: to explore implications of using digital textual analysis methods on a variety of texts; to uncover possibilities in our datasets through experimentation with different tools; and to recognize the possibility for cross-disciplinary use of the methods we tested. We observed that the tools trend toward certain forms of interpretation and we examine how these trends affect the types of collaboration and analysis possible, but also how they can be re-purposed for alternative approaches. The most important lesson our collaborative experience taught us is that working together both pushed us and liberated us to experiment with our data and methods. In fact, much like our visualizations provide a big picture view of the texts we study, the multidisciplinary nature of our process forced us to step back and view our research at a macro-level. Although our collaboration began as a class project, playing together with technologies led each of us to new and significant understandings of our texts

Can apps play by the COPPA rules?

International audienceWe review current technical and social barriers to COPPA compliance for popular online services aimed at children. We show that complying with COPPA has proven difficult for developers, even when a genuine attempt was made. We investigate reasons for this lack of compliance and identify common causes: specifically, difficulties obtaining verifiable parental control as well as supply mechanisms for parents to understand, review, grant access and monitor collection of their children's personal data. Unless part of online services, mobile apps do not need to comply with COPPA. We identify 38,842 (out of 635,264) apps which are self-described (by their developers) as suitable for young users. Half of these apps have the ability to collect personal data and only 6% present a privacy policy. Parents often have little to no knowledge or understanding of what data is accessed. Due to Android's design they must grant all access regardless of permission type or need. Among the self-described apps we find different levels of content rating; these are not a reflection of the content of the app itself but rather the required access to personal data. We present a design for a new framework aimed at helping mobile apps to comply with COPPA. This framework aims to simplify the process for developers by providing appropriate tools and mechanisms to help comply with the COPPA rules while presenting an easily understandable interface for parents to review, navigate, understand and then grant access to their children's personal data