Media-Education – between theory and practice

Abstract

The article first focuses on the current discussion about the definition of media-education using references from a recent international conference. There are currently interesting perspectives about media and children. Media technologies change quickly, as does the use that children make of them, which provides them abilities that the previous generation did not have. This challenges the form and content of media education, as well as the entire school curriculum. This article discusses a broad educational approach, which is both theoretical and practical, to the theme of media and information. It is based on the authors’ cooperative experiences with teachers from the Danish school system. Two models are presented: the first, which has been used for many years in relation to traditional media, such as newspapers, TV and video – is called the zigzag method. The second is aimed at teaching in the new multimedia context. The first describes teaching about film in the 1st–3rd grades of elementary school and the second describes the development of a film tool for teachers, including what the authors call the “typhoon model,” a second version of the zigzag model. The article concludes with a discussion about the future of media-education.