Education and Training Science

NAME OF THE COURSE Media Education in Childhood EDUCATIONAL GOALS Technology is an integrated learning tool more and more recognised as valid to promote children's social, linguistic, and cognitive development. Course's general goal is to analyse the changes characterising the modern society and involving children since their first days in connection to the use of old and new media. The course is organised into two areas: the first one will specifically discuss the topic of Television Literacy, examining the main theoretical points of view related to possible effects on children aged 0-3 of exposure to TV and its contents. It will analyse characteristics typical of the process of TV exposure, especially in terms of usage styles associated to different family models of mediation to viewing, but also related to regularity, liking, and motivation to exposure to specific programmes, networks, and genres. The processes, specific of this age, implied in the decoding of the TV message will be discussed: attention, memorisation, and understanding of the media texts, but also the contents they transmit. A special attention will be paid to representations of reality in TV programmes for children, highlighting the potentialities but also the educational problems associated to the proposal of behavioural models in their different dimensions: specificities, differences, and conditioning, included the gender ones. A second part will be specifically about new technologies viewed as educational tools in preschool children, with a special reference to the following areas: learning, well designed digital tools increase motivation and foster learning more than the traditional ones; cognitive competence, the digital devices used as educational tools help to improve operational memory, spatial ability, and visual attention; social interaction, preschool children are more willing to cooperate, installing peer-to-peer learning dynamics. The course will take advantage of a consolidated literature that has highlighted how much Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) in preschool children can be extremely rich of opportunities, especially in view of an ever greater accessibility to, and a more and more precocious and intuitive use of digital devices. More in detail, will be examined the elements characterising the introduction of new generation devices with touch technology, with a high level of iconicity, easily accessible to children, and able to facilitate the development of cognitive (simultaneous and spatial-motor intelligences) and social aspects, through experience sharing. It will also consider the issues of an inappropriate use in terms of excessive time, usage, and inappropriate contents. It will be examined the role of an educator in nursery schools as for socialisation to old and new media and, at the end of the course, the student will know child's specific abilities, from birth to school, related to the process of socialisation to media, and he/she will be able to use educational strategies referring to the use of analogical and digital devices at school [Dublin Descriptor No. 1]. He/she will also acquire the skills in managing the relationships with child's family about the dimensions of control, participation, and stimulation to autonomy in the use of old and new technologies [Dublin Descriptor No. 2]. The acquired cross skills will be about critical skills and skills in making judgements related to media education, strengthened by participation to theoretical activities along with practical exercises with specific audio-visual materials [Dublin Descriptor No. 3]. Activities in small groups will be fostered, aimed at stimulating and facilitating the feelings of membership, sharing, negotiation ability, conflict solving, and active participation [Dublin Descriptor No. 4]. Thanks to participation to research projects (critical analysis of bibliographical sources, administration of questionnaires, and data insertion) within media education, the student will be better prepared to pursue a further education in an independent way and to examine in depth the themes of socialisation to old and new media he/she will have to study [Dublin Descriptor No. 5].