Already in their early years pupils come into contact with a variety of media. Children in disadvantaged communities may reduce the gap by increasing their media literacy.

Children use the media naturally and carefree – one could also say naively. They often understand the technical devices quicker than adults. However, children have to learn to select the media content correctly and to acquire a critical, not necessarily negative, approach.

In order to make children aware of the usefulness and the effects of media, we need to provide early childhood education and care professionals (ECEC) with the ability to include media education in their work.

At Skola Dokoran – Wide Open School, we have realized that many ECEC professionals are behind in the use of the media compared to the “native media generation”.

They need coaching on the use of the media so that they can strengthen the media literacy of  young children and teach them a responsible approach to media.

the kit@ project

The  Kit@ project trains the media competence of professionals in day-care centres and comparable institutions in rural areas of Europe. With this project we also help parents to develop active strategies on content exposure. For example: being open about the internet content and activities, sitting nearby the child while he/she is online, actively sharing thoughts about online experiences, feeding in responsible ways of using the internet.

The projects promotes internet communications technology as a mean to reduce the distance between families, the educational community and the digital media (e.g., Blog, Wikipedia, Facebook etc.). We hope that we will be successful in encouraging families’ observations, their evaluation of the media messages and to inform them of the impact on the children’s perception of the world.

Read more info on project website: www.kita-project.eu 

By Miroslav Sklenka Miroslav Sklenka, PhD., Executive Director at Škola dokorán.