Getting Started
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There are different ways to go about media education. One is to teach children how to use and consume media responsibly and safely.
Another way is to use media as a tool for producing one's own media products, which in turn promotes a critical and responsible approach to media. Digital media are used here as a means of expression and design. Through independent experimentation with media, children can participate in their social environment and they learn how media can be used, for example, to publish information and their own opinions. They change from being just consumers of media to being active producers.
Parents have the opportunity to fulfil the children's need to do something with digital media and to encourage their children's active, creative activities. Digital meets analogue in creative media work.
At the end of this module, as a future MediaParent consultant, you will have understood the learning experiences of children through creative media work and will be able to give parents lots of great ideas to use at home.
Learn More
Even with younger children, there are already numerous opportunities to use media actively and creatively. These include, for example, taking photographs, making videos or stop-motion films.
What do children learn through creative media work?
Through their own and imaginative use of media, children learn on the one hand how media work, what they intend and how they influence them. On the other hand, they can experience media directly. By taking their own photographs, for example, children learn that media only show a section of reality, or by producing a simple animated film that not everything shown on television is real.
Photo, Audio, Video, Stop-Motion and Coding for Younger Children
In the "Interactive manual for media education in preschool education" starting on p. 97 on the right-hand side, you will learn exciting background information, app recommendations and practical application possibilities for active and creative media use in the areas of photography, audio, video, stop-motion and coding, which can also be used by younger children. The manual is primarily targeted at kindergarten and after-school teachers. However, the knowledge is equally useful for you as a future MediaParent consultant.
For practical implementation, you will find many great ideas and examples under the links "HABA - Project ideas" and "Practical examples for educators and at home".
Digital Analogue Outdoor Activities
Almost all the possibilities already mentioned can be wonderfully combined with activities outside in the fresh air. For example, parents can have small animals photographed during the Sunday walk or the production of the stop-motion film is simply moved into the garden. Digital scavenger hunts, so-called action bounds, also ensure that even the youngest members of the family do not get bored. At the link "Apps That Inspire Kids to Play Outside" you will find more tips to give parents for their digital-analogue leisure activities to take home.
Exercise
There are no limits to creative media work and the possibilities are almost endless. We can only give you a few initial ideas here.
- What other creative activities with media can you think of that are particularly suitable for younger children? Create an individual collection of ideas for creative media work in the family.
- Try to describe in your own words what children learn through the active and creative use of media.
What you learn in this course
- You will be able to reflect how creative media work is defined and what is meant by it.
- You will be able to explain the advantages of creative media work in promoting media literacy.
- You will be able to escribe which learning opportunities result from creative media work.
- You will be able to describe ideas for creative media work and develop own ideas.
- You will be able to formulate recommendations for implementation at home.
Get ready: Tips for MediaParent consultants
As a future MediaParent consultant, you have certainly been able to develop a lot of your own ideas for creative media work in this module. Encourage this wealth of ideas at your parents' evening.
Bring different apps, such as Stop-Motion Studio or Pic Collage, and let the parents try them out themselves. This is fun and reduces inhibitions to use them in everyday life.
Resources
Links
"Interactive manual for media education in preschool education" starting on p. 97
https://kita-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/Kita_Interactive_Manual_en.pdf
“HABA – Project ideas”
https://catalog.wehrfritz.com/haba-education/haba-education-media-literacy-19-en.pdf