Media Education Futures: Coding skills not enough in an information society
FollowThe need to learn coding as one of the civic skills needed in the 21st century has been particularly emphasised in the Western world.
Whether coding skills should be included in the new national core curriculum is debated in Finland where IT companies have even organised coding clubs for children. However, the conclusion of the international conference Media Education Futures held at the University of Tampere, Finland, on 7 – 9 May was that coding skills alone are not enough in information societies.
The conference brought together over 140 researchers, teachers and policymakers in the field of media education from 26 countries. According to the research results presented at the conference, for young people to develop the critical awareness they increasingly need in information societies, technical skills must be supported by pedagogy. Critical thinking is also based on creativity which is one of the starting points for competitiveness in all fields, even in the creative industries. The conference also called for increasing multidisciplinary cooperation in order to develop research in this field.
The Media Education Futures Conference was co-organised by the School of Education and School of Communication, Media and Theatre, University of Tampere where the Media Education Master Program has been established earlier.
At the MEF conference, it was also announced that a new International Master’s Degree Programme in Media Education (120 ECTS) will start in 2015 at the University of Tampere. The essential focus will be centred on developing expertise in the discipline of media education formed by media literacy linked to information and communication technology in learning, media production and critical thinking in media saturated societies. The emphasis encourages the development of conceptual awareness and practical skills that are necessary for competence in reading and writing media, also creating suitable learning environments.