A9c/S14 Media Literacy Education and the UN Alliance of Civilizations 5 op

Content

Special efforts have been made to develop the new renaissance education and build global cultural bridges together with artists. It is widely understood that the most important skills of the future will be communication skills. Critical thinking skills are needed as a productive and positive activity. Critical thinkers see the future as open and malleable, not as closed and fixed. As noted in the UNESCO Report on Knowledge Societies (2005), there is a general agreement on the appropriateness of the expression "knowledge societies"; the same cannot be said of the content. However we define the 21st century societies there are some trends that seem to have consequences in all spheres of life. Globalization and digitalization have fundamental consequences in educational and learning life, working life and in governance. The vision is a society which develops and utilizes the opportunities inherent in the information society to improve the quality of life, knowledge, international competitiveness and interaction in an exemplary, versatile and sustainable way. These ideas have been used to develop the Global University System (GUS) within the UNESCO Chair in global e-learning at the University of Tampere (Chairholder Tapio Varis). The Chair has emphasized media literacy because of the topicality and importance of media education as part of citizenship skills and the problems encountered in its realization.

Another issue has been cultural dialogue and cooperation with the Alliance of Civilizations movement created by the United Nations on the inititative of Spain and Turkey. In 2008-2009 much attention will be given to the media and relations between the Islamic and Western world. These developments will be analysed in the course and the participants will also have a chance to contribute to the ongoing processes of media literacy education.

Grading

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