Address Sylvia Löhrmann Minister for School and Further Education of North-Rhine-Westphalia Germany. LitCam - Conference Literacy and Media:

Transcription

1 Address Sylvia Löhrmann Minister for School and Further Education of North-Rhine-Westphalia Germany LitCam - Conference Literacy and Media: Innovative Ways of Teaching Media Literacy Helsinki 16 August 2013

2 2 Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished listeners, thank you for inviting me to Helsinki. Finland is a very appropriate place for this conference: Your education system enjoys an excellent reputation and it serves as a model for numerous developments in my German home state North Rhine-Westphalia. It is therefore my great pleasure to speak to you here in the House of Science and Letters. As Minister of School and Education today s topic matters profoundly to me as we will be dealing with issues crucial to the future of our society. I am very confident that the discussions and conversations will give me plenty of good ideas and suggestions to take home with me to Düsseldorf. Our education system, whether at school, vocational college or university, is basically always about how best to enable pupils and students to become self-determining individuals, to lead an autonomous life and to help shape society responsibly and in the spirit of solidarity.

3 3 Modern democracies depend on young people always beginning anew to realise their ideas, to apply their knowledge and to live their dreams. In addition to self-confidence and maturity, this also requires a number of particular cultural skills. These include fundamental competencies such as reading, writing and arithmetic the three Rs but also the use of media in a digital world. Today, we use e-readers to read books, we use computers to write texts and we have calculation software do up the sums. On top of that, roaming the Internet has become a very routine thing inconceivable only a few years ago to all those of us who are not digital natives. Media literacy is therefore a key skill one must have. Media, on the other hand, are mere tools, they are not there for their own sake, we all know that. But/However, media literacy is very much about our values and beliefs, and always incorporates general learning skills. In announcing this conference, you pointed out that according to recent studies, there are considerable differences amongst young people in their abilities to

4 4 participate in digital culture and their level of media literacy. So we again have to do with a question of social justice. Media competences as a skill must be obtained by everybody independent of personal origin. This difference makes our educational mission all the more important and leads me to two crucial points: We need to assist and support children and young people when it comes to putting the opportunities of the digital world to full use. They have to act as subjects and not as objects. They need to be aware of the traps and risks of the Web, they need to know that whatever they may naively put on the Web stays there forever. We need to ensure that they respect ethics and values and refrain from communicating under the veil of anonymity. Think of the increasing problem of cybermobbing. Ladies and Gentlemen, the North Rhine-Westphalia Government has launched the Medienpass NRW initiative to tackle precisely all

5 5 those aspects chances and risks and to systematically improve the appropriate skills of children and young people. Medienpass NRW is available to all pupils from age 6 to 15 or 16 of all school types. We understand promoting media literacy not as a concept aimed purely at the individual. Rather, it has a comprehensive purpose, both in and out of school. Many schools and education partners are trying out innovative approaches. Integration and networking at the local level play a fundamental role. Publishers of school books are beginning to come up with more and more digital learning aids. Our teacher training programmes have been adapted to further develop this important issue. Finally, let me make an exemplary point: if digital literacy, or media literacy for that matter, is one of the key basic skills for our future - then it must be extended to every child, to every youth and to every young adult! By ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in March of 2009, the Federal Republic of Germany eventually declared its commitment to

6 6 inclusive education and is now in the process of fleshing this out. As a consequence, we must look at ways to make it possible for the disabled and non-disabled to live and learn alongside each other while acquiring these new skills, it will be interesting to see which opportunities the increased use of digital media will provide here. At the same time we must regard these developments from a global perspective. After all, in the industrialised nations we are now adding a new important element to our education system. We must not lose sight of the fact that this again widens the gap between our financially wealthy societies and those living in the economically poorest countries of the world. I am deeply convinced that it is our duty to close this gap. I know that this is much easier said than done, but I do believe that human solidarity should extend far beyond national borders. Before I close, let me briefly come back to what I said at the beginning:

7 7 Our future is shaped essentially by the ideas, knowledge and visions of our pupils, apprentices and students that is, by our young people. It therefore makes good sense in fact, it is crucial that we provide these young people with the very best education we possibly can. Media literacy is a component whose importance can hardly be overestimated. And that is why it will be well worth to go ahead to continue this road with joy, commitment and courage. On that note, let me wish all of us here an inspiring and productive day.