Media Literacy and Education

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Finland has introduced Media Literacy into their curriculum.

Sort of an update to the 50-90's versions. Since our societies has changed vastly last 30 years in how we interact with each other and take information in. Perhaps something for other nations to take after?

Media Literacy and Education in Finland

Something like that needs to be a part of the solution to the problem we have, but another part of is giving the voters a real choice. There's far too little discussion over the fact that the primaries are considered to be the right of the parties to decide the nominees when there's effectively little opportunity for other parties to advance a viable candidate without one of the top two parties collapsing.

I found it interesting through a general lens of education. With the goal to empowering each individual. It's no longer just the mass media. We are being bombarded with information which is misconstrued as knowledge/factual information.

What you're touching on is what comes in the adult stage, elections and so on. I agree sort of with your points. I agree more with the sentiment that you're conveying.

It's a struggle and I believe education is a vital part in that struggle. What you're describing is deliberate. People with power tend not want to give that power up, nor be accountable for what they say or do.
Similar things have been done or tried to be done in Sweden as well, and most of the rest of Europe. To try conform people to a set of beliefs or limit options for the people and so on.

It's sad that it's necessary, I feel.

Perhaps if we regulated our media properly people wouldn't need to be educated in media literacy - which effectively means "How to tell when they're not being entirely truthful".

I think there needs to be designated classes on critical thinking (with a strong basis in humanism) which would include instruction on how to weigh evidence and spot logical fallacies. Sure, teachers try to work that stuff into their teaching, but it’s definitely not enough. People are still too apt to fall for conspiracy theories and other harmful BS whether it’s from the media, social media, or friends and family.

I agree with that. It's the reason I will argue that so called 'worthless' arts and other creative industry degrees are worth funding.

In the UK, critical thinking isn't properly taught until university, which means many people are never taught it at all. Even fewer since we introduced tuition fees. And it'll be fewer still if the right wing parties get their way and we lose creative and arts degrees entirely.

Yes, although it is worth noting, that in the US, the boys get shafted on education and god help you if you point out the stupid things being taught. I never did get an explanation as to why we were being taught that the conditions on 17th and early 18th century slave boats were the cause of black people in the late 20th century having problems with their blood pressure. Nor was there any real effort to justify why only white people in the US can be racist and if I hadn't been that jerk in class, nobody would have pushed back on that notion.

Having a separate class is definitely something that I'd endorse, but there's only so much that a standalone class can do if the rest of the curriculum is rife with just generally lazy and incompetent things like that it was Japanese that the US interned, when that's not exactly right. The Japanese where just the largest group in the camps because of how they were distributed through the US and they were harder to relocate. But, there were other groups in smaller numbers like Germans, Italians and the Chinese that were also sent to those camps. To this day, hardly anybody is willing to acknowledge that and there hasn't been any effort at providing reparations to the others from what I've read.

In Sweden we have had dropping results for a long time in our schools. That have lead to an increasing amount of measuring the students knowledge with tests. And with that comes an increased amount of grading. With an increase of measuring and grading, less time for actual education and learning. We train our students in taking tests, sort of. I do believe each individual teacher do what they can but struggle with the limitation of time.

You can see a similar thing at the universities. Higher amount of research in the fields of didactic method and grading.

Like you suggests TP regarding humanism, it's a must. That was what education was meant to be about, preparing our young folk to be part of society.
We have become more narcissistic which suggest a higher need for humanism. I wonder if we in some way chooses to fall for the conspiracies. With that I mean some people choose to what they want to hear or what group they want to be part of. I'm sure there many different reasons, but I'm curious what you all think?
I'm not very active in social media (WP is pretty much the closet thing to it for me), but that's the sense I gotten from people who are. Maybe it's just our dopamine junkie-self that just want that instant gratification that hinders us from thinking straight.

While I would like to see something like that here I could easily envision this becoming another battlefield in the culture war. Who gets to decide what the “facts” to teach are?

^This is what has happened in the UK. Rightwing media and politicians complaining about universities 'brainwashing' students with their leftwing ideologies.

It's so tiresome.

The far right extremists party in Sweden has, since a year back, trying to force the culture war into the public discord. With the aim to infringe on individuals rights and/or freedom.

They have had plenty of success but not regarding the culture war...yet...it's a tiresome struggle.

When I first heard it on Swedish TV my thought was - doesn't the name give away the game? WAR...doesn't that imply that a set of belief/rights aren't permitted? Feels like an obvious question(to me) to the person imposing it.

International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2023

It was released today. "ICILS 2023 will address a question of critical interest today: How well are students prepared for study, work, and life in a digital world?"