The MED Italian Association was founded in 1996 and has over 300 members who work in media education. It conducts research and promotes media education events. Key issues include defining media education concepts, teacher training, and collaboration with schools and media professionals. The association's mission involves studying media education practices in schools, evaluating programs, and conducting European projects and local action research. Future goals are to establish formal teacher training, introduce network culture and media competencies in schools, and promote media education action research.

1. MED
Media Education Association (Italy)
Media & Learning 2012
Alberto Parola
Faculty of Education - University of Turin (Italy)
MED Vice-President

2. • The ME Italian Association was born in 1996 in Italy.
• It has more than 300 members in Italy;
• It includes school teachers, university researchers
and professors, media experts, media producers,
media territory operators, that reflect on Media
education contents, on good practices and good
productions;
• It’s a group that carries out studies and ME research ;
• … and promotes ME learning …

4. Med challenges:
• ME concepts’ definition (web democracy, e-citizenship, media competences,
media educator, etc.)
• Promote ME events on the local, national and international level
• Eu project (es. On Air - www.onair.medmediaeducation.it)
• Teaching innovation
• Teachers training
• Tools for teachers
• Focus on languages (digital and expression)
• Collaboration with media professionals (Tv producers, journalists, web content
developers etc…)
• Collaboration with schools
• Design ME curriculum
• Experimental (and action) research
• Developing connections between different scientific fields…

5. MED mission (last 6 years)
• Documentation of “Media education activities” in school;
• Study on paths’ efficacy (On Air project, 2008-2010)
• Second curriculum step ... (11-14 years, under construction,
2013) after the “First steps in media education (2006) ... (5-10
years)
• Other European projects (2010-2012)
• Action research in local contexts (always)
• Our Magazine: “Media education: studi, ricerche, buone
pratiche (from 2010 ...)
• Collaboration with ministry of education
• Collaboration with other associations
• International collaboration (USA, Europe, China etc.)

7. Our Research Models
Parola e Ranieri, 2010

8. • 13 media education paths for
primary school
• The schools, in Italy, have are
being implemented some paths
and evaluted their efficacy

9. Other current MED Eu project
On Air - European Media Education Project
(www.onair.medmediaeducation.it)
and …
• News and You
• Energy BITS (www.energybits.eu/it)
• Game paddle

11. Three most important issues
to be tackled in the future …
1. Create a “teachers continuous formal training”
2. Introduce into the school the
– “network culture”,
– the “media competences culture” (not just “technology
culture”),
– the “observation and documentation culture” and …
– the “media competences evaluation culture”
1. Promote and funding the “ME action research”

12. MED perspectives …
• We can work together on the individual points that I have
shown before;
• We have already done something together, such as sharing
ideas, visiting our Summer Schools, exchanging perspectives
about our magazines;
• In the future we can do many things together such as:
– Reflecting on the “media education needs” in some “changing way“ countries;
– Doing comparative research;
– Finding new research ways on media education (quantitative and qualitative);
– To participate in new European research projects;
– Any other ideas?

13. Thank you for your attention!
alberto.parola@unito.it

14. MED model
Media competences Reading skills area Writing skills area Critical thinking skills area User skills area
Competences
model
Resources
Interpretative strategies
Action structures
Self-regulation structures

15. Where’s focus …
Didactics innovation Media education
Paths with multiple
languages writing

16. Role of teachers
The teacher-researcher
• We would like think about
teacher who applies the
techniques and strategies of
educational research in
classroom (Parola, Regia
educativa, Aracne, Roma,
2012)
• Is it a sustainable role?
• If we want to change the
School, we need to achieve
this goal

17. Med method
(in research and training)
• In twenty years, we were able to carry out
experiments and research in many schools of our
country, thanks to the introduction of the media in
school as "objects of study and analysis“.
• With the media education the class turns into a
“ideas and creativity laboratory “ as well as in an
environment where learning becomes more effective
and the kids express themselves with so much
motivation.

18. The basics of Action-Research:
1. cooperation between the researcher and the
group
2. prompting awareness
3. contributing to the solution of difficult
situations
4. enhancing social awareness

19. Action-research: spiral chart
4 Carrying out
the action
5
Monitoring
General plan
3
1 Initial idea
2
Research
6 Sharing and
Reflecting
Action hypothesis
7
New action
hypothesis

20. Explaining the A-R chart
• As can be seen, action-research follows a “spiral” method and a
series of phases that tend to effectively influence a particular
context from the initial idea to the new action.
• The other phases include research, i.e. analysing the context and its
actors, outlining a general plan and carrying out the action.
• Moreover, once the active phase is completed, it has to be
monitored. A moment of sharing and reflection together with the
group has to follow, in order to go on with new action-hypotheses.
• Med, for example, works in this way.

21. The school opens up to the territory
• Heads of schools and teachers take on a more active
role in starting relationships with various bodies in
order to design special educational programmes
together;
• Pupils are involved in projects with different roles:
classes become editing groups and the school an
editor and a complex and vital structure that informs
the territory and the families about the educational
plan.

22. A chart that relates a network of partners engaged in
Action-Research to promote education research
Tv
Production Radio
Press
Trainee University
Local School networks s
bodies Web Tv
Web Radio
USP e USR
Out-of-school
MED
Italian Association
for Media Education Media educators

23. Bibliography
• Ceretti F., Felini D., Giannatelli R., Primi passi nella media
education, Trento, Erickson, 2006.
• Ferri P., Nativi digitali, Milano, Mondadori, 2011.
• Jenkins H., Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring
Participatory Culture, New York: New York University Press,
2006.
• Parola A., Ranieri M., Media education in action, Firenze, FUP,
2010.
• Parola A., Territori mediaeducativi, Trento, Erickson, 2008.
• Trinchero R., Manuale di ricerca educativa, Milano, Franco
Angeli, 2002.

24. Teachers training
• Teacher training has now become very urgent:
– for future teachers
– for newly recruited teachers
– for old teachers who “need to update” their skills
– …
• The recent Italian school reform is based primarily on cuts
and no on innovation;
• We must proceed with local training and intercepting national
educational planes oriented to languages training.

25. The role of the teacher
• We are working on teachers training to make
them able to not just transmit knowledge and
skills but also competences (in line with the
requests of the European Union).
• To promote competences theachers have to plan
specific activities (modules/programmes that are
closely linked to traditional teaching), they
should be able to document and evaluate them
according to the planned goals.

26. The teacher needs to design project
and elaborate hypotheses!
• Can the teacher design his/her
activities, makes hypothesis about
students' learning, experimenting new
teaching methods and monitoring
their efficacy?
• In essence, we need a “researcher
teacher” who is not satisfied to assign
ratings, but who observes the learning
dynamics and the learning processes,
with the same school colleagues and
other schools colleagues who can
repeat and observe the same paths in
other contexts.