The document reports on an international conference hosted by Ghent University focused on literacy, culture, media, and education from February 9-11, 2012. It highlights the event's aims to explore the impacts of digitality on these fields, with discussions centered on media and society, culture, education, and information literacy. The conference concluded with recommendations emphasizing the need for enhanced information literacy across various societal levels, advocating for local projects and incremental strategies to promote awareness and engagement.

1.
International
Conference
Literacy
and
Society,
Culture,
Media,
&
Education
Ghent
University,
EMPATIC
&
EMSOC
9-­‐11
February
2012
This
project
has
been
funded
with
support
from
the
European
Commission

2. International
Conference
Literacy
and
Society,
Culture,
Media,
&
Education
Ghent
University,
EMPATIC
&
EMSOC
9-­‐11
February
2012
Brief
report
1.
Background
Following
the
political
unrest
and
uncertainty
in
Greece,
the
PMB
took
a
unanimous
decision
to
look
for
a
new
host
country
for
the
EMPATIC
Final
Conference.
Using
the
stakeholders
database,
two
possibilities
emerged:
an
international
conference
Literacy
and
Society,
Culture,
Media,
&
Education
being
hosted
by
Ghent
University
and
an
event
entitled
European
Meeting
on
Media
and
Information
Literacy
Education,
an
idea
and
proposed
joint
initiative
on
a
number
of
European
bodies
but
at
the
time
had
not
focussed
directly
on
preparing
a
programme.
EMPATIC
was
able
to
bring
substance
to
both
organisers
at
the
same
time
as
opening
both
events
to
EMPATIC
stakeholders.
Carol
Priestley,
Manager,
EMPATIC
travelled
to
Ghent
to
meet
with
the
Ghent
University,
discuss
ideas
of
mutual
interest
and
offer
a
first
draft
outline
programme.
2.
Management
and
Organisation
Ghent
University
was
pleased
to
share
both
administrative
and
programme
roles
and
also
introduce
EMPATIC
to
another
interesting
partner
–
EMSOC
(User
Empowerment
in
a
Social
Media
Culture)
http://emsoc.be/
3.
Programme
In
an
age
of
digitality
and
mass
media,
perceptions
about
and
practices
of
culture,
pedagogy
and
educational
systems
are
undergoing
rapid
changes
and
debate.
Among
other
issues
and
developments,
the
impact
of
digitality
results
in
new
perspectives
on
literacy(ies).
A
copy
of
the
full
programme
is
attached
at
Appendix
1.
Participants
in
the
conference
were
invited
to
explore
theories,
practices,
and
applications
for
the
study
of
the
interrelations
of
digitality
and
contemporary
society,
culture,
and
pedagogy
in
thematic
sections
of
1)
Media
and
Society,
2)
Media
and
Culture,
3)
Media
and
Education,
and
4)
Media
and
Information
Literacy.
The
final
day
of
the
programme
(Saturday
11
February)
was
devoted
to
verifying
EMPATIC
recommendations.
4.
Participants
Wide
publicity
was
undertaken
to
try
to
ensure
a
fully
represented
participation.
A
list
of
attendees
is
attached
at
Appendix
2.
Regrettably
there
were
additionally
a
number
of
regrets
because
of
a
viral
infection
sweeping
Belgium.
5.
Conclusions
From
the
point
of
view
of
EMPATIC
the
conference
was
highly
successful.
Each
sector
of
EMPATIC
was
represented
and
discussion
was
extremely
lively.
Participants
were
both
interested
in
the
overall
aims
of
the
project
and
also
keen
to
be
activity
engaged
in
discussing
the
recommendations
and
being
involved
in
any
follow-­‐
up.

3. Recommendations
to
Policy
Makers
by
the
Ghent
conference
participants
included:
1. The
participants
agreed
that
Information
Literacy
is
vital
for
the
today’s
society
in
Europe
and
as
such
should
be
developed
and
promoted
in
different
contexts
and
by
various
means.
They
also
pointed
out
that
there
exist
a
few
IL
related
projects
going
on
in
local
communities
in
Europe
under
the
names
of
“media
literacy”
or
even
“media
wisdom”.
2. The
importance
of
Information
Literacy
needs
to
be
publicized
not
only
to
governments,
ministries
and
policy
makers
on
the
national
or
EU
levels
but
also
to
local
authorities,
businesses,
small
social
groups
and
all
citizens.
3. The
strategy
of
IL
development
should
encompass
two
main
lines
of
action:
IL
awareness
building
among
authorities
and
governments
on
the
national
and
European
levels
4. Substantial,
real
work,
“step
by
step”,
“project
by
project”
on
the
local
level
by
particular
schools,
universities,
libraries,
etc.
5. The
most
of
participants
expressed
the
feeling
that
“slow”
strategy,
based
on
“small
projects”
addressed
to
different
target
groups,
communities,
professions,
etc.
would
be
more
effective
than
having
a
central
EU
body
responsible
for
the
IL
development
or
the
formal
European
IL
policy
directives.
6. Thus,
the
“IL
awareness
building”
and
“central
goals”
approach
clearly
prevailed
over
the
“central
steering”
one.
Also,
having
clearly
stated
Information
Literacy
goals
(national,
European)
may
help
anyone
wanting
to
convince/influence
local
authorities
to
support
IL
development
programmes.
7. One
of
the
tactical
observations
has
been
that
“incentives
work
better
than
orders”,
meaning
that
IL
development
policy
based
on
incentives
for
those
who
introduce
IL
(teachers,
librarians,
businesses,
local
authorities)
would
be
the
effective
one.

4. http://empat-ic.eu/eng/
Project funded by the European Commission
under the Lifelong Learning Programme
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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