Age-Friendly Media Literacy Education for Older People

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2022) | Viewed by 8619

Special Issue Editors


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Assistant Guest Editor
Faculty of Education, Media Education Hub, University of Lapland, P.O. Box 122, FI-96101 Rovaniemi, Finland
Interests: media literacy education; higher education; teacher education for adult education sectors; design-based research

E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Faculty of Education, Media Education Hub, University of Lapland, P.O. Box 122, FI-96101 Rovaniemi, Finland
Interests: media literacy and media literacy education; especially from the perspective of older people

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Societies today are in the process of digitalization, which affects public administration, educational services, healthcare and welfare services, and private commercial services. In addition, government bodies, media, businesses, as well as citizens communicate and transmit information to a growing extent through digital media such as the Internet and social media. Media literacies are conceived as core competences for citizens of all ages living in today’s digitalized societies and are in this Special Issue understood broadly as the abilities to use, understand, critically evaluate, and create media contents in a variety of contexts. Media literacies include numerous dimensions such as news literacy, advertising literacy, game literacy, and health media literacy and partly overlap with concepts such as digital competences, ICT skills, and ICT literacies.

Despite the diversity within older people’s media literacies, a large number of people who are over 60 years of age lack adequate media literacies to support their learning, wellbeing, everyday life, and participation in the digitalized society. Older people’s Internet non-use and limited media literacies or digital competences may present challenges to the ongoing digitalization of society: digitalization may also have exclusionary effects. The need for media literacies is further augmented by the present COVID-19 pandemic, and possible future pandemics.

Presently, there is scant research literature on effective, meaningful, and age-friendly pedagogical approaches and instructional methods for promoting media literacy in older people. Most often, media literacy interventions target older people’s ICT skills in using digital devices, technologies, and media for various purposes such as news, health, learning, entertainment, and social interaction. By contrast, there is limited research on interventions which target older people’s abilities to understand, critically evaluate, and create media content. Furthermore, research has typically reported on interventions based on teacher-centered face-to-face pedagogy, while creative pedagogy and blended and online pedagogy have been rarely discussed. 

The aim of this Special Issue is to present and discuss recent advances in age-friendly media literacy education for older people. The call is open to papers that address the issue of age-friendly media literacy education in relation to pedagogical approaches and instructional methods, such as peer-to-peer teaching, intergenerational approaches, blended and online pedagogy, and approaches based on participants’ creative processes. The Special Issue welcomes research papers, reviews of studies, or theoretical discussions.

Dr. Päivi Rasi-Heikkinen
Dr. Hanna Vuojärvi
Dr. Susanna Rivinen
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • media literacy
  • media literacy education
  • older people
  • senior citizen
  • media literacy intervention
  • pedagogical approach
  • digital competence
  • ICT literacy

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1431 KiB  
Article
Learning with and about Digital Technology in Later Life: A Socio-Material Perspective
by Rebekka Rohner, Lisa Hengl, Vera Gallistl and Franz Kolland
Educ. Sci. 2021, 11(11), 686; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11110686 - 27 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2198
Abstract
Literature has widely explored the learning processes with information and communication technology (ICT) in later life, mostly focusing on the individual learner rather than materialities—such as smartphones, notepads, and handouts. The aim of this paper is to introduce a socio-material perspective by focusing [...] Read more.
Literature has widely explored the learning processes with information and communication technology (ICT) in later life, mostly focusing on the individual learner rather than materialities—such as smartphones, notepads, and handouts. The aim of this paper is to introduce a socio-material perspective by focusing on the question: What role do materialities play in digital learning processes in later life? This paper draws upon a situation analysis of data from a qualitative multi-perspective study. Researchers conducted participatory observations of five ICT courses for older adults in Austria and semi-structured interviews with seven trainers and nine older participants (61–81 years). By identifying three social worlds (digital devices, education, and participants’ everyday lives), the findings show how ICT-learning processes are embedded in the everyday lives of older adults and include not only digital, but also everyday materialities, such as pens, paper and books. These material convoys of digital learning in later life are vital in facilitating successful technology appropriation in later life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Age-Friendly Media Literacy Education for Older People)
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15 pages, 498 KiB  
Article
Older People’s Media Repertoires, Digital Competences and Media Literacies: A Case Study from Italy
by Alessandra Carenzio, Simona Ferrari and Päivi Rasi
Educ. Sci. 2021, 11(10), 584; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11100584 - 27 Sep 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4163
Abstract
Digital media are part of everyday life and have an intergenerational appeal, entering older people’s agendas, practices, and habits. Many people aged over 60 years lack adequate digital competences and media literacies to support learning, well-being, and participation in society, thus imposing a [...] Read more.
Digital media are part of everyday life and have an intergenerational appeal, entering older people’s agendas, practices, and habits. Many people aged over 60 years lack adequate digital competences and media literacies to support learning, well-being, and participation in society, thus imposing a need to discuss older people’s willingness, opportunities, and abilities to use digital media. This study explored older people’s media use and repertoires, digital competences, and media literacies to promote media literacy education across all ages. The article discusses the data from 24 interviews with older people aged 65 to 98 years in Italy to answer the following research questions: What kinds of media repertoires emerge? What kinds of competences and media literacies can be described? What kinds of support and training do older people get and wish to receive? The analysis of the data produced four specific profiles concerning media repertoires: analogic, accidental, digital-instrumental, and hybridised users. Media literacy is still a critical framework, but the interviewees were open to opportunities to improve their competences. The use of digital media has received a strong boost due to the pandemic, as digital media have been the only way to get in touch with others and carry out their daily routine. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Age-Friendly Media Literacy Education for Older People)
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