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Media scouts start: primary schools in the Märkischer Kreis are now included!
In the Märkisches Kreis, the training of media scouts at primary schools to promote media literacy begins on July 1st.
Media scouts start: primary schools in the Märkischer Kreis are now included!
The media scouts program, which is already being successfully implemented in secondary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia, is expanding its scope and is now also starting in primary schools. The State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, for example Lokaldirekt.de reports that in the future the little ones will also learn how to use digital media. The first official step in this direction is the kick-off event on July 1st at 1 p.m. in the Märkischer Kreis media center in Altena.
The idea behind it is simple: students, the so-called media scouts, provide advice to their peers when it comes to questions about the digital world. The approach is based on peer-to-peer support, which means that children learn and receive advice from other children. The aim of the funding from the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Schools and Education is to teach media skills in a child-friendly way.
The importance of media literacy
In times of the Internet and digital media, it is essential that even the youngest children learn how to use information responsibly. The media scouts are prepared in workshops to convey topics such as search engines, image rights and rules for chats, among other things. How media competence framework.nrw explains, the media scouts approach is viewed as the largest program of its kind in Germany. Since 2011, over 7,300 media scouts and 3,100 consultants have been trained, and more than 1,050 secondary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia are now actively involved.
The concept stipulates that each participating primary school sends two people for qualification, at least one of whom must be a teacher. The specialists are trained by media education trainers over three afternoons. They are then able to train numerous media scouts from the third and fourth grades.
A successful pilot project
Four primary schools in the Märkischer Kreis have already registered for the opening event: the Pestalozzischule, the Westschule in Lüdenscheid, the Bismarckschule in Kierspe and the Lösenbach primary school, also in Lüdenscheid. Schools that already work with Internet ABC and have the necessary staffing capacity are particularly targeted. Interested school administrators can find out about the next application phase, which runs from January to February, while qualification starts in June. Participation is free for schools, which creates an additional incentive to take part in the program. medienscouts-nrw.de emphasizes the importance of winning over school management for the offer.
The first camp that the media scouts organize consists of six stations and two creative stations. Here the media scouts have the opportunity to gain practical experience and at the same time supervise their classmates. Lasting around four hours, school classes of 24 to 36 children can take part and strengthen their media skills in a playful way.
This lays the foundation for conscious and informed use of media at a young age. The media scouts program is not only a sensible step for the primary schools in the Märkisches Kreis, but could also have a nationwide impact. In this way, children are taught a good knack for using digital media in a playful and effective way.