“Name it to Tame it”: IREX for Media Literacy in Lithuania
Martynas Petrikas, Jurgita Rudžionienė
Vilnius University, Lithuania
Objectives and Aims
Modern media landscape today requires high quality skills and knowledge to navigate and use critically tremendous information flows. Media literacy knowledge and skills help individuals evaluate the information content in daily life and equips them with the necessary competences to recognize disinformation and propaganda (Terzis et al., 2020).
Our goals for this paper are to analyse and present the main activities and results of the 2022 Media Literacy in the Baltics project at Vilnius University and share best practices. The project is part of the Media Literacy in the Baltics program that aims to enable better engagement of critical dealing with multiple forms of media. It leverages the IREX Learn to Discern (L2D) media literacy training curriculum and approach implemented by International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) organization with the assistance of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It is a part of coordinated international effort to help people acquire knowledge and develop the skills strongly needed in the post-truth media and information era. It aims to prevent the spread of the manipulative information, disinformation, hate speech, and propaganda that appears across multiple information sources and content (Learn to discern. Media literacy: trainer’s manual, 2020).
Outcomes
We developed the main activities and products of the Media Literacy in the Baltics project at the Vilnius University Faculty of Communication. In our roleas a partner in this project, we analysed results usingstatistical data andfeedback from attendees. To do this, we created forms targeting university students, academics, information specialists, and schoolchildren. We conducted media literacy seminars and workshops for other than Lithuanian speaking students as well at partner high schools. We arranged seminars/workshops during summer school for Vilnius University students and academics. And we prepared an article for academic research and literature review on media literacy. Vilnius University accepted the general university course, “Media and Information Literacy,” we created.. We adapted and integrated the JEDI (Journalism in the Era of Disinformation) method into this course. The aim of this course wass to develop students’ abilities to understand the information sphere and its processes in the media and to gain skills that are essential for conscious and critical consumption of the media content. Students completing the course should be able to evaluate and manage all daily information flows as well as to discern between reliable and unreliable information sources, credible content and disinformation, misinformation, and fake news. Finally, Vilnius University Faculty of Communication acted as an organizer of the international students’ conference, SOLUTION2022, on media literacy https://www.kf.vu.lt/dokumentai/Programme-Final-Public.pdf in cooperation with Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas (Lithuania).
References
IREX (2020). Learn to discern. Media literacy: trainer’s manual. Retrieved January 15, 2023 from https://www.irex.org/sites/default/files/node/resource/learn-to-discern-media-literacy-curriculum-english-3.pdf
Terzis, D., Kloza, D., Kuželewska, E., & Trottier, D. (Eds.). (2020). Disinformation and digital media as a challenge for democracy. Retrieved January 22, 2023 from https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/disinformation-and-digital-media-as-a-challenge-for-democracy/4AA403BC2691C317616CBD580894A02D
ENOEL: The Introduction of a European Open Education Group
Monique Schoutsen
Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
ECIL and ENOEL are two groups that have a lot in common. Both strive to bring together the librarians of Europe for a bigger goal. Their topics differ slightly, but the groups definitely have similarities. Whereas ECIL unites information specialists from all over Europe to exchange ideas, best practices, and research on all aspects of information literacy, ENOEL does the same job on all aspects of open education (OE).ENOEL started around three years ago as a part of SPARC Europe and since then ENOEL members have been working on a lot of projects. ENOEL consists of more than 100 very enthusiastic librarians from 27 countries all over Europe. We meet (virtually) around ten times a year.
The projects we have been working on are the following:
• OE Champions: a series of 13 interviews with inspirational advocates of OE in Europe.
• The ENOEL toolkit: a toolkit that consists of reusable and adaptable templates for Twitter cards, slides, and leaflets. Its aim is to help raise awareness of the importance of OE and explain benefits for four stakeholder groups: students, teachers, institutions, and society at large. ENOEL members have translated the Toolkit into 16 languages so far.
• Resources for librarians & OE enthusiasts: a Wakelet page that is filled by members of the ENOEL community with links to key documents that can support librarians and OE advocates.
• A “ENOEL practitioners under the spotlight” webinar series: In this series of webinars, ENOEL members guide us through their personal journeys with OEproviding a space for network members to share ideas, ask questions, and learn from one another.
• OE “Drops”: A series of short videos explaining the basics of OE to newcomers.
• OE learning path for librarians: a helpful guide for librarians who want to learn more about OE and identify available resources for educators, researchers, and students.
• A survey on OE in European libraries of higher education.
We partner with national and international networks to stimulate the implementation of the Open Education Agenda, including Creative Commons, ICDE, LIBER, OE Global, SPARC NA, the Network of Open Orgs, and many others. We try to visit as many conferences as we can to spread the word about our activities and learn from other communities and organize virtual OE café sessions with our OE Champions on different themes. The last one we did was on OE policy. The work of the ENOEL membership has paid off: last year we won the worldwide OE Award for Open Collaboration.
But we want to do more and that’s why we invite you to become a member of our community: the more we grow, the more we can do to support the OE movement.
Embedding Equality in Education – A Collaborative Project
Ika Jorum
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
The KTH Library performed a project funded by the Vice President for Gender Equality and Values and Vice President for Sustainable Development during 2021 that aimed to support teachers in their work for embedding equality in education at KTH. The project was managed by the library’s Education team and designed in collaboration with team Arena, team Collections, and the Learning Department. The overall aim of the project was to support teachers in embedding equality by focusing on critical information literacy and develop activities that could, over time, foster a sustainable and systematic way of working with gender and equality. Activities that were performed within the frame of the project were exhibitions, book discussions with a gender perspective, a workshop on bias for PhD students, journal clubs within the Education team (Accardi, Drabinski & Kumbier, 2010; Carstensen, 2006), and a workshop for library staff.
The Swedish Higher Education Authority made an assessment that showed the need to improve gender and equality in several education al areas. This led to the University’s funding of projects that supportted teachers to embed gender and equality. The library staff developed the project based on theory and strategies found in:
• literature at the Gender Theory and Gender Equality in Technical Higher Education course at KTH;
• literature read and discussed by the Education team (Accardi, Drabinski & Kumbier, 2010; Carstensen, 2006); and the United Nations global goals (https://www.globalgoals.org/).
The outcome of the project was in many ways successful but several parts remain on which to reflect. One challenge was how to reach an audience that is busy with teaching and research. Another challenge was how to ensure that the content you provide is relevant. It was also challenging to consider how perspectives on gender and equality can be embedded in daily work after the project is formally ended. We found that the reactions and assessment after the different activities showed that the book discussions were much appreciated as it gave opportunities to talk about and share experiences on both texts and society from a gender and equality perspective. We held these after the project was finished. The journal clubs within the teaching team were considered valuable as competency development and resulted in updates of the policy for equality in the library’s teaching. As an effect of the project, the library’s policy for acquisition was modified to take gender and equality in consideration when new media is purchased. Another effect was a workshop performed among the staff that aimed to enhance the consciousness within the organization regarding issues of gender and equality.
References
Accardi, Maria T., Drabinski, E., & Kumbier, A (Eds.) (2010). Critical library instruction: Theories and methods. Duluth, Minn.: Library Juice Press.
Carstensen, G. (2006). Könsmedveten pedagogik: Konkreta tips och övningar för lärare. Uppsala: Avdelningen för utveckling av pedagogik och interaktivt lärande (UPI), Uppsala universitet.
United Nation. The 17 goals. Retrieved from https://www.globalgoals.org/
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