Media literacy in kindergarten in Bremen

How do day-care centres approach media education and what are their needs in terms of basic and advanced professional training?

Children grow up under the influence of a variety of different media: Alongside the traditional picture book, digital media are also very present in the lives of three- to six-year-olds.

The day-care centres are confronted with the childrens media-related experiences and need to find a suitable way to deal with the (undesirable) effects of media. However, protection cannot be the only objective, as media education can and should also promote creative and productive use of media, aiming to help the young users to develop media literacy.

Besides the family, day-care facilities represent a key institution regarding care and socialisation and are therefore responsible for media education as well. How do they approach this task, and what is needed to enhance basic and advanced nursery school teacher training in this respect? The questions that need to be addressed are what should be the objectives of early media education and how the latter can be developed systematically under the present conditions in Bremen.

On behalf of Brema (Bremen State Institute of Media), ifib is conducting a survey on the promotion of media literacy in Bremens day-care facilities. Nursery school heads and teachers are interviewed, and workshops are organized with the help of education authorities and professional training institutions in order to support the promotion of media literacy in day-care facilities.