The Mediawijs Competence Model

The Mediawijs Competence Model

Auteur(s):

Hadewijch Vanwynsberghe - Mediawijs

1. More than one competence

Media literacy (in Dutch the translation 'mediawijsheid' (literally mediawisdom) is preferred over 'mediageletterdheid', which is perceived as a more technical, and less critical term) was defined by the Flemish government as a competence. This means: '(as an individual) having the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to act adequately in a specific situation. In this case: to move actively, creatively, critically and consciously in a media-based society in view of your social participation.

In a formulation as a competence you sometimes lose track of a number of things.

You soon lose sight of the broader framework, the why of what we're actually doing.
You sometimes mainly focus on what someone cannot do, and very little on his or her motivation and talents.
We often narrow it down to specific skills or knowledge, like to knowing which buttons to push and basic digital skills or to dealing with online safety or only to making media ourselves.

With the Mediawijs Competence Model we try to tackle these issues in a variety of ways:

In this way the model forms a point of departure for the development, implementation or evaluation of media literacy policies, research, tools or practices.

2. How do you get started?

Step 1: Make the model concrete for each situation and each target group. There is no fixed starting or ending point.
Step 2: Think about the objectives you want to achieve for yourself or your target group (inform, interact, create, entertain, (de)fend).
Step 3: Look into what competencies you need for that (operating, navigating, organising, producing, observing, analyzing, evaluating, reflecting).
Step 4: Determine what knowledge, skills and attitudes fit this situation.
Step 5: Translate this into your measures, training methods, research questions ...

3. How did it come about?

To arrive at the Mediawise Competence Model we walked a winding road.

Assessment
In 2015-2016 we started with an inventory of national and international competency frameworks, that you can link to media literacy, and analysed these. We went to work with commonalities and new trends we distilled from this.
Expertise
We put together a group with experts from Flanders, Wallonia and the Netherlands led by Dr. Hadewijch Vanwynsberghe. In varying composition, we drafted the elements and the first version of the Flemish Mediawise Competence Model in 4 meetings.
Review
The draft proposal was tested at the Flemish Mediawijs Congress on November 17th, 2015, with the staff members of Mediawijs, at the Mediawijs Education consultation platform in cooperation with the Flemish Education Council (VLOR) and at the Mediawijs the Social, Cultural and Welfare Work consultation platform and adjusted by the expert group.
Concretisation
Since the launch of our definitive Mediawijs Flemish Competence Model at the Flemish Mediawijs Congress on November 15th and 16th, 2016, our journey hasn't ended. We opted for a flexible, dynamic and generic framework. This means that there are always new contexts and target groups, for which it can be further defined, and always new technological and social evolutions, to which it can be adapted. It was used in, among other things:
- The Media Profile Test
- EMELS or the European Media Literacy Standard for Youth Workers

4. The most interesting other models

The Mediawijs Competence Model is the result of our quest so far. It's a starting point and a living model with handles to formulate the concrete framework for your own medium, target group and context.

Read the other articles on the Mediawijs Competence Model too!

Questions or remarks? Let us know!

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