Mediawijs.be

Mediacoach is something you become!

Mediacoach is a training for professionals, who mentor or educate pepole or organise education or interaction with the public and who want to integrate digital and media literacy into their own practice and organisation. A Mediacoach is the central point of contact in the school or organisation regarding media literacy and the educational use of (digital) media. The media coach inspires and supports his or her colleagues.

The Mediacoach trainingcourse offers

• background knowledge and a theoretical framework to start with digital and media literacy in one's own work,
• a range of good practices and tools to integrate digital and media literacy in the workplace,
• insights into coaching colleagues and mentoring of a concrete digital and media literacy project based on the needs of the own organisation

This trainingcourse was started in 2012 and has been coordinated by Mediawijs since 2016, in collaboration with LINC vzw and Mediaraven. The course is co-financed through Mediawijs by the Flemish ministers of Media and of Education and Training and has received support from Evens Foundation and the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Commission in the past. There is also an interaction with our French-speaking partner Média Animation.

Who is the Mediacoach Trainingcourse for?

The target audience of the standard Mediacoach Trainingcourse in Flanders are professionals who work in education with children and young people, such as

• primary and secondary school teachers,
• coordinators in education (care coordinators, those responsible for communication or pedagogical ICT coordinators),
• educational staff of the library,
• educational staff from the socio-cultural sector and youth work,
• ...

We encourage cooperation and exchange of inspiring perspectives with these various professional groups in one program.

But we and our partners have also organised specific Mediacoach Trainingcourses for

• heritage workers with Faro,
• people with dissabilities in duo's with people who work in the sector that supports people with disabilities by Konekt,
• professionals who work in the job placement sector by Linc vzw,
• teachers in Basic Education (education for adults with low literacy) by Mediawijs,
• remedial educationalists and care workers in the care facilities for people with disabilities and special youth care (fall 2020) by Mediawijs, UCLL and Link in de Kabel.

Prior knowledge

We assume that you have a basic knowledge of digital media, average technical skills, and an affinity with and - above all - enthusiasm for (digital) media and supporting your colleagues with regard to digital media and media literacy.

Structure of the Mediacoach Trainingcourse

The Mediacoach Trainingcourse lasts one year and consists of 9 training sessions, an online course and an internship project. We organise parallel sissions at various locations in Flanders.

1 / The sessions

During the sessions or contact moments, practice and exchange about media literacy are central. We also process the theoretical part of the MOOC (cf. infra). The sessions consist of a fixed content section and a number of choice workshops. When registering you can indicate which topics of the workshops interest you most. You can also give suggestions yourself. During the sessions there is also room for project management (cf. infra).

• Two introductory sessions
  • What is 'media literacy' and inspiration for digital and media literacy projects
  • Media use of children and young people and digital and media literacy tools for policy and practice
• Five theme sessions
  • Media and games, virtual and augmented reality - project
  • Media production
  • Media privacy and digital balance - peer project
  • Social media and online relationships
  • News media, data and advertising literacy - project
• Project session: presentation of the projects to the jury
• Final day with inspiring workshops and speakers and presentation of the competence document.

2 / The Media Coach MOOC

The theoretical knowledge about digital and media literacy is largely covered in an online learning environment (MOOC or Massive Open Online Course). We process and deepen it via the flipping-the-classroom principle and with additional explanation from experts.

3 / The project

Between and after the sessions, participants are given time to put the knowledge they have gained into practice. They each carry out an internship project in their work environment, to create a tangible result or a change in the organisation. The testimonials in the Mediacoach tool give an idea of ​​what a project can entail. For this project, the participant must count on a time commitment of 40 hours spread over the entire course.
Every media coach gets a personal mentor who coaches him or her. The project support is interwoven throughout the sessions. In addition, both online and offline guidance is provided in periods without sessions.
These projects are presented and analysed during the penultimate session. The participants receive feedback on their project and - in case of positive advice - the competence document 'Mediacoach'. The competences are based on the Mediacoach competence profile.

Support each other and stay informed

• In the Mediacoach Facebook group, the (former) participants of the Mediacoach Training can ask questions and exchange with each other, the supervisors and media coaches from previous training programs.
• Every year one or more return dates are provided for graduate Mediacoaches and you can also visit the other events organized by the organisers.
• In 2015 a Mediacoach tool was developed to work at school level on various digital and media aspects