On 31 August 2019, the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) partnered with the online media “MEL” and the UNESCO Chair on Media and Information Literacy and Media Education of Citizens of Moscow State Pedagogical University (MSPU) to organize the “Media literacy in the digital age – why is it important?” discussion within the framework of the Moscow Global Forum “City for Education”. Teachers, psychologists, government officials in the field of education and business representatives, as well as schoolchildren and their parents participated in the event. The moderator of the discussion was Ms. Tatiana Murovana, Programme Specialist at UNESCO IITE.
During the discussion, the participants agreed that media and information literacy covers key competencies related to communication and human interaction with information. Ms. Irina Zhilavskaya, Head of UNESCO Chair of Media and Information Literacy and Media Education of Citizens at MSPU, shared the outcomes of studies that demonstrated the possibilities of cooperation for bridging the digital divide between family members to reduce generation gaps.
Other participants of the discussion were Ms. Elena Puchkova, Head of the Department of Labor Psychology and Psychological Consulting at MSPU, Mr. Damir Zaynullin, Director of business development and Co-founder of Z-Robotics, Ms. Lyudmila Koroleva, Head of press center at School No. 1534 and Member of the Union of Russian writers, Ms. Tatyana Barinova, Computer science teacher and Senior methodologist for the computerization of education at school No. 1253, and Ms. Irina Yeger, Teacher of Russian language and literature at Noginsk Gymnasium 21, student of Master’s in Media and Information Literacy at MSPU and mother of 4 children.
The discussion members noted the importance of media hygiene and the meaningful attitude to activities in cyberspace. In addition, they recommended establishing trusting child-parent and child-teacher relationships and developing skills of critical thinking and controlling emotional state rather than limiting access to online resources.
The Moscow Global Forum “City for Education” is a major educational event in Moscow, which serves as an international communication and exhibition platform for sharing experience in the format of networking for the effective implementation of ideas on open education and creation of advantageous horizontal links.