Comunicar 39-ingles - Revista Comunicar

70Comunicar, 39, XX, 2012basic features of any educational curriculum. Thisinclusion can be treated as specific content, as is thecase in the MIL Curriculum, but also as (an educationaloverlap) (interdisciplinary), ever-present on a dayto day basis in any school and in all subjects taught.Due to the increased use of ICTs by children, the educationalcommunity cannot only limit itself to definingthe empowerment of children to a few scheduled sessions.On the contrary, global educational strategiesmust be devised to strengthen competencies related tomedia and information literacy (Perez-Tornero &Varis, 2010).Educators, on the other hand, as previouslyshown, demand orientation in order to address thisproblem. For this very reason the following recommendationsare defined as basic by both authors andsocial organizations:• Focusing prevention content on interaction andnot just on the publication of data, messages or images.Often, content designed to prevent violent situationssuch as cyberbullying or grooming concentrates onalerting of the danger which, it is assumed, is conveyedexclusively by data or images on the Internet withoutexploring the ‘why’ of such information. Researcherswarn that using language of prohibition and more sowith minors and adolescents, is counterproductive.Therefore, the most important factor is to focus oncontent of prevention within on-line interactions thatminors may be exposed to (Valls, Puigvert & Duque,2008; Wolak & al., 2008).• Designing community-based prevention modelsthat include the entire community, especially familymembers. As previously shown, both teachers andfamilies need training in these risks, but also to participatetogether in the designing of the communitymodels in the prevention of violence (Oliver & al.,2009). Only by jointly coordinating efforts will goalsbe achieved more effectively. Minors also express theirvoice with respect to on-line risks at conferences suchas the one organized by the CEOP, IYAC(International Youth Advisory Congress), held on July17, 2008 in London. At the conference critical trainingin ML within the entire education community wascalled for; teachers and family, the media as a wholeand business in general were requested to get involvedin promoting a cyberspace free of violence. Whenadults acquire more crucial training in dealing with onlineinteractions that generate violence, the more childrenwill be inclined to be included and thus empoweredin the face of these risks. As a consequence,there will be a more positive impact in the children’sown empowerment.• Promoting the protagonism of children in theapplication of prevention programs that address therisks of online interactions. Most documents analyzedindicate how prevention should also focus on the peergroup. By empowering children as agents of creativeuse of the Internet and overcoming on-line risks, trainingother children or even their own community, oneattains more effective programs (UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre, 2011; Wolak & al., 2008).Some examples of international scope that alreadyinclude direct participation are: the programThinkUKnow$ from the UK and the internationalorganization I-Safe4. Both are examples that may beuseful for teachers. One can browse content designedfor families, teachers and children of different ages andestablish them as models.-Designing strategies that include educational andinformational media literacy from a humanistic and criticalperspective. Media literacy has no meaning unlessit is linked to a greater purpose which is the creation ofa society based on a culture of peace and ultimately, asstated by Pérez-Tornero (2010: 122), contributes tobuilding a world that is a good place to live, «to createa peaceful and interdependent world that constitutes agood place to live».It is also necessary that children empower themselvesin order to be active players in this change, fromthe building of a society based on a culture of peace,and in the promotion of their creativity to achieve thisgoal. Therefore, educational strategies must also includethis perspective to advance a more humane andless destructive society. Children should be autonomouslycritical with their use of the media and self-criticalwith the impact of their use.Once the main priorities on how to promote theempowerment of children are discussed, the nextquestion is: What steps should a school undertake toachieve this empowerment?First and foremost, teachers must be trained toconfront this critical situation. Their training must bebased on the most significant international recommendationswith the greatest repercussions within thescientific community, as well as on the social impact itobtains.For instance, having round table discussions(Aubert & al., 2008) on leading articles or books onthe subject. Teachers must have access to cutting edgescientific literature in order to exercise their position ascritical, intellectual educators (Giroux, 1989). Sometopics in their training would be: how to work onmedia literacy by reflecting on how children themselvesuse the media; what the real risks are and what© ISSN: 1134-3478 • e-ISSN: 1988-3293 • Pages 65-72