Social Communication of Children Younger School Age in the Digital Era

IJAEDU- International E-Journal of Advances in Education, Vol. I, Issue 2, August 2015 SOCIAL COMMUNICATION OF CHILDREN YOUNGER SCHOOL AGE IN THE DIGITAL ERA Bozena Supsakova* *Prof. Dr., Comenius University, Faculty of Education, Bratislava, Slovakia, Abstract The Internet, a new phenomenon of the global information infrastructure and access to information, was born in the seventies of the last century and began to affect significantly the way we communicate, collect and share information. Nowadays, it penetrated to new dimensions of its development, as developing multimedia technologies and content (Web 2.0), as well as new phenomenal contacts: mobile communications (mobile phones, smart phones, tablets) and social networks (Facebook, Twitter and a lot of others). The Internet is used nowadays worldwide by one third of people, we register incredible five billion subscribers to mobile services; in economically developed countries one user has more than one prepaid mobile service. This modern paradigm obviously affected and influenced also the younger generation. It is clear that the time that has come requires to learn new literacy -media literacy, but also to gain or acquire new social skills, especially how to orient, and most recently, to self-realize in the multimedia on-line space. This is a series of new communications competences and skills that include the ability to search, select, analyse, evaluate, create, and thus to pass information in variety of formats – by word, image, sound. Recently, it includes also with the integration of all these elements – it means the multimedia integration. Our study explore the extent to which children of nowadays communicate through the electronic media, and how much time they spend watching the individual kinds of media. Keywords: social networks, new communication competences, new literacy of children younger school age, preferred ways and forms of communication, digital literacy, media literacy, media education curriculum. 1. INTRODUCTION Globalization and the use of online internet technologies (particularly through development social networks, forums and blogs, the rising mobility of users and the rapid growth of digital product), have changed the ways and forms of communication, mainly at the young generation. It is due to their new, attractive, actionlike and in many cases also interactive form of influence. The aim of our study is to find out the role of the new literacy children younger school age in the process of acquiring information, education. Our priority is also to explore the extent to which children of nowadays communicate through the electronic media, and http://ijaedu.ocerintjournals.org 70 IJAEDU- International E-Journal of Advances in Education, Vol. I, Issue 2, August 2015 how much time they spend watching the individual kinds of media. Simultaneously, we aim at exploring the types of medial context the youth is interested in, how they perceive these contexts, and if they are able to select the kind of information from the medial production that develop their individual and group needs. We tend to clarify if and how the medial technologies are used for the creative expression and communication through own ideas, information and opinions. Our task is also to find out to what degree children are able to distinguish the medial contexts and notionally almost worthless information from the information of practical importance to their lives. We look for the answer to the question on which sources of information they consider inevitable for their lives, what they predominantly look for in their preferred media, and what level of confidence they show towards the media. Within the topic we are going to deal with the question on the preferred way of communication which the young people develop with close friends. We assume that the young fully use all available sources of information intended for education, amusement with a distinct prevalence of the field of study. According to our opinion, intensity of using the individual kinds of media is gradually shifted from the passive forms of TV watching, listening to the radio, reading print media towards the interactive forms of communication in the internet environment (web2.0 – social networks, portals and blogs, chatting). We also assume that young people show greater confidence in the new media (internet). The research aimed at the study of nowadays communication tools and behaviour in the online environment is implemented on the sample of 1452 children younger school age (7-11) in Slovakia. 2. SOCIAL NETWORKS - NEW PHENOMEN The Internet, a new phenomenon of the global information infrastructure and access to information, was born in the seventies of the last century and began to affect significantly the way we communicate, collect and share information. Nowadays, it penetrated to new dimensions of its development, as developing multimedia technologies and content (Web 2.0), as well as new phenomenal contacts: mobile communications (mobile phones, smart phones, tablets) and social networks (Facebook, Twitter and a lot of others). The Internet is used nowadays worldwide by one third of people, we register incredible five billion subscribers to mobile services; in economically developed countries one user has more than one prepaid mobile service (Potter, 2012).This modern paradigm obviously affected and influenced also the younger generation. 2.1. New literacy and new skills It is clear that the time that has come requires to learn new literacy – media literacy, but also to gain or acquire new social skills, especially how to orient, and most recently, to self-realize in the multimedia on-line space. This is a series of new communications competences and skills that include the ability to search, select, analyse, evaluate, create, and thus to pass information in variety of formats – by word, image, sound. Recently, it includes also with the integration of all these elements – it means the multimedia integration. Media literacy is defined by most policymakers and academics as the ability to “access, analyse, and evaluate media” in multiple forms and “communicate competently” within these forms (Livingstone, Bober, Helsper, 2005, O’Neill & Hagen, 2009). Traditionally, education, training and lifelong learning policies have been perceived as critical to developing media literacy. Therefore, any future interventions in this area must take into account that media messages are constructed, have a purpose, may be affected by potential biases, and are subject to regulatory issues that potentially affect access and use (Martens, 2010, Ofcom, 2008). At the theoretical level, media literacy can therefore be characterized as an ability to seek, receive, analyse, evaluate and communicate (multi) media content. “Media literacy is a summary of competences that allow us to interpret the media content and processes of the media world to create our own media, to recognize (...truncated)