History of media education in American schools

Abstract

Nowadays different types of media play a very important role in the life of children in the USA. The negative influence of media technologies rapidly grows in spite of its positive effect and great opportunities which they give us. So, formation and development of media education among children is very actual pedagogical problem of many countries. That 's why this article examines the history, theory and methods of media education and media literacy in the USA. The main stages of the development of media education are pointed out and analyzed. Different methodological approaches and models of forming of media education are described. On the basis of scientific work, laws and documents devoted to the development of media education the author gives several definitions of the term 'media education'. Main distinguishes of the concepts 'media education' and 'media literacy' are given in the article. The content and the list of documents which regulate the development of media education, associations and organizations for media education in the USA are presented. Abilities and skills which children should have for using media are defined. Statistics of Pew Research Center about time which children spend with media is given. The article examines several examples of using media educational tasks on different lessons. According to the documents of National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) principals and aims of media education are defined. The prospects for the development of this problem are shown.