{"id":4099,"date":"2019-07-03T15:18:03","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T14:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/?p=4099"},"modified":"2019-11-22T14:35:51","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T14:35:51","slug":"social-media-literacy-for-change-sml4change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/type\/featured-articles\/social-media-literacy-for-change-sml4change\/","title":{"rendered":"Schools need better strategies to boost social media literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is a fact that social media offer both opportunities and risks, and this poses numerous challenges and dilemmas for parents, carers and educators. While they wish to offer children enough opportunities for learning, creativity, participation, socialisation and personal growth, they often struggle to strike the right level of protection for them. School professionals are uniquely positioned to reach and help children and their families to better understand social media and to encourage their healthy and positive use. And yet, few educators feel well-prepared to support children and the wider school community to improve their digital and social media literacy skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Project<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social Media Literacy for Change <\/a>(sml4change) was a one-year pilot project co-ordinated by European Schoolnet<\/a> and co-funded by the European Commission under the Media Literacy for All programme<\/a>. The project aimed to support European school leaders and teachers to foster social media literacy (SML) in both their school and local community. By working closely with 25 teachers from 13 European countries during the academic year 2018-2019 we were able to better understand the realities of schools across Europe and the challenges they face related to social media. One thing became apparent very early: teachers feel the pressure to be better able to educate their pupils to become responsible, creative and skilful users of social media. But at the same time, they also expressed their concerns and frustrations when reflecting on potential ways to meaningfully incorporate social media literacy at school. <\/p>\n\n\n