Mr. Kristian Slotte

Director General for International Relations

Ministry of Education, Science and Culture

Helsinki, Finland

Media Skills and Competence Conference

University of Tampere

26 May 2005 at 16.00

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It will hardly surprise anybody, at least not this audience, that the most important skills of the future would be communication skills. Communication is not only about the use of certain tools through which people communicate with each other, but also about experiencing community.

In a ritual definition, communication is linked to such terms as sharing, participation, association, fellowship. − Therefore global networking is possible as a network of relationships of varied meaning, but not without them.

Phases of the Information Society

The visions in the first and second stages of information society development highlighted rationality and benefit − in a strong spirit of enlightenment − but the third generation visions highlight experiential aspects and the enrichment of everyday life. This again draws attention to the cultural and educational contents of information society.

We may speak − instead of software and hardwere − of a "middleware approach", which combines technology and contents. There is fairly unanimous agreement that, on the way marked out by Nokia, Finland should now proceed forwards − not only as a producer of new technologies but also as an innovative creator of their content. The question is how this could be done.

From Technology to Human Resources

The real power of electronic communications is that in it people are the ultimate source of knowledge − not the physical mass of wires, the complex networks or the vast databases of information. It is people's knowledge, relationships, insights, spirit and expertise that are passed on from person to person, and this is the magic of The Interconnected World...

Need for Critical Thinking

In today's − as well as in the future − electronic information environment, everyone is able to access vast amounts of data without a mediator. This truly requires critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is a productive and positive activity. Critical thinkers see the future as open and malleable, not as closed and fixed. They are aware of the diversity of values, behaviours, social structures, and artistic forms in the world. Critical thinking is a process, not an outcome, and it is emotive as well as rational.

From Literacy to Digital Literacy

Finland is known for its nearly 100-per-cent literacy. We also want to keep up with the digital literacy.Teacher training, the creation of new learning environments, the development of teaching material and the strengthening of diversified literacy will constitute the areas of focus in the national information strategy for education.

The dimensions of digital literacy and media literacy are large. Media literacy can be defined as different kinds of media awareness and competencies, also occupational ones. For example multimedia offers us many more channels for supporting open communications, so that a broader definition of literacy is needed.

Traditional literacy is no longer enough, one should also be able to read and write different media texts, whether verbal, visual, oral, auditive, digital, iconographic or any combinations and networks of these. Digital literacy is the ability to analyse, augment and influence one's active reading, listening and viewing of digital media, which enables one to become a more effective citizen.

Media Education

Media education − concerning both the old and new media − have a tradition of more than thirty years in Finland. The curriculum on mass media education was devised in 1970 in co-operation with UNESCO. But, more than twenty years later, after radical changes in the media landscape, we just as radically changed our national curriculum from the mass media education to media education, as a part of the new national curricular guidelines in 1994.

The newest national curricula − in 2004 for basic education and in 2003 for upper secondary schools − speak about media skills, communication and media competence.

In basic education the goals of the cross-curricular theme "Media Skills and Communication" are to improve skills in expression and interaction, to advance understanding of media's position and importance, and to improve skills in using the media. On the other hand, general upper secondary school education provides students with instruction and modes of operation that will enable them to consolidate their understanding of the key role and significance of the media in our culture.

The Digital Divide

Digital technologies can help all societies to solve long standing economic and social problems, but they also bring new challenges − and the most serious ones are human dimensions of eWorld.

OECD published some years ago a report on learning to bridge the digital divide. The report gives many key areas for governments to consider, such as

- to secure access for all to hardware and software,

- to invest in the changed roles of teachers and learners,

- to promote life long learning and enhanced citizenship.

By itself education cannot solve the secular problems of social inequalities, but without equal access and quality learning for all, existing gaps will surely deepen. So the most serious divide is in the extend and quality of human knowledge and learning.

"We must learn to balance the material wonders of technology with the spiritual demands of our human nature", wrote John Naisbitt in his book Megatrends more than twenty years ago - and, Ladies and Gentlemen, this claim is still very valid.

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It is my great pleasure, on behalf of Ministry of Education, Science and Culture to wish every success to this constructive conference!

Kristian Slotte

kristian.slotte@minedu.fi