Opportunities and threats of education mediatization — practical implications for schoolchildren’s development / Oportunidades y amenazas de la mediatización de la educación — implicaciones prácticas para el desarrollo de los escolares

Abstract

The existence of links between education and media is unavoidable and is currently stronger than ever. The aim of this paper is to analyse opportunities and threats that result from the process of mediatization of education at primary school. Concepts of mediatization mentioned in the text and the analysis of transformations that take place in education under the influence of new media serve as means of exhibiting effects of this process for the course of developmental processes at school age. The author uses her own experiences from teaching classes for students, specializing in psychology of education, during which issues associated with the meaning of media for the education process are discussed. Results of studies conducted with the participation of future psychologists of education — students of the fourth and fifths year of psychology — are analysed. The text constitutes an encouragement to reflect on possible ways of limiting threats and benefitting from opportunities created by the mediation of the education process by ICT and on the meaning of it for supporting the development of contemporary schoolchildren.