CHINESE WAY TO MEDIA EDUCATION: AN EXPERIMENTAL PROJECT

The purpose of the study is to present and discuss the results of an experimental project carried out in China in the field of media education. With the help of the Italian Association of Media Education (MED), the researchers designed and implemented a web-based project named “Exploring environmental issues in the media: Media education in Chinese K-12 schools”. Totally, five modules were created, covering such media as comics, advertisement, newspaper, Internet, and multimedia products. During the Spring Semester of 2011, 458 teenagers from three primary schools, which are located in Hangzhou, were invited to attend the project under the guidance of their ICT educators and two researchers. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to collect data. Results of pre- and post-test found that participating students’ Internet self-efficacy was significantly improved after attending the project. Participating teachers and students had generally positive perceptions toward the project. However, the study still detected some limitations impeding the full implementation of the project. Based on the findings, suggestions for improvement were proposed in the last part.