Keywords: media literacy, information literacy, personal information culture, media text, elementary school students.

Abstract: The authors analyze primary terms and concepts in the sphere of media education and information training in Russia today. They also challenge the potential of media literacy integration into information culture of elementary school students. The paper presents the process of developing media literacy at the elementary school level   within the course "Basics of Personal Information Culture."

One of signs of the global information society is the increasing role of information which has a strong influence on children. Gigantic amounts of information from various media channels "rain down" on unprepared children. An increasing flow of information transforms the model of education, challenging teachers to develop new approaches and methodologies.

The growth of information, global digitalization, dynamic development of information, communication technologies and new media have shown the need for information training and media education of every society’s member. However, this problem is particularly relevant for a younger generation. The need for developing children's media literacy, critical thinking, and critical attitude to information is urgent from starting from the younger school age.

In recent years, such international organizations as UNESCO and IFLA took the initiative to combine media literacy and information literacy into a single concept.

In 2011, "IFLA Media and Information Literacy Recommendations" was published [17], as well as "Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers (prepared by UNESCO)" in English [19], which was translated into Russian and published in Russia in 2012 [4].

The Moscow Declaration has made an important contribution to development of ideas about media and information literacy and formulated the definition of "media and information literacy" [20].

The idea of media and information literacy integration is very attractive and interesting but the question arises, how it can be done practically? To answer this question, we conducted a special research, the goal of which is to prove opportunities and identify features of media literacy formation as a component of elementary school students’ information culture.

This goal is broken down into the following objectives:

1. Analysis of the concepts and terms related to media education and information training.
2. Researching possibilities of media literacy integration into the structure of personal information culture.
3. Establishing the content of media component in the training course "Basics of Personal Information Culture" as age-appropriate for elementary school students.

We start by clarifying the concepts and terms related to media education and information training.

According to a well-known specialist in the field of Media Education, President of the Russian Association of Media Education, Professor A.V. Fedorov, “media education is the process of personality development with the help of and on the basis of mass communications (media); this means developing a culture of interaction with media, and the formation of creative, communication skills, critical thinking, perception, interpretation, analysis and evaluation of media texts, teaching different forms of self-expression using media technology, etc.” [13, p. 6].

The idea of "media education" is inextricably linked with the concepts of "media literacy" and "media text." However, if the definition of "media education" offered by A.V. Fedorov is customary in the Russian media education, the interpretation of the concepts "media literacy" and "media text" as the most important categories of media education, has no consensus among researchers. So we started with the analysis of these concepts in different Russian publications [3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. As a result, we have come to the following definition.

Мedia literacy is the ability to use, evaluate, critically analyze, create and send messages (media texts) in different forms for the formation of critical thinking.

The key concept in the formation of media literacy is a media text. We believe that a media text is a creolized text intended for mass audiences. It consists of two different parts: verbal (language/speech) and nonverbal, belonging to other symbolic systems that are different from a natural language. A media text can be placed on different carriers (paper, photos, videos, movies, etc.). A media text has a relevant social content.

The concept “information training” is not clearly defined as a phrase that includes a wide range of knowledge and skills of a person using the information and technical means. In English terminology information training is traditionally associated with such a concept as "information literacy," which is defined as "the ability to identify the need for information, skills of successful finding, evaluating, and using it" [18].

Along with the term "information literacy," Russian researchers use the term "personal information culture," which is defined as "part of the general culture, consisting of a fusion of information outlook, information literacy and literacy in a sphere of information and communication technologies" [1, p. 55].

In retrospect, the history of the information training can be divided into several stages.

The industrial society development required to pay great attention to library and bibliographic literacy. Its goal was to let every human being to study using library resources.

The need to provide productive work of readers with information sources, especially with books, led to a new concept called “the culture reading.” The swift development of computer technology resulted in the emergence of such a concept as “computer literacy.” Development of Internet, network resources, and means of communication created the need for a new form of literacy “ICT literacy.”

The concept that shows accumulating information knowledge and skills is called “information literacy” in English-based research.

In Russia, the term "information literacy" is well known, however, the term "personal information culture" is used more often. They are similar in meaning but not identical as concepts [14, 16]. "Personal information culture" is a wider integrative concept. It includes media literacy, complementing it with such components as information outlook and personal motivation. The concept "personal information culture" reflects the inclusion of the human and information interaction phenomenon into the world of culture. It is directed against the confrontation in information society of two contrasting cultures -- technocratic and humanitarian. [15] The main goal is to maintain continuity and harmonious combination of the following cultures: traditional, library, literary culture and new, electronic, screen culture. [12].

The core of personal information culture is training the skills and analysis of different types of information, including traditional and electronic texts. Media education is focused on the analysis of media texts. The idea of integration of media and information literacy, in our opinion, can be successfully put into practice by including media literacy in the structure of personal information culture. Media literacy is inextricably linked to the media text and should not be developed without being connected to it. Therefore, studying the media text as one of the most important contemporary information sources enriches the course "Basics of Personal Information Culture."

The faculty of the Research Institute of Information Technologies in Social Sphere (Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts) developed the curriculum "Basics of Personal Information Culture" that consists of four sections (see table 1). It integrates training materials determining the formation of media literacy [2, 11].

Integration of media literacy into the course "Basics of Personal Information Culture" content is in organic and sequential addition of each section of the course with equivalent elements of the media component.

We define the media component as the combination of the following elements:

• A media text as an information resource that reflects the diversity of modern kinds of information;
• A search algorithm for media texts, comprising the sequence of actions to find media information effectively and quickly;
• A method of critical analysis of a media text, which allows the generation of a critical evaluation and a critical attitude of younger schoolchildren to a media text;
• A technology for creating younger schoolchildren’s own media products.

Table 1. Reflection of the elements of the media component in four sections of the course "Basics of Personal Information Culture"

Teaching the basics of personal information culture is built on the foundation of the analysis of psychophysiological characteristics and intellectual abilities of children from Grades 1-4 (age group - 7 - 10 years old) to perceive complex theoretical information. Therefore, the course "Basics of Personal Information Culture" provides a consistent and gradual development of the lesson content from grade to grade. Changing the subject and content of classes, depending on the age and grade of students is presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Changes in the lesson content on media literacy formation depending on the grade (e.g., Grades 3 and 4, age 9-10)

Formation of primary school pupils ideas about media information and rules of work with it comes gradually. Thus, in the first grade children (age 7 years) are trained to the easiest data search techniques on the Internet as a mass medium, and familiarize with simple media texts. On fourth grade, schoolchildren (age 10 years) master more complex search algorithms for any type of information, learn to exercise critical analysis of media texts and create their own media products (multimedia presentations, essays, etc.).

The productivity of idea of younger schoolchildren’s media literacy formation through the course "Basics of Personal Information Culture" has been confirmed in the track of the pedagogical experiment. It was held in the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years, based on A.M. Beresnev Children's Library in Kemerovo and secondary schools No. 45 and 77 with pupils of grades 1-4 (age 7-10 years) in Kemerovo.

In conclusion, it should be noted that our research allowed us not only to find "the common ground" of media literacy and information literacy, but also to develop a real mechanism for the integration of these concepts into the course "Basics of Personal Information Culture." Thus, the concept of personal information culture formation allows to grasp the idea of integration of media and information literacy put forward by UNESCO and IFLA. It opens perspectives for further research in this sphere. The developed model for integrating the media literacy into information culture of primary school pupils can serve as a basis for the development of similar models as applied to students of secondary and high schools, and to other age categories of users.

References

1. Gendina N. I. Kontseptsiya formirovaniya informatsionnoi kul'tury lichnosti: opyt razrabotki i realizatsii // Bibliosfera. 2005. №1. P. 55 – 62.
2. Gendina N. I., Kosolapova E. V. Osnovy informatsionnoi kul'tury shkol'nika: uchebno-metodicheskii kompleks dlya uchaschikhsya 4-h klassov obscheobrazovatel'nykh uchebnykh zavedenii. M.: RShBA, 2012. 200 p.
3. Zalagaev D. V. Razvitie mediagramotnosti uchashikhsya v processe obucheniya informatike : avtoref. dis. ... kand. ped. nauk. Omsk, 2005. 23 p.
4. Mediinaya i informatsionnaya gramotnost': programma obucheniya pedagogov [Yelektronnii resurs] / nauch. red. N.I. Gendina, S.G. Korkonosenko; per. E. Malyavskaya; UNESCO. M.: Institut UNESCO po informacionnym tekhnologiyam v obrazovanii, 2012. 198 p. URL: http://ru.iite.unesco.org/publications/3214706/
5. Pechinkina O. V. Shkol'noe mediaobrazovanie v severoevropeiskikh stranakh : avtoref. dis. ... kand. ped. nauk. Arhangel'sk, 2008. 24 p.
6. Ryzhih N. P. Mediaobrazovanie studentov pedagogicheskogo vuza na materiale angloyazychnykh ekrannykh iskusstv. Taganrog : Izd-vo Kuchma, 2007. 188 p.
7. Fedorov A. V. Mediaobrazovanie i mediagramotnost' : uchebnoe posobie dlya vuzov / A. V. Fedorov. Taganrog : Izd-vo Kuchma, 2004. 340 p.
8. Fortunatov A. N. Vzaimodeistvie subiektov social'noi kommunikacii v mediareal'nosti : avtoref. dis. ... d-ra filos. nauk. Nizhny Novgorod, 2009. 44 p.
9. Hizhnyak I. M. Professional'naya podgotovka buduschikh uchitelei inostrannogo yazyka na osnove ispol'zovaniya tekhnologii mediaobrazovaniya : avtoref. dis. ... kand. ped. nauk. Penza, 2008. 19 p.
10. Chicherina N. V. Kontseptsiya formirovaniya mediagramotnosti u studentov yazykovykh fakul'tetov na osnove inoyazychnykh mediatekstov : avtoref. dis. ... d-ra ped. nauk : 13.00.02. SPb, 2009. 50 p.
11. Shkol'naya biblioteka kak tsentr formirovaniya informatsionnoi kul'tury lichnosti : uchebno-metodicheskoe posobie /N.I. Gendina [i dr.]. M.: Russkaya shkol'naya bibliotechnaya assotsiatsiya, 2008. 352 p.
12. Farmer L.S.J., Gendina N., Nakamura Y.: Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States. - Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow press, 2012. - 372 p.
13. Fedorov, A. On Media Education. Moscow: ICOS UNESCO IFAP (Russia), 2008. 156 p.
14. Gendina N. I. Information Literacy in Different Sectors: A View from Russia. EMMILE in Libraries (and Beyond) European Meeting on Media and Information Literacy Education. Milan, February 27-29 (2012)
15. Gendina N. I. Information Literacy or Information Culture: Separation for Unity: Russian Research Results // World Library and Information Congress: 70th IFLA General Conference and Council, August 22-27 2004, Buenosaires, Argentina: Conference Papers. CD-ROM
16. Gendina N. I. Media and Information Literacy in Russia and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): A survey undertaken on behalf of UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector [Electronic resource] // Information Literacy Weblog. – URL:http://information-literacy.blogspot.ru/2013/03/conceptual-relationship-of-information.html
17. IFLA Media and Information Literacy Recommendations [Electronic resource]: [Endorsed by the Governing Board of IFLA, at its meeting in Den Haag, The Netherlands, 07th December 2011]. URL: http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/information-literacy/publications/media-info-lit-recommend-en.pdf.
18. Lau J. Guidelines on information literacy for lifelong learning [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/information-literacy/publications/ifla-guidelines-en.pdf.
19. Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers (prepared by UNESCO) [Electronic resource] / Wilson, Carolyn; Grizzle, Alton; Tuazon, Ramon; Akyempong, Kwame; Cheung, Chi Kim. Paris, UNESCO, 2011. 192 p., illus. URL: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001929/192971e.pdf.
20. The Moscow Declaration on Media and Information Literacy [Electronic resource]: [Moscow, 24-28 June, 2012]. URL: http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/information-literacy/publications/moscow-declaration-on-mil-en.pdf.