Teacher Professional Development and Media Education in a Virtual Learning Environment

Abstract

The digital and media environment has brought new challenges that demand the development of specific skills to face them. Teachers are aware of the importance of using technology and social networks in educating new generation. However, they do not feel prepared to provide media education. The issue of education in values still receives less attention than necessary. The aim of the study is: to develop a Teacher Professional Development (TPD) program that allows participants to be better prepared to work with media education, focused on the Ideology and Values dimension. Research methods: to develop the TPD in the LMS it will be necessary: 1st. definition of educational objectives related to media education, focused on the Ideology and Values dimension; 2nd. To carry out a survey of media products that can promote reflection, analysis, synthesis and discussion that will be transformed into Digital Learning Object-DLO, instructional components that can be reused in different contexts and accessed through the Internet; 3rd. selection of didactic strategies, using the DLO, to be developed to reach the objective. Conclusions and recommendations: The design of the TPD program, in the LMS, with a playful perspective and active participation of teachers, enables the organization of classes and activities online using various resources in the form of a learning object.