Education and Child Studies: Digital Media in Human Development

Welcome to the specialisation Digital Media in Human Development, which is part of the Master’s Degree Programme in Education and Child Studies. Language of instruction in this specialisation is English.

The Master’s specialisation in Digital Media in Human Development distinguishes itself from other programmes in the field of digital media by paying explicit attention to the role of digital media in child rearing, education, the treatment of problems and how digital media influence child development.

Themes that will be addressed are:

• Digital beginnings: growing up with digital media: young children learning through augmented reality compared to real life action – effects of virtual worlds in apps;

• Digital media and digital culture: synergy between children’s online and offline digital literacy practices, with the proliferation of apps and toys that embed augmented reality: relationship between childhood cultures, play and literacy;

• Excessive media consumption as a cause of addiction and other kinds of developmental psychopathology and differential susceptibility to media effects;

• Internet: online opportunities, risks and safety – harmful consequences: EU Kids Online;

• Use of social media in new forms of child maltreatment and bullying;

• Family rules and monitoring regarding children’s (social) media use;

• Games and learning: design and play practices of games, role of feedback, children’s media industry;

• Media and literacy: promise of multimedia, the boundaries between traditional and new literacy practices;

• Current best practices in digital learning and teaching in nursery and primary schools: the role of online tutoring, the use of built in pedagogical agents, pedagogical implications of technology development for teachers;

• Using social media to enhance the effects of family interventions, online therapy – interapie – signaling child problems through internet.

Please refer to our website for the timetable.

For more information you can contact our study advisers