Media Education as the Factor of Safety of the Individual

Theoretical Background

The Russian education system, forced to demonstrate responsiveness to the demands of society, is currently facing the problem of outdated teaching methods and the contents of the education plans. As a result, as D. I. Feldstein: noted “under these new conditions the former education system cannot operate. The main reason here is not that it is bad, but it does not fit current requirements. Objectively, there is an urgent need for an absolutely different system with new aims, goals and problems which we didn’t face before” (Feldstein, 2012, p. 3).

One of the principles of building this new education system is its openness, since globalization trends, increasing migration processes, the development of tourism and international cooperation, have led to the expansion of communication, emerging the need for learning different cultural models as well as overcoming the cultural and psychological barriers between peoples and countries.

The answer to the need for expansion of education information space became the emergence of media libraries – collections of books, teaching aids, videos, sound recordings, computer presentations, as well as technical support for the creation and viewing of the Fund (computer, video camera, tape recorder, video recorder, projectors). The term “media library” came to Russia from Europe, where it was actively used at the end of the XX century in relation to the activities of public and University libraries. It implies the creation of an integrated cultural information space, which used different means of communication (paper, audio and video) to improve the quality of education. In addition to the obligatory sources for learning curricular courses, Media libraries stored audio and video recordings of university lecturers which students could watch and listen. Practically, these collections became the basis for the distance learning technologies in the late twentieth century, and later – for e-courses.