Media Education Hub (MEH) is a leading unit for education and research with over twenty years of experience of carrying out interdisciplinary research projects and developing educational models for different contexts.

Our task is to teach media and digital technology major, and to carry out research and development projects in the field. Our research and development work draws upon multiple disciplines. Teaching in our major subject studies is research-based; this characteristic is common to the degree programmes of the Faculty of Education.

We collaborate with educational institutions across different levels of education, and practice regional, national and cross-border cooperation with businesses and communities. Our international partners include, for example, Stanford University (California, USA), Mercer University (Atlanta, USA), University of Parma (Italy), Catholic University of Milan (Italy), University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (Bulgaria) and The Education University of Hong Kong.

Since 2005, we have organized the biennial MEC (former NBE) conference. MEC is an informal and friendly conference, which participants attend to exchange ideas and information dealing with media education, educational use of ICTs and learning environments.

MEC 2021 in Rovaniemi

Studies

Major subject: Media Education

Media Education looks at the media education of people of different ages – children, adolescents, adults and the elderly – from an interdisciplinary perspective.

At the bachelor's and master's degree level Media Education is taught mainly in Finnish, however, some courses are offered in English.

Current curriculum (in Finnish)

Minor subject: Media and Digital Technology in Teaching and Learning

The minor subject provides you with tools for various teaching, training, facilitation and planning tasks, as well as for conducting research in the field. The studies are taught in Finnish.

Postgraduate studies

It is also possible to complete doctoral studies and obtain a PhD in Media Education.

If you are interested in taking doctoral studies, please familiarise yourself with our Graduate School and contact Professor Heli Ruokamo or Adjunct Professors Mari Maasilta, Marjaana Kangas, Erika Sarivaara (see contact information below).

Research

We conduct interdisciplinary research, collaborating with universities and organisations both in Finland and abroad. Our main research areas are:

Media in teaching and learning
Media in society
Media and psychosocial well-being

Our research of teaching and learning focuses on teaching with web and mobile applications, playful learning environments, and the educational use of simulations, virtual reality and videos.

Our research projects targeting the connections between media, society and psychosocial well-being address the ways the elderly population uses and refrains from using media, as well as their media skills and relationships to digitalised society. Elderly people living in sparsely populated areas are of our particular interest.

View our researchers' profiles through the links in LaCRIS-portal

Development

Our research and education has societal, regional and global impact. Examples of our development work are the GloMEd - Global Media Education through Development of Online Teaching project, involving The UNITWIN/UNESCO Network on Teacher Education for social justice and diversity and the University of Lapland, Finland, and UNESCO Chair programme and Faculty of Humanities of The Education University of Hong Kong, China, financed by the Finnish National Agency for Education, Team Finland Knowledge. We operate actively in a range of social sectors, including the media, business world, association activity, education and social services.

The findings from our research and teaching experiments are applied to our teaching practices and up-coming projects. We specialise in the development of various educational models that offer tools for the development of teaching in different contexts and at different educational levels.

Our teaching is carried out in collaboration with different communities and businesses, and our students concentrate on solving authentic problems from the working life.

Alumni activity

Our alumni are actively part of our operations, for example as visitors on our courses. They work as educational planners, teachers for adult education and experts of web-based education and media education. They form a crucial link between the university and working life.

We stay connected to our alumni and keep track of their careers after graduation. Communication between the Media Education Hub and our alumni is constantly being improved and developed. This is done primarily in order to increase the relevance of our education to working life. See here some of our alumni.

View our projects