Arts Education and Media Literacy in the Primary Education Teaching Degree of the University of Granada

In the context of university teacher training, artistic education and the teaching of visual arts, although belonging to the specific area of artistic expression didactics, are considered an interdisciplinary area (Art Education and Arts Education). The contents of this area of teaching, mainly focused on image and visual culture, is being influenced by digital media in the creation, dissemination and reception of artistic contents, especially with the use of mobile devices. The conjunction of media literacy and the work related to artistic creativity constitutes the starting point of the current study, in which we have consulted 105 fourth-year students of the Primary Education Teaching Degree of the University of Granada (Spain) about their interests in media-related matters, as well as the links that they establish between visual art teaching and digital culture tools. This text offers the results of a quantitative survey that clearly shows the preference of the students for the audiovisual artistic genres, with special interest in photography and film, and their curiosity for new aspects, such as animation, although maintaining some interest in the traditional arts, such as drawing or painting. This is a generation that is characterised for having developed their creation and consumption of visual media on social networks, but that need training in media literacy. Ultimately, it is a synthesis of the understanding that the students currently have of artistic education and of its possibilities in the context of audiovisual and digital media. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.