Abstract:

New media and information and communication technologies, shaped in different capabilities and tools of central Web 2.0 technology, provide, on the one hand, users with new relation of interaction and communication, new quality of participation, cooperation, content design and attitudes towards what alternative, „virtual”, media space has to offer. On the other hand, there is a growing awareness that media opportunities for participation and creation must not be put in the same category as their consumption by the users, that there is often a gap in here, because the dimension of ability and readiness to actually use what virtual spaces have to offer is the central notion of media competences, media literacy, media education as the basis and starting point of the mobile learning process in the context of the Internet. The focus of the work are risk competences reflected through abilities, skills and knowledge that will enable Internet users to operate safely in conditions of uncertainty and indeterminacy in the context of virtual space.
The phenomenon of risk competences on the Web was analyzed from theoretical point of view in this paper, using ample sources form the literature. During the process of analyzing existing scientific body of knowledge, descriptive-analytical method was used. In order to achieve research and methodological coherence in making conclusions, the topic was being studied in interdisciplinary way, using the postulates of numerous scientific disciplines, which required application of analytical-synthetic method in this paper. The theoretical framework is considered from the discourse of communicative competences. A historical perspective is also introduced, which describes the media as a means of conquering the world, thus focusing on cultural and social development.
The central outcome in this analysis is the distinction between the two equal forms of risk competence - on the one hand, the transition from uncertainty to professional knowledge through the classical understanding of the teaching and learning process, and, on the other hand, the application of heuristics, with the aim of competently acting in conditions of uncertainty, indeterminacy.
Therefore, reforming and rethinking the role of the school in these high-risk societal demands means that the school must first respect and rely on the media competencies that students bring from everyday life, and further upgrade them in the school learning environment in which they will be used. In such an environment, risk competencies can be shaped and developed, primarily in contact and work with digital media. It is also a way to eliminate the gap between in-school and out-of-school everyday lives of young people. The great danger to school is that Netzgeneration implicitly conveys to children that their (extra-curricular) media competencies have nothing to do with that area, which is traditionally referred to as education, which in essence means that significant chances for learning are gambled away.
This paper is a result of a research conducted within the Project Digital media technologies and socially educational changes (Project no. 47020), which is implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia for the period 2011-2018.

Keywords:

Competencies, internet, media competencies, media literacy, risk.