Children are getting in first contact with media in their families. Here, they learn how to use media for communication, learning or entertainment purposes. Also children learn about – more or less adequate – the chances and risks of media usage. Beside the family, the kindergarten, as the central pre-school education institution, can also play an important role for media education of the youngest. In the recent years, politicians have recognized the relevance of media education in the kindergarten. As a consequence, media education is driven by law in some countries. Regarding the empirical as well as theoretical literature, there are major recent contributions concerning media usage of children in school age, adolescents and adults (e.g. Haddon/Livingstone 2012: EU Kids Online; Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest 2012; ARD/ZDF Online Survey 2012). But there has been only little research on media usage of children in pre-school age. Concerning media education one can find a lot of literature about media educational projects, whereas the vast majority of this has a practical focus regarding methods and recommendations. Little academic research has been conducted on media education and the attitudes and perceptions of kindergarten teachers. Summarizing, the panelists focus on four different European countries with a perspective driven by social and educational sciences and try to answer these questions:

• What does media education in kindergarten mean in different countries? Does it only mean to use media in the kindergarten or does it also contain enhancing children’s understanding of media by media projects?
• Which relevance does media education have in contrast to other fields of learning? Does kindergarten staff understand the necessity of media education in the context of the ongoing and further strengthening mediatization in all kinds of social spheres?
• How effective are media educational trainings with regard to the self-confidence of kindergarten teachers in doing media educational projects? Do these trainings have an effect on establishing media education as a fundamentally part of the kindergarten?
• What do kindergarten teachers and future kindergarten teachers think about media education? Are there fears about usage of media in the kindergarten? Is there the perception by kindergarten teachers that the kindergarten should be a ‘sheltered place’ without media?
• How do children in pre-school age use media and what is the influence of the parents on children’s media habits and preferences?
• Do children in pre-school age already have a media habitus? What does is look like and how does it arise?