Over the last decade, a small number of programs and research projects has explored how schools can respond to young people’s increasing participation in digital media culture. In particular, these initiatives have approached the school curriculum as an ongoing challenge (Lawrence Stenhouse would have called them “curriculum experiments”) rather than a fixed programme of study. Such initiatives are the focus for the Curriculum Innovation working group.
Principal Investigators:
Diana Rhoten and Becky Herr Stephenson
Contact:
Becky Herr Stephenson
Description:
Our team investigated academic and practitioner literature related to digital media and technology integration and use in afterschool programs and youth services at libraries and museums. The literature review investigates the ways in which institutions and organizations contribute to notions of childhood, learning, and future participation.
The New Media in International Contexts Working Group examined the intersection of youth, new media and learning in a range of countries outside of North America and Western Europe with the aim of understanding the contemporary landscape of digital media and learning outside of the contexts that have dominated the Digital Media and Learning Field.
Principal Investigators:
Heather A. Horst, Lynn Schofield Clark and Eszter Hargittai
Contact:
Heather A. Horst
Description:
The Participation Survey Working Group is developing a series of recommendations for a quantitative and qualitative survey to assess young people’s engagement in participatory culture. Building upon the foundational research in the Digital Media and Learning initiative, the proposed survey focuses upon the relationship between skills, the contexts of learning (homes/families, schools, online, peers, etc.) and different modes of participation (hanging out, messing around, geeking out and interest-driven and friendship-driven genres of participation).
