Always Connected: The New Digital Media Habits of Young Children

… on Digital Media and …, 2008

The MacArthur Foundation launched its five-year, $50 million digital media and learning initiative in 2006 to help determine how digital media are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to developing educational and other social institutions that can meet the needs of this and future generations. The initiative is both marshaling what it is already known about the field and seeding innovation for continued growth. For more information, visit www.digitallearning.macfound.org. To engage in conversations about these projects and the field of digital learning, visit the Spotlight blog at spotlight.macfound.org.

2010

Conventional wisdom about young people's use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today's teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networks sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youth's social and recreational use of digital media.

International Journal of Learning and Media, 2011

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2012

In the 21st century, we experience rapidly evolving digital media and technologies in use that are no longer new and are actually embedded in the fabric of daily life. Students today use these technologies to explore various information resources in and out of schools as they live with them in every facet of their lives. Educators must apply technology to guide and engage students through the experience of learning. Further, digital technology has transformed our larger society by becoming central to the act of experiencing all forms of information, writing, communicating, and multifaceted thinking, which are major concerns of schooling. This article describes and analyzes the impact of digital media in contemporary life in order to consider these impacts to achieve the objective of education. Educators cannot ignore the changes that digital media brings to our life and education. The goal of this paper is to trigger a rethinking of the impact of the digital media to our lives and encourage educators to contemplate a new form of instruction for students in the present and future digital age.

Achieving effective learning via digital media continues to be a major concern in contemporary education. The daily use of all forms of digital media is part of our lives and therefore becomes a key component of education. Educators must consider the process of digital media curriculum as a learning model and form of experience adapted to education. This means the significance is on how to learn as well as what to learn. This study demonstrated how the implementation of digital media curriculum via the Scratch game-making project contributed to middle school students' interaction with the entire educational process. The goal was to rethink the role of digital media in transforming schooling. Based on classroom observation and interviews with the teachers and students from four middle schools in Denver, Colorado, the qualitative method of educational criticism and connoisseurship was employed to examine the use of digital media and the interaction between teaching and learning. Several themes emerged: (a) The production of digital media influenced students' behavior and educators' attitudes towards formal and informal learning; (b) digital citizenship is a substantial lesson in the course of digital learning and an understanding of the digital framework of society; (c) new literacy is critical, because ever-changing equipment supporting the digital experience provides dynamic and contrasting ways of connecting with society; (d) the reward of learning is by doing versus being told, and deeper learning is attained by students' interacting with their own work; and (e) digital media programs, such as making video games for learning, provide students skills in communication, theoretical, aesthetic, creativity, and technical knowledge necessary for becoming successful digital citizens. The research revealed students' enjoyment and effort in this new form of learning experience, which enhanced their critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity under teachers' well-planned guidance. The challenge for educators is to constantly review and design educational approaches supporting students towards using the tools meaningfully and within a defined learning experience, continuing to help students become active participants and authors of their own identity and creativity. Educators need to find the best usage of digital media technology, providing students every advantage towards reaching an informed international perspective.

Australian Journal of …, 2011

Deploying the term "digital natives", Marc Prensky (2001) theorized that growing up in a world mediated by digital technologies alters the way in which "millenials" (Howe & Strauss, 2000), or the "net generation" (Tapscott, 1998), undertake cognitive and information processing. As "native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the internet" (Prensky, 2001), they are held to be active, experiential learners, natural multitaskers, utilising a range of digital devices and platforms simultaneously to drive their own informal learning agendas. Implicit in the debate thus generated is a critique of current schooling practices and the competency of adult teachers ("digital immigrants"), to mediate children's literacy development. The thesis explicitly promotes multimedia or games-based learning (Prensky, 2001; Gee, 2003) over outdated "linear" media (books, television), and text-based resources.

Annales des Mines - Enjeux numériques -N°6, 2019

The controversy about the use of screens places parents and educators in a sensitive situation on the question of whether we should promote or oppose the use of screens or even forbid using them. Several opponents and proponents are trying to define and quantify the right and wrong uses of screens, to place screen use in an adapted time and space or simply to make screen-gazing less exclusive for the sake of other activities, which are deemed healthier (sports, arts…). Is there a balanced use of digital technology? What role should schools have? After describing this new hyperconnected form of socialization, focus is shifted to schools and the integration of educational digital technology. The concept of a digital culture is examined to conclude by opening a discussion on the balanced and ecological use of this technology. Controversies about the exposure to screens put parents and educational professionals in a sensitive situation with regard to a single question. Should we foster the use in everyday life of screens of all sorts-whether TV, smartphones, tablets or computers, but in particular those connected to the Internet-or, on the contrary, fight against screen exposure or even forbid screens? Several stakeholders (manufacturers, researchers, teachers, parents, institutions), pro and con, are trying to define the standards for good and bad uses of screens, to quantify screen exposure and limit it to an adapted space and time, or simply to keep screen time from excluding other activities (deemed healthier: sports, outings, artistic activities, etc.). What would be a balanced use of digital technology? What role, if any, should schools (herein, a generic term referring to educational institutions from the primary level up to the university) play? Pupils and students are well equipped with smartphones, and probably use digital technology intensively. After describing the context of this new, hyperconnected form of socialization, this article will focus on digital technology in schools. We shall then dwell on the concept of a "digital culture" and, in conclusion, open the discussion to questions about a balanced and ecological use of digital technology.

2019

It is now well established that young children participate in a wide range of digital practices from birth (Marsh et al., 2005). Children's home access to media has grown considerably over the last few years (Ofcom, 2017) and if we are to fully understand these changes and their implications for education we must have space to debate them in the broader context of media education. We are delighted, therefore, that the Media Education Research Journal has given us a forum for discussion. We must also thank the COST Action IS1410, The Digital and Multimodal Practices of Young Children (DigiLitEY) http://digilitey.eu, led by Professor

We use evidence from four research projects conducted in preschools and in homes to address the following questions: Is it important that young children learn to use digital media? Which digital media are best suited to their needs? Can digital media provide opportunities for learning? By describing and examining children’s experiences at home and in preschool settings we have identified how factors such as their own preferences, the people in their lives, and the cultural practices of the different environments in which they spend time shape their encounters with technology. We conclude that there is potential for digital media to extend the possibilities for children’s learning.