On April 23, 2008, public forum, "From MySpace to Hip Hop: New Media In the Everyday Lives of Youth," reported on the interim findings of the ethnographic project funded by the MacArthur Foundation, "Kids' Informal Learning through Digital Media," conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California. Part 1, 4-23-08. This event addressed how digital technologies and new media are changing the way that young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. The forum was presented by Common Sense Media, the MacArthur Foundation and the Stanford University School of Education.
Media technology is an integral part of children's lives in the twenty-first century. The world of electronic media, however, is changing dramatically. Television, until recently the dominant media source, has been joined by cell phones, iPods, video games, instant messaging, social networks on the Internet, and e-mail.This volume examines the best available evidence on whether and how exposure to different media forms is linked to child well-being. Contributors to the volume consider evidence for both children and adolescents and consider the quality of the available studies.
Howard Gardner, the founder of multiple-intelligences theory, discusses the challenges ethics and education face as digital media become more prevalent. He looks at five ethical issues through his GOODPLAY PROJECT: Sense of identity, sense of privacy, sense of ownership/authorship, trustworthiness/ credibility and participation in community.
The Common Sense Media policy agenda aims to empower parents, teachers and young people themselves to take control of the media and technology in their lives, in order to help keep kids learning, thriving, and safe.\n\n * Promoting Digital Literacy and Citizenship - Key to 21st Century Learning and Online Safety.\n * Addressing the Major Public Health Issues Related to Media\n * Improving Consumer Tools and Ratings to Empower Families to Make Smarter Choices\n
A range of research reports suggest that digital literacy should be a key part of curricular developments in both primary and secondary schools. Digital literacy is about far more than functional ICT skills: it requires support for children to access, create and communicate using ICT, as well as to be evaluative and critical about the influences and impacts of new media.
Executive Summary of a white paper on the same title, available at http://www.pearson.org. The study begins a discussion of how digital media is changing the way children learn and whether the way they learn is evolving to meet a new, dynamic digital media format.
When Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) administrators recently turned their attention to social studies education, they concluded that a better means of engaging and holding students' interest was needed. Textbooks alone weren't enough to keep today's digital generation, raised in a dynamic visual environment, focused on learning. Thanks to the administrators' commitment to improvement, IPS educators and students are now accessing streaming video, images and other digital media in the classroom.
We need to stop talking cyberbullying and start talking cybercitizenship. Flip to the positive. Our focus in schools needs to shift towards responsible, positive use of social media. We need to stop ignoring and blocking and start embracing and amplifying. It is our duty to our students to start modeling responsible use of social media and encouraging them to follow our lead.
How tech-obsessed iKids would improve our schools. One of the strangest things in this age of young people's empowerment is how little input our students have into their own education and its future. Kids who out of school control large sums of money and have huge choices on how they spend it have almost no choices at all about how they are educated -- they are, for the most part, just herded into classrooms and told what to do and when to do it.
[May 2008] AASA article gives examples of school organizations that are desperately and inappropriately blocking the future and Scott McLeod pleads, "Please don't block the future." Please don't relegate your students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to second-class status in the new economy because you left it to them and their families to figure out on their own what it means to be digital, global citizens. Ask AASA and its state affiliates to provide more technology leadership-related professional development opportunities. And let us know how we can help.
Anne Collier provides us with thoughtful analysis and commentary on the MacArthur Foundation's recent symposium [April 2008) at Stanford, "From MySpace to Hip Hop: New Media In the Everyday Lives of Youth." Click here for the entire Digital Youth presentation.
nternet2 is a non-profit membership organization of 208 universities working in conjunction with government and industry to operate a private national Internet Protocol (IP) network reserved for the exclusive use of the US research and education (R&E) community.As the national R&E backbone, the Internet2 Network provides connectivity between institutions and connectivity to international research and education networks thereby providing access to the global research and education community. While there are many benefits of using Internet2 in the classroom here are the top three for K12: 1. Immediate access to experiences and expertise 2. Access to rich multi-media digital collections and resources 3. A truly global education network at your fingertips.
In California, we have a localized statewide version of this effort called K12 High Speed Network/K12HSN
Videostream of a forum that was held in December 2007 and hosted by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to celebrate the publication of the MacArthur Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Founded in 1995 as a concerned response to the ever-increasing deluge of messages youth receive from television, radio, film, print media, electronic games, and the Internet, Just Think teaches young people media literacy skills for the 21st century.
Widely quoted paper (2006). Educators today confront an ever-shifting landscape when it comes to Internet technologies and their potential for expanding participatory cultures. Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explores new frameworks for literacy through the lens of participatory culture.
Every day, across the nation, our digitally native students are punching search terms into their school's Internet browsers. But which keywords are they searching for most? Starting today, a top 15 list of the most active search terms will be available on Thinkronize, Inc's netTrekker site
The modern American school faces rough challenges. Budget cuts have caused ballooning class sizes, many teachers struggle with poorly motivated students, and in many schools a war is being waged on distracting technologies. In response, innovative educators are embracing social media to fight back against the onslaught of problems. Technologies such as Twitter and Skype offer ideal solutions as inexpensive tools of team-based education.
NBC Learn, the education arm of NBC News, this week launched a new collaborative learning site that combines gaming and multimedia for students aged 13 and up. Called iCue ("Immerse, Connect, Understand, and Excel"), the service builds on research out of MIT's Education Arcade, housed at MIT's Comparative Media Studies, to integrate traditional learning activities with new technologies.