Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Building the Field of Digital Media & Learning

Posted by: PNNOnline on Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The MacArthur Foundation has announced plans to build the emerging field of digital learning, committing $50 million over five years to the effort. The Foundation will fund research and innovative projects focused on understanding the impact of the widespread use of digital media on our youth and how they learn.

“This is the first generation to grow up digital – coming of age in a world where computers, the internet, videogames, and cell phones are common, and where expressing themselves through these tools is the norm,” said MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton. “Given how present these technologies are in their lives, do young people act, think and learn differently today? And what are the implications for education and for society? MacArthur will encourage this discussion, fund research, support innovation, and engage those who can make judgments about these difficult but critical questions.”


MacArthur’s approach is comprehensive, extending beyond the classroom to assess how digital technology may be transforming youth in both their formal and informal learning environments. The research will test the theory that digital youth are different because they use digital tools to assimilate knowledge, play, communicate, and create social networks in new and different ways. The Foundation’s efforts will connect people across a variety of academic, education, commercial, and nonprofit fields to assess implications and seed new collaborative projects.

Eighty-three percent of young people between the ages of 8 and 18 play video games regularly; nearly three-quarters use instant messaging. On a typical day, more than half of U.S. teenagers use a computer and more than 40 percent play a video game. Using websites like MySpace and Facebook, young people are sharing photos, videos, music, ideas, and opinions online, connecting with a large group of peers in new and sometimes unexpected ways.

MacArthur has released the first in a series of papers on digital learning topics. The paper, authored by MIT Professor Henry Jenkins, describes a participatory culture for young people and addresses the potential benefits and educational implications. In 2007, the Foundation will publish six books, online and in print, representing leading research and thinking on a range of digital learning topics. Topics will include credibility, unintended consequences of digital media, civic engagement, the ecology of games, race and ethnicity, and identity and digital media. Online public conversations, which have already begun, will help shape the content of these books.

MacArthur has already funded exploratory work in the field of digital learning:

A large-scale ethnography of young people that will provide a broad portrait of the digital generation: technology's influence on their social networks and peer groups, their family life, how they play, and how they look for information.

A software application that engages young people in creating games to learn about ethical judgment, aesthetic design, systemic thinking, and collaborative problem solving.

Research on media literacy, exploring ways to teach it in the classroom and through after-school activities.

Online discussions and a written essay competition for kids in which they describe their everyday use of digital media.

An examination of how digital learning may change social institutions and developing new designs for schools and libraries.

No comments: