Schooling the digital generation (2005)
Popular culture, new media and the future of education
David Buckingham
ioe professorial lecture
historical perspective -schools have changed very little as each new technology/media has come along. 'school as the last bastion of literate civilisation'
now from a popular culture new media perspective the child experience in and out of school is very different
why it might matter
- more democratic relationship teacher/learner or adult/child
- children's informal use involve a whole range of learning processes - exploration, experimentation, play and collaboration with others.
e.g. (i)a computer game might involve memory, hypothesis testing, predicting, strategic planning, dialogue with others. It is usually multiliterate. Needs focus and commitment.
e.g. (ii) Online communication - 'have to learn to 'read' subtle nuances, often on the basis of minimum cues.' Need to know rules and etiquette and be savvy about genre. 'Chat rooms provide a safe arena for rehearsing and exploring aspects of identity and personal relationships' ' it is a community of practice'
From an educational perspective active learning is to be encouraged however in online contexts activity might merely reflect consumption. A key element in popular culture is to create the illusion of control
growth industry in edutainment -'reflect a broader attempt to co-opt aspects of 'entertainment' for the purposes of education'
Media literacy
There is an educational need for media literacy .
Media literacy - needs to be both critical and creative. 'involves the rigorous analysis of media texts, in terms of the visual and verbal language they employ and the representations of the world that they make available, know about the producers and how they reach and attract an audience.'
Critical understandings for a digital/media literacy
- media as representation rather than reflection
- language - awareness of codes and conventions of the different genres - 'the unique rhetoric ' of interactive communications
- production - who is communicating to whom and why. Know the commercial influences- particularly since these are often invisible
In his concluding remarks the author mentions some examples of schools where this is taking place.
