African Art Students and Digital Learning

Imagine 120 students sharing 5 computers, yet feeling that they are part of an interconnected world. This is the social context framing digital learning for African art students, the material limitations and cultural imaginations of which this chapter is concerned with. Based on extensive ethnographic engagements at TaSUBa, a national institute for arts and culture in Tanzania, this chapter investigates the development of digital media skills. Using the concept of digital learning to cover the acquisition of ICT skills as well as the use of ICT as a learning tool, the analysis spans from early expectations of connectivity to current forms of media engagement. Focusing on the social and cultural aspects of digital learning, the concept hybrid media engagement is introduced to capture the creative ways in which African art students overcome limitations in infrastructure, while exploring new forms of cultural production.

Literacies on the Web

In this chapter the authors discuss and informal learning settings such as fan fiction sites and their relations to teaching and learning within formal learning settings. Young people today spend a lot of time with social media built on user generated content. These media are often characterized by participatory culture which offers a good environment for developing skills and identity work. In this chapter the authors problematize fan fiction sites as informal learning settings where the possibilities to learn are powerful and significant. They also discuss the learning processes connected to the development of literacies. Here the rhetoric principle of “imitatio” plays a vital part as well as the co-production of texts on the sites, strongly supported by the beta reader and the power of positive feedback. They also display that some fans, through the online publication of fan fiction, are able to develop their craft in a way which previously have been impossible.

Predicting the Participation in Information Society

The approach in this chapter is to recognize what is said to be important regarding the feeling of participation in the information society. The perceived feeling of participation is assumed to be an important indicator for young people´s online experiences. In previous research, digital skills and other related concepts such as self-efficacy and a relationship with technology are shown to be important in order to be able to participate in the information society. In this case, there is an exploration into the amount that social factors, digital skills, self-efficacy and a relationship with technology are able to explain the variance in perceived feelings regarding participation. It has been determined that education, self-efficacy, instrumental computer skills, information skills and strategic skills can explain 22 percent of the variance in the perceived feeling of participation. This implies that young people themselves might define other factors as being more important with regards to participation in the information society.

Designing Web-Facilitated Learning Strategy Guidance System

This chapter elaborates on the research the authors engaged in for improving young learners learning competence and effectiveness. This research investigates learning styles and learning strategies, based on which comes up with principles, contents and activities for the design and development of a Web-Facilitated Learning Strategy Guidance System (WFLSGS). A Quisi-Experiment is designed to test the function and implementation of WFLSGS and 3 distinctive findings comes out from the experiment: the research subjects’ learning strategy level is generally low, thus learning strategies guidance is needed for improving learners learning effectiveness; the learning strategy guidance based on learning styles is effective for improving learning strategies, especially cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies; the application of learning strategies is influenced by many factors such as teaching environment, learning content and learner self and so on. By designing and developing learning strategy guidance system, this study enriches the research of learning strategy and provides the teachers and young learners with operational advices and approaches to imporoving individualized learning competence and effectiveness.

The Modes of Governmentality in Language Education

This chapter discusses the validity of incorporating blog activities in language education classes as an equalizing practice. The authors examine blog activities aimed at providing a way for foreign language learners to communicate in a space free from any teacher-student hierarchy as part of a Japanese-as-a-Foreign-Language class at a university in the United States. The authors show that a teacher-student hierarchy still seeps into the blog space, albeit in a different form. Using Michel Foucault’s notion of modes of governmentality, they analyze how the blog’s postings and readers’ comments define the space of a particular blog by evoking modes of governmentality of schooling and of “native” vs. “non-native” speakers. They suggest the importance of acknowledging the existence of relations of dominance in what was initially perceived to be a power-free online space and encourage educators who use blogs in classes to involve learners in the understanding and transformation of such relations of dominance.

Collective Problem-Solving and Informal Learning in Networked Publics

The overarching question in this chapter has to do with cooperation dynamics in social networks on YouTube. The chapter will focus on community aspects of vlogging (video blogging) and it is suggested that networked publics and participatory cultures offer valuable opportunities to the educational system.

Educational Technologies for the Neomillennial Generation

The purpose of this chapter is to provide educators, researchers, and policy-makers with an overview on how modern technology has been influencing the learning styles of the “neomillennial” generation. The authors begin by describing the demographic and cultural characteristics of the neomillennial generation and how they differ from preceding generations. They follow with a discussion of how neomillennial learning styles have changed as a result of new technology. The authors then take a detailed look at two examples of how modern technology can be used to design novel learning approaches: digital game-based learning and learning in virtual worlds. Disadvantages, difficulties, and barriers to acceptance of these approaches are then examined. They conclude by summarizing the characteristics of the neomillennial generation and why technological changes are likely to influence educational practices for them, as well as how these changes fit in the broader context of educational theory.

Emergent/See

In the fall of 2006 the authors’ ethnographic research study began in a response to increasing social concern regarding adolescent (dis)engagement in school literacy practices. The authors began data collection in a grade 9/10 Information Technology (IT) class wherein students were in the process of creating their own videogames as a way to learn programming. Through observations and interviews with students, teachers and parents, they have begun to consider how knowledge developed through creating video games informs the way young people see and engage in the world. They introduce emergence theory to illuminate how their understandings and skills can be used to provide more meaningful learning experiences in formal learning/school experiences. This chapter will demonstrate how these students were engaged in a powerful, emergent learning experience, and one that is very different to the traditional Eurocentric schooling approach, one often not recognized or understood as credible learning.

Media Literacy Education

Media literacy education offers educators a vehicle by which they can promote and foster social responsibility. It prepares students for the technological world in which they are required to be active participants and contributing producers of knowledge. Technology allows students to explore the various methods of communicating their ideas, expertise and opinions with others in a participatory culture; it is therefore important for student to develop analytical skills that will help them create, interact and engage effectively in a socialized network. The challenge for educators is to understand the cultural needs of students in today’s technologically advanced society and to incorporate media literacy programs as an integral part of education. In order to achieve these goals, teachers should be encouraged to attend seminars and hands-on workshops and more importantly, practical resources should be developed and made available for their use in the classroom.

Learning Competence for Youth in Digital Lifelong Learning Society

The purpose of this chapter is to identify challenges and opportunities of learning in rapidly changing digital age, and to propose a theoretical framework of classifying potentially useful learning competences for youths in digital lifelong learning society. The rapid development of technology, economics and society have placed unprecedented challenges to people in all countries and all walks of life, thus demand new ways of learning, or lifelong learning to help people function in this ever changing world more successfully. The framework of learning competences proposed in this chapter encompasses meta-cognition, learning strategies, transfer of learning, and information literacy. All of them are discussed in details in the chapter. Although the framework has the function to help learners achieve learning success in digital environment, a further research involving youth on development and application of it in the digital lifelong learning environment is needed as a next step of research. Therefore, experimental research is needed to further test and adjust the proposed theoretical framework in a digital lifelong learning environment.