Cyberbullying and Internet Safety

The chapter considers cyberbullying in relation to Internet safety, concentrating on recent, high quality empirical studies. The review discusses conventional debates over how to define cyberbullying, arguing to limit the term to repeated, electronically-mediated incidents involving intention to harm and a power imbalance between bully and victim. It also takes note of the critical perspective that cyberbullying—through its generic and individualistic framing—deflects attention from the racism, sexism, ableism, and heterosexism that can motivate or exacerbate the problem of such bullying. The review concludes that: (a) cyberbullying, rigorously defined, is a phenomenon that is less pervasive and dire than widely believed; and (b) cyber-aggression and online harassment are more prevalent, yet understudied. Fueled by various societal inequalities, these latter forms of online abuse require urgent public attention. The chapter's recommendations are informed by a view of young people as apprentice citizens, who learn democratic participation by practicing it.

New and Strange Sorts of Texts

Dennis Baron (1999) writes about the impact of digital technology on literacy practices and thus is a good exemplar for considering how communication technologies are changing the ways in which stories are told. In this chapter, we argue that young adult literature authors and readers are currently in what Baron terms an inventive stage as they devise new ways of producing storied texts. Young adult authors, aware of their readers as avid, exploring, and savvy tech users, experiment with text formats to appeal to readers growing up in a digital “participatory culture” (Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton & Robins, 2009). In a cultural climate where the very notion of what constitutes a book is changing, our chapter responds to Baron's (2009) claim that readers and writers are in the process of “[learning] to trust a new technology and the new and strange sorts of texts that it produces” (p. x).

Deviously Deviant

This chapter presents the unique case of deviantART.com – a popular social networking and image-sharing platform for artists. The chapter introduces and describes the platform, its history, and some of the features the platform offers. It forwards a brief summation of current research, outlines issues emerging from that research, explores the strength and weaknesses of that research, and discusses some of the many difficulties related to researching the platform and its members. The chapter includes a discussion of “creativity” and the economically centric rhetoric and misconceptions latent in hyped popular discourse surrounding the rise of a “creative economy.” A discussion of educational issues from an art education perspective is also included in the chapter, which concludes with a presentation of larger social and policy issues related to deviantART.com.

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling, especially in the form of short personally-narrated stories first pioneered by the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley in 1993, is a practice that has now expanded throughout English speaking countries and Western Europe, and has a smaller but growing presence in the developing world. This review examines the origins of the practice and early dissemination, and its current uses in community-based storytelling, education, and by cultural institutions. Research regarding the impacts and benefits of digital storytelling and relationships between storytelling, cognition and identity, and mediating technologies are examined. Current issues in the field, including issues of voice, ownership, power relationships, and dissemination are considered, along with possible future directions for research and implications for social practice and policy.

Virtual Worlds and Online Videogames for Children and Young People

Online virtual worlds and games provide opportunities for new kinds of interaction, and new forms of play and learning, and they are becoming a common feature in the lives of many children and young people. This chapter explores the issues that this sort of virtual play raises for researchers and educators, and the main themes that have emerged through empirical investigation. I focus on children and young people within the age range covered by compulsory schooling, providing illustrative examples of virtual environments that promote play and learning as a way of underlining some key areas of interest. Drawing on work from a range of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives the chapter emphasises how these environments have much in common with other imagined worlds and suggests that looking at the ways in which the virtual is embedded in everyday contexts for meaning making provides an important direction for future research.

A Review of E-Textiles in Education and Society

The recent emergence of digital creativity that extends beyond the screen and into the physical world, engendering new forms of creative production, has transformed educational and professional fields. From AT&T's bio-tracking clothing to Lady Gaga's smart-hydraulic “Living Dress,” e-textiles infuse fashion with electronics to produce unique and aesthetic effects using new conductive materials, including thread, yarn, paint, and fabrics woven from copper, silver, or other highly conductive fibers. This chapter outlines both the educational and societal implications of these new materials in the field of e-textile creation like consumer-ready e-textile toolkits, high-profile displays of imaginative e-textile creations and an increasing body of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) literature on e-textile design that have emerged in the past decade. It also looks at ways in which e-textiles are transforming new solutions to old and persistent problems of underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM fields and providing a vehicle in which to rethink teaching and learning in these disciplines.

Moving beyond the Basics

The evolution of the web has transformed the way persons communicate and interact with each other, and has reformed institutional operations in various sectors. Examining these changes through the theoretical framework Connectivism, provides a detailed analysis of how the web impacts individuals' context within communities as well as the larger society. This chapter examines the evolution of the web and the characteristics of various iterations of the web. A discussion on the emergence of participatory media and other participatory processes provides insight as to how the web influences personal and professional interactions. Research on how the web has changed cultural contexts as well as systems such as education, governments and businesses is shared and analyzed to identify gaps and provide direction for future research.

Children and Youth Making Digital Media for the Social Good

This chapter describes how children and youth are using digital media to address inequity in their schools, communities, and in society. The chapter begins with a review of the historical and cultural roots of children making digital media for the social good, and situates the approach in the context of other civic and community-based movements. The next section focuses on the range of ways that children and youth are making digital media, including who is participating, and the social and institutional factors involved. The next sections describe the benefits for the participants and for society, as well as the barriers to broader participation. Two case studies highlight key strategies for engaging marginalized youth in making digital media for the social good, and ways to expand the popularity of this approach. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research, and the broader implications for education, civic engagement, social practice and policy.

Digital Media Affecting Society

The proliferation of the use of digital media for learning and instruction continues to be investigated and pondered as the advance of a broad range of technologies eclipses currently available traditional text and face-to-face learning modalities for K-12 and higher education instruction. Digital media's affect on educational processes and delivery, an analysis of existing research reviewing whether digital media is benefitting educational outcomes in instruction and learning, and recommendations for the future are the primary goals of this chapter. Investigation into each of the aforementioned topics separately reveals an intersection that is far from being maturely assessed. The topic of digital media affecting how people learn will elicit further research as education continues to call for an increased focus on high outcomes while also increasing the adoption of digital media resources for the transmission and acquisition of knowledge.

Digital Media and Cosmopolitan Critical Literacy

In this chapter I consider contemporary global conditions pointing to what some scholars term “a global risk society” where digital media and Cosmopolitan Critical Literacy offer a counterpoint to human rights, health, climate, and terrorist threats. By examining current research in global youth communication across nation-state boundaries via the Internet, existing research suggests that tapping into digital media literacy and critical media literacy will be crucial for developing an informed and critical citizenry. At present, studies of transnational youth navigating old and new affiliations across national borders are in their infancy. Nevertheless, the existing research holds promise for developing global world citizens who can realize an ethos of cosmopolitan, critical citizenship through the affordances of digital media.