Education Commons^™

Making In Media Education: An Activity-Oriented Approach To Digital Literacy, Thomas Knaus

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Why is maker education a suitable approach for giving learners the 21st century skills they need to cope with the digital transformation? This article provides an answer and represents a defense of maker education in the field of educational science. Taking a human-media-machine interaction model as the basis for discussion, this article highlights the growing importance of digital technology as well as technological principles for human communication and interaction. Communication technology and the influence of technology on culture and society require a broad understanding of media literacy in the sense of digital literacy. By broadening the theoretical basis of media …

Computational Thinking And Coding For Young Children: A Hybrid Approach To Link Unplugged And Plugged Activities, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

In our increasingly technology-dependent society, the importance of promoting digital literacy (e.g., computational thinking, coding, and programming) has become a critical focus in the field of childhood education. While young children these days are routinely and extensively exposed to digital devices and tools, the efficacy of the methods for fostering digital skills in the early childhood classroom has not always been closely considered. This is particularly true in settings where early childhood educators are not digital experts. Currently, most of the efforts in standard early childhood settings, taught by teachers who are not digital experts, appear to revolve around “unplugged” …

The Impact Of A Smartlab Implementation On Rural Schools In North Dakota, Tonya M. Greywind

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This mixed methods quasi-experimental phenomenological study investigated the impact that a SmartLab® implementation had on four rural schools in the state of North Dakota. This study featured semi structured interview questions for facilitators, semi-structured focus group questions for students, and a digital literacy pre and post assessment (DLA) that was administered to students. This study looked at student learning in terms of twenty-first century skills, teacher and student perspectives in terms of student learning as well as teacher perspectives on the impact of the SmartLab® on their own teaching methods.

Two facilitators from two of the four schools were interviewed …

Monological Practices, Authoritative Discourses And The Missing "C" In Digital Communities, Vicki A. Hosek, Lara J. Handsfield

Faculty Publications - College of Education

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher decisions surrounding opportunities for student voice, experiences and beliefs in digital classroom communities. The teachers’ decisions reflect monologic rather than dialogic teacher pedagogies which prompted the authors to ask the following question: What led to these teacher-centered practices in digital environments? Authoritative discourses in school policies and a missing connection between critical pedagogies and teachers’ technology practices are examined in light of teachers’ decisions to engage in monologic and/or dialogic teaching practices. The authors propose professional development and research that emphasize pedagogy that supports student voice as foundational to practices involving …

Using Free & Open Tools: A Holistic Selection Process Centered On Digital Literacy, Tim Miller

Digital Initiatives Symposium

This session will cover free and open tools as well as teaching strategies for creating and implementing digital/web literacy and digital media instruction. The session will also be useful for people looking for free and open tools for their own projects, including how to get started and how to learn necessary new skills. Considerations such as terms of use, privacy, accessibility and licensing can be as or more important than functionality. Additionally, adopting open tools can advance conversations about open licensing which, in turn, can promote the application of creative commons and public domain licenses to appropriate works. Knowing about …

Digital Poetry Practicum: Preservice English Language Arts Teachers’ Dispositions Of New Literacies, Katie Dredger Ph.D., Susanne Nobles Ph.D., Jenny M. Martin Ph.D.

Teacher Education Program Faculty Scholarship

This qualitative study investigated how graduate preservice teachers (PSTs) engaged in a digital practicum experience with a geographically distant secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. The graduate PSTs, enrolled in a Masters of Arts, English Education program at a university in the mid-Atlantic United States, mentored the 9th-grade students in the online spaces of a course wiki and video conferencing. In this portion of a larger study, PSTs mentored the students during a poetry unit organized by the ELA cooperating teacher and housed in the ELA classroom. A goal of this practicum was building PSTs’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Shulman, 1986) …

Facilitating Student Documentary Projects Toward 21-Century Literacy And Civic Engagement, Steven Goodman

Occasional Paper Series

The author describes how he uses video making as a way to engage students in high-needs schools. Goodman believes video making projects can help counter the ways minority students are made invisible by school curriculum and the culture of testing. More importantly, creating video documentaries allows students to use multiple literacies and does not exclude those who struggle with the written word.

Creating A Lifeline Back To Books For Adolescent Boys Through Multimedia Enhanced Read-Alouds, Jana Wilkening Mcnally

Dissertations

Due to a growing concern regarding the reading motivation levels of adolescent males, educators have been encouraged to broaden their definition of literacy beyond the traditional fiction novel. This study sought to target the reading motivation levels of unmotivated adolescent boys through the use of a multimedia-enhanced read aloud (MERA). Research questions included: (a) How does the implementation of the MERA impact the reading motivation of adolescent male students? (b) How does the implementation of the MERA impact the reading motivation of unmotivated adolescent male students? (c) How does the implementation of the MERA impact the reading motivation of adolescent …

Exploring Relationships Between Thinking Style And Sex, Age, Academic Major, Occupation, And Levels Of Arts Engagement Among Professionals Working In Museums, Mark D. Osterman

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With evidence that arts engagement and nonlinear thinking style both utilize insight, intuition, and emotion in the decision making process, the literature has driven an investigation of the relationship between levels of arts engagement and thinking style preference. This nonexperimental correlational study (N = 101) explored (a) the prevalence of linear, nonlinear, or balanced linear/nonlinear thinking style of professionals working in museums. (b) Whether thinking style has a relationship with (i) age; (ii) sex; (iii) academic major; (iv) occupation; (v) levels of arts engagement. Two theoretical frameworks underpinned this study: (a) new literacies and (b) cognitive styles.

A Web-based …