Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

10.29.09 | University of California at Irvine has launched a new research initiative, Digital Media and Learning Research Hub, and website—http://www.dmlcentral.net—to study the impact of digital media on young people’s learning. The new center, supported by the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Initiative,  was announced this week at a leadership forum hosted by Google in cooperation with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, Common Sense Media, and the MacArthur Foundation.

The new site features a database of resources and projects, as well as a group blog with posts from researchers, educators and foundation leaders such as danah boyd, Cathy Davidson, Liz Losh, Howard Rheingold, Raquel Recuero and Connie Yowell. Bios are available here.

In their first posts, Hub Research Director Mimi Ito reflects on how far this emerging field has come, and danah boyd unpacks language teenagers use to explain the divisions between MySpace and Facebook.

Plus: The L.A. Times Technology blog covered the two-day Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age forum and speech by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who says kids need more computers in schools. 

“It’s important for students to be put in touch with real-world problems,” Brin said. “The curriculum should include computer science. Mathematics should include statistics. The curriculums should really adjust.”