Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

4.10.09 | How do research and ideas about education spread and take hold? In a series of blog posts over at New Media Literacies, Daniel T. Hickey, Michelle Honeyford, and Jenna McWilliams appropriate Henry Jenkins and colleagues’ ideas about “spreadability” and apply them to education research, policy, and practice.

In a world where the core body of what teachers must impart to their students becomes less centralized and more diffuse, digital social networks, they argue, “can revolutionize the way we identify, refine, and share worthwhile curricular practices.”

They explore why the current method of using evidence-based research to shape curricula and practice will likely “fail to impact education generally or even achievement more narrowly for the same reasons that Jenkins argues that most efforts to create viral media messages fail as well.” Instead, they suggest that how properties of students, teachers, content, and accountability work together can better ensure that mutually meaningful practices spread and take hold in education circles.

For the first post by Hickey, Honeyford, and McWilliams, click here. For the second post, click here.