Lesson in Field-Building
By Lucy Bernholzat 10:05 pm on August 17, 2009 • Leave a comment
More than most emerging fields, Digital Media and Learning tends to draw on broader networks.
Since the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning initiative first took shape five years ago, we’ve learned several things about building the field of Digital Media and Learning. First, it is not just academic. Having a body of evidence, research-based findings, and cross-disciplinary methods are key to creating the field, but they are not sufficient. The field is inherently practice-based as well as theory driven. Industry experts, youth, and institutional designers are active drivers in building the field.
Second, we can learn from parallel efforts underway in other fields. Specifically, the James Irvine Foundation has just published a paper called The Strong Field Framework. Its key lessons are similar to the Digital Media and Learning experience as documented in our draft paper, Iterating an Initiative. More so than in other fields, however, we see a bigger role in Digital Media and Learning for networks that cross boundaries as well as feedback loops and rapid iteration.
In addition to these insights, leaders in the field, such as Jim Gee, are identifying how to effectively integrate the assumptions, methods, and data analysis of contributing disciplines into the field of Digital Media and Learning. Gee’s two articles in the new International Journal of Learning and Media, Digital Media and Learning as an Emerging Field, Parts 1 and II, are examples of this. Gee’s “worked examples” may focus on new literacies and academic methods, but understanding the root assumptions and practices of other partners that is inherent in the worked example model is valuable to all participants.
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