Mimi Ito: Learning with digital media involves more than “educational technology.”
10.18.06 | When people hear “digital media and learning,” they often assume it refers to educational technology used in classrooms or other formal educational settings. While this is a longstanding and important research area, much of our work for the MacArthur Foundation focuses on digital media and learning in settings that are not explicitly designed to be educational.
Digital media are no longer experimental technologies that live in special laboratories and classrooms; they are part of our everyday lives, inhabiting our living rooms, backpacks, pockets, and cars. We need to understand how digital media has changed how young people play, learn, relate to others, get information, and create knowledge and culture. Configuring an ipod, exchanging IM with friends, or posting a question to a fan bulletin board are all learning moments. Taken as a whole, these informal and everyday moments can have a longer and lasting impact on young people’s learning and development than their exposure to educational technologies in the classroom.
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Geoff McGovern (Binghamton University)
11/16/06
1:03pm
I think this is a keen insight, if perhaps in need of more specification. Without a doubt, students young and old learn from experiences outside of formal educational institutions. I’ve been remodeling my kitchen: trust me, I’ve learned a lot about building materials and technology.
But the difference between remodelling my kitchen and using digital media lies in the ability of the latter to access ever more information. It has the potential for a cascading effect, increasing returns measures in terms of information.
Can you tell me if there is any academic work on non-formal educational experiences upon which this line of research can build?
Jean Locicero Shankle (Aretao)
11/16/06
4:09pm
The key advantage to digital media seems to me to be more than the volumes of information it leverages. The key advantage is how it creates interesting human networks and relationships. It is how the relationships in those new networks develop because of the information they can access together that fascinates me. Seeing true human value to bits and bytes will be key to bringing on board those who resist technology’s integration into education.
Geoff McGovern (Binghamton University)
11/18/06
3:16pm
Alright, I see your point, but other forms of informal education create interesting networks and relationships, too. I have a newfound appreciation for my sales rep at the local building supplies company as I remodel. We’ve embarked on creative collaboration with respect to my kitchen. My point is really just a request for clarification: how do digital relationships differently develop vis-a-vis the information they access together?