What theories and practices around digital making are important and distinctive and how can they be connected to media education?
DARE at MES 14: Media, making and learning What theories and practices around digital making are important and distinctive and how can they be connected to media education? In the conversation strand at the recent International Media Education Summit in Prague, members of the DARE collaborative asked this and other questions, drawing on recent case […]
UKLA: Media Literacies Special Interest Group
On Nov 29, the Media Education Conference at the British Film Institute in London included the first workshop of the United Kingdom Literacy Association’s new Media Literacies special interest group, with the following outcomes: The Centre for Excellence in Media Practice presented findings from a pilot study investigating the media literacy of students in the […]
Media Education Summit: Intergenerational Digital Storytelling
At the recent and excellent Media Education Summit held in Prague I presented some research on the ways in which young children read adverts. I argued that the data I was sharing demonstrated that children were able to express some very complex ideas if given the appropriate conceptual tools and opportunities for reflection. This led […]
Children’s Film or rather ‘Paddington’ hits the Headlines
https://theconversation.com/paddington-sex-scandal-the-bear-would-bore-if-he-didnt-break-some-rules-34779 In response to some of the rather disparaging and hypocritical discussions of ‘Paddington’ and children’s media more broadly I created this response for The Conversation. It would be interesting to know what others think. I did break my golden rule of commenting about a film before I had seen it but I was provoked […]
Film Studies Year 3
My doctoral research is focused on children between 17 and 42 months of age, for which I undertook a longitudinal, ethnographically styled study of my twin grandchildren, “Dora” and “Sam”, gathering data in the home on their TV- and film-viewing practices. That stage is long over, and after a year’s interruption I am resuming work […]
Literacy and new media – a(nother) call for change?
There is nothing new about calling for changes to the literacy curriculum and pedagogy in response to developments in digital media and the practices associated with them. The seminal multiliteracies framework developed by the New London Group is nearly 20 years old (New London Group, 1996) , and literacy researchers have been referring to ‘new’ […]
Young children’s engagement with television: asking better questions
Having worked in a wide range of research contexts, I’ve been lucky enough to see a real spectrum of approaches to answering research questions. It’s become increasingly important to me that, as researchers, we are asking the right questions. One of my favourite research anecdotes concerns the market research team of an instant noodle snack-food brand […]
What defines an effective community member in the 21st century?
Before the advent of social media, community engagement typically involved meetings and conversations in meetings, conferences, summits and rendezvous. Now much community activity happens online and there is considerable academic and practical effort to foster children’s effective understanding and safe and active involvement in online environments. Community engagement in the 21st century is therefore about […]
Film in Education: More than motivating?
All too often it is claimed that film and media are useful educational tools to motivate children to learn. I think this is a rather limited understanding of the role of media in children’s lives, literacies and learning. I have recently written an article which shares an account of a teacher valuing children’s experiences of […]
Children’s reading heroes of today
Many people feel that reading fast is the only way to keep up with the large volumes of text they encounter on a daily basis. For some people, to read fast is to follow in the footsteps of their favourite super (s)heroes – the latest of which is played by Scarlett Johansson in her new […]
