Youth Practices in Digital Arts and New Media: Learning in Formal and Informal Settings

Learning in Formal and Informal Settings

J. Black, J. Castro, C. Lin

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781137475176
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Children's Studies in Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

The authors examine youths' practices in digital culture affecting social change, pedagogy, and creative learning practices. Knowledge about these practices is discussed, in which learning, knowledge sharing, distinct social contexts, pedagogical relationships, and artistic creative inquiry are examined in diverse formal and informal environments.

1

Introduction

Joanna Black

Abstract: In this chapter, ideas about youths’ practices in new media are discussed that have taken place in diverse formal and informal learning environments. Definitions are provided concerning formal, informal, and nonformal sites; new media; and information communication technology. Each chapter in the book is briefly summarized, themes are examined concerning research undertaken within five Canadian learning sites, and the authors pose key questions regarding youths’ digital technology and its imaginative usage in relation to concepts of creativity within our current culture.

Keywords: art education; creative technologies; creativity; digital culture; formal learning; informal learning; in-school learning; out-of school learning; social media; youth

Black, Joanna, Juan Carlos Castro, and Ching-Chiu Lin. Youth Practices in Digital Arts and New Media: Learning in Formal and Informal Settings. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. DOI: 10.1057/9781137475176.0005.

The authors of this book bring together a collection of innovative research and community customs in the area of youths’ practices in new media that have taken place in diverse formal and informal learning environments. It comprises descriptions of, reflections on, and examinations regarding digital mediated learning experiences, and what challenges remain to be addressed within the diverse learning communities. A focus is placed upon developing an understanding around the growing area of youth interests in digital media and arts learning in traditional and untraditional milieux in order to investigate children’s digital arts practice in which the authors will identify and discuss types of learning, curricula development, knowledge sharing, distinct social contexts, and pedagogical relationships, as well as creative inquiry in school and community arts learning spaces. Furthermore, this critical discussion in relation to creativity in digital art practice will be considered in light of the recent focus on youths’ participation in digital culture that affects pedagogy and social change. Formal learning environments remain important while informal learning environments are gaining increasing significance as they play a key role in the modern education of our youths. Currently, more parents are placing their children into educational community learning settings to fill in the gaps in their child’s learning, add to, and complement the learning within public schools (Sefton-Green, 2013). Meanwhile, youths in our digital age are self-taught, forming communities of culture as they immerse themselves in social media outside of our classrooms.

A seminal researcher in cultural studies and media education, Buckingham (2007) suggests academics and educators turn to the model used in art education of inquiry-based, open-ended learning wherein students study art to foster self-expression, communication skills, theoretical reflection, and creativity. Using this model allows youths to explore diverse art forms and works while investigating themes such as identity and memory. He states that the implicit model “is that of the avant-garde multimedia art work” (pp. 163–164). This art education model can help educators who teach outside of the field of art education about effective teaching in the areas of new media and digital technologies in relation to cultural studies. This model is recommended because it allows students to imagine the possibilities for making digital artworks and fostering meaningful learning experiences. The authors believe that the art education practices can offer a unique (or alternative) pedagogical approach to teaching and learning with digital media for educators in other discipline areas. In this book the authors delineate ways in which art educators have designed and/or have implemented their new media programs, their curricula, and their pedagogical approaches. It is believed that the concepts presented can assist educators and administrators working with digital technologies in art and across disciplines within our public high schools and informal school settings.

There is little research that addresses the creative usage of and imaginative production of new media works in traditional schools and alternative environments (Delacruz, 2009; Gregory, 2009; Lin, 2009). Additionally, more research is definitely needed in the ways in which pedagogical practices shape learning in the context of artistic production and processes using digital technologies (Bell & Bull, 2010; Buckingham, 2009; Gregory, 2009; Halverson & Gibbons, 2009; Watts, 2008; Wilks, Cutcher, & Wilks, 2012; Willett, 2009). The authors aim to add to the much needed and crucial literature in this field by presenting empirical evidence and relevant discussion in the contexts of formal and informal learning settings.

New media usage in formal and informal settings

Formal milieux

The role of educators is vital to successful technology integration in formal school learning environments. While some devoted teachers are conducting innovative teaching with technologies, many teachers nevertheless (in art and in general subjects) are facing obstacles such as difficulty working with software and hardware, lack of training, inadequate administrational support, scanty government curricula, and high costs¹ (Bastos, 2010; Cuban, 2001; Delacruz, 2004; Gregory, 2009; Leonard & Leonard, 2006; Lu, 2005; Peppler, 2010; Roland, 2010; Watts, 2008; Wilks et al., 2012). Indeed, some teachers find it easier to pay less attention to new digital communication forms that are so ubiquitous in contemporary society (Buckingham, 2007; Choi & Piro, 2009; Willett, 2009). When educators do incorporate digital technologies, it is primarily used for mundane purposes as school-related presentations, basic computing, and acquiring information via the Internet (Buckingham, 2007; Cuban, 2001; Gregory, 2009; Lu, 2005; Peppler, 2010; Roland, 2010). In essence, technology is predominantly employed for banal, commonplace uses such as replacing notebooks, chalkboards, and libraries in our public schools, and a great deal of money has been spent on it (Leonard & Leonard, 2006). Critics often discuss school educators’ lack of knowledge regarding ways teachers integrate technologies effectively in classrooms in order to address concerns of student disenchantment and youth disengagement in education (Jenkins, 2009; Prensky, 2010).

Researchers observe that young people’s daily encounter with digital technologies is often in direct contrast to schooling practices (Buckingham, 2007; Castro, Sinner, & Grauer, 2010; Gude, 2007; Prensky, 2010, Roland, 2010). There is often a gaping divide between the savvy ways in which our youths use media outside of school in their everyday digital lives versus the structured, controlled, and often stilted ways it is regularly used within schools (Clark, Logan, Luckin, Mee, & Oliver, 2009). Clark and his colleagues write, “. . . school institutions appear to be slow to realize the potential of collaborative, communicative interactions, and the open and flexible potentials of learning ‘beyond the classroom walls’ ” (p. 68).

Some researchers such as Davidson and Goldberg (2012) write about what they perceive as oppression of learning in formal settings and call for a change within these institutions in light of emerging information communication technology (ICT) and its potential for participatory and digital learning. Nevertheless, a few art educators within public schools have overcome these obstacles, and engaged in innovative practices making connections outside of formal learning environments within the larger community. These new media programs engage youth, offer strategies for motivating learners, and enable young people to produce and excel in media production. There is scant detailed, thick description about the ways in which art teachers teach with technologies creatively in the classrooms. Revealing such examples is important for policy makers and teachers in order to understand the potential of effective pedagogical approaches and curricula development using new media in public schools (Delacruz, 2004, 2009). How do teachers effectively teach with digital technologies in their classrooms? Scholars have been pointing to the need for more descriptive studies in order to address the above question (Browning, 2006; Darts, 2007; Flood & Bamford, 2007; Gadsden, 2008; Gregory, 2009; Jewitt, 2008; Taylor, 2007). It is recommended that educators need to consider the kinds of skills and knowledge young learners bring to these formal milieux. As Wilks et al. (2012) suggest, the “reality is that in many art classrooms the possibilities have not yet been embraced. Art educators will need assistance to develop a vision for planning and interpretation of ICT [Information Communication Technologies] in their curricula” (p. 64). Finally, it is advised that researchers need to examine the transferability of skills between formal and informal settings (Clark et al., 2009) in order to help young people navigate the complexity of a constantly changing world.

Informal milieux

Attention needs to be given to the qualities of informal learning spaces as they are increasingly present in the digital practices of youth and are essential to engaging young people from socially and culturally diverse backgrounds. It is often recorded that informal learning is undertaken by the students who are highly motivated, eager to learn, and find informal learning to be exciting, flexible, organic, versatile, instantaneous, and diverse (Davidson & Goldberg, 2012; Gunga & Ricketts, 2008; Lin & Mendoza, 2014). Sefton-Green (2013) notes that there is not a great deal of research pertaining to informal learning and ICT usage, suggesting that researchers should examine “How in-formal learning developed in the home, by one’s self or as part of an interest-driven community [and] might be valorized and further developed through not-school experiences” (p. 74). Also of significance are youths’ learning and skill development undertaken at home, in domestic settings, and created for personal use in their own life world. This is illustrated in Freedman, Heijnen, Kallio-Tavin, Kárpáti, and Papp’s (2013) international research study that identified the growing occurrence of youth who form visual culture learning communities outside of formal and informal education programs.

Integrating ICT within society has caused sites of informal learning to gain importance as many learn about ICT outside the classroom (Gunga & Ricketts, 2008). Researchers are finding that instructors in informal learning contexts play a key role as they assist learners taking part in self-determined activities. Sefton-Green (2013) specifically addresses the scant research in this area particularly in recent years. However, he does provide a detailed description of two models undertaken over 30 years ago in Britain and the United States (pp. 41–51).

As informal learning in ICT becomes more dominant, education in these sites of learning is often not as controlled (Gunga & Ricketts, 2008; Sefton-Green, 2013). In Canadian contexts, many researchers have explored how informal educational sites use various art forms and/or digital media to facilitate and enrich inquiry for underrepresented young people beyond school settings (Darts, 2007; Irwin & Kindler, 1999; Poyntz, 2009; Sinner, 2010; Winters, Rogers, & Schofield, 2006). Some describe the effectiveness of community arts programming regarding integrating social services (Browne, 2003), preventing behavioral problems (Wright et al., 2006), developing general skill sets (Fix & Sivak, 2007), literacy proficiency (Rogers, 2010), and fostering multicultural awareness (Kuly, Stewart, & Dudley, 2005) for children and youth in multiethnic communities. Others consider digital-mediated arts production, such as film and digital photography, as a source for artistic expression and a tool of empowerment for immigrant and refugee youth (Lui, 2005) and marginalized teen girls (Levy & Weber, 2011). Although this literature indicates informal learning sites serve as a public space to reach various social needs for youth on the margins, such an intentional learning outcome has been critiqued, suggesting that young people hold a passive relationship to media, assuming that media shape their mind and behavior (Goldman, Booker, & McDermott, 2008). What is absent from this research literature is a contemporary understanding of how digital technologies are creating opportunities for new forms of artistic expression and communication for young people in the context of community-based programming. Often digital education in informal learning lacks creative learner development not only in media and multimodal literacies but also in the development of criticality that is currently being dominated by endless banal entertainment and mundane communication needs (Buckingham, 2007; Clark et al., 2009).

There is an apparent shift in the literature within the last 25 years regarding informal learning settings and ICT usages. This alteration manifests itself in three ways: (1) a current emphasis is on the individual versus a past emphasis situated within community; (2) a present focus is on economics rather than an earlier one positioned within social values;...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1  Introduction
• 2  Economic, Social, and Personal Aspects of Educating for Creativity: A Study of a Community-Based Youth Media Arts Program
• 3  Amplifying Youth Cultural Practices by Engaging and Developing Professional Identity through Social Media
• 4  New Media Pedagogy in Two High Schools: A Look at Formal Learning Environments
• 5  Learning in Place: Profiles of Youth Media Arts Practices in an Informal Learning Setting
• 6  Conclusion
• Index