RSS 1.0Digital Culture and Education
Browse by
Digital Culture & Education is an international inter-disciplinary open-access peer-reviewed academic journal. Established in 2009 by Chris Walsh & Thomas Apperley the journal publishes scholarly work exploring the overlaps of digital technology, culture, and education. The journal is dedicated to making this scholarship and research available to all via open access to challenge the hegemony of publishers. All articles are accessible and available in downloadable print formats hosted on this website.
News
Globethics Library has vol. 1(2009) to current.
CC BY-NC-SA.
Recent Submissions
-
PEDAGOGIES OF THE DATAFIED: MATERIAL FOUNDATIONS FOR LITERACIES OF THE SUBJECT IN THE 21ST CENTURYWhat it means to be human, relevant and meaningful is no longer certain within emerging regimes where computational complexity and data analysis increasingly determine conditions of prosperity and authority. Preparing students for futures within this transforming landscape of emerging technologies and new patterns of social organization raises important issues of literacy, power and subjectivity alike. If the hailing mechanisms of the subject are largely modulated through digital and algorithmic protocols, what kinds of literacies might help expand individual and group influence over subject formation? Traditional approaches to digital literacy have tended to overlook techno-material aspects of network functionality, which risks diminishing the degree to which individuals and groups can extend influence over subject formation. This paper argues for an expanded approach to digital literacy that addresses the techno-material foundations and full range of computational protocols on which network societies depend. Learning to navigate and manipulate the material-discursive apparatus in network societies can help individuals and groups apperceive assemblages of biopower while expanding possibilities for shaping subjectivities in datafied contexts.
-
EMERGING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ART AND PEDAGOGY: EXPLORING DISCUSSIONS OF CREATIVE ALGORITHMS AND MACHINES FOR ART EDUCATIONThe continued development and emergence of creative machines and computational creativity provokes certain questions that audit ontological and epistemological assumptions. Creative artificial intelligence challenges computer scientists, digital artists, and art educators to clarify or reconceptualize their notions of cognition and creativity. The article starts by addressing the increase in AI algorithms in both daily life and formal education settings to begin highlighting the shared investment across domains. The focus is then narrowed down to highlight creative machines and digital artmaking. By exploring the statements and artworks from computer scientists and digital artists, correlations to art education pedagogical approaches are then constructed. This will then lead into a recognition for a need to challenge and examine the ontological and epistemological assumptions present in art education. Finally, a new material theoretical framework for digital art education pedagogy is proposed to reorient discussions to ask new questions regarding increasingly creative machines and the experiences and education of students in the visual arts
-
‘Gives a physical sense almost’: Using immersive media to build decolonial moments in higher education for radical citizenshipIn the context of higher education, immersive media may provide a way to deepen students’ learning experiences and facilitate a sense of ‘being there’. Immersive media can also possibly contribute to decolonization if it involves Indigenous-produced content and generates increased appreciation of Indigenous knowledges that leads to student commitment to undermine colonial power. In doing so, radical digital citizenship can be extended. This article examines how immersive media can help educators develop appropriate learning experiences that support radical digital citizenship, a way of engaging with the digital that is defined as critiquing digital technologies which are oppressive and then developing emancipatory technologies to provide alternatives (Emejulu and McGregor 2019). Theoretically and practically, the arguments herein are inspired by Tuhiwai Smith’s imperative that decolonization in higher education must not be an empty promise but work to transform institutions, teachers and students. The convenience of using immersive media for learning is frequently emphasized in higher education, but the challenges of ensuring students can use immersive media are not often acknowledged, and the immersive media and pedagogy literature is just beginning to deeply engage with issues relating to decolonization. Drawing on an empirical study of the use of immersive media in a co-taught third year and Masters course, this article uses observations from in-class use of immersive media and a survey of students who actively engaged with, and thought about, the technology (n=71). Immersive media usage can extend the notion of radical digital citizenship by using existing technologies to help students understand and then challenge settler colonial relations and practices in their work and daily life.
-
Critical reading of a text through its electronic supplementA by-product of new social media platforms is an abundant textual record of engagements – billions of words across the world-wide-web in, for example, discussion forums, blogs and wiki discussion tabs. Many of these engagements consist of commentary on a particular text and can thus be regarded as supplements to these texts. The larger purpose of this article is to flag the utility value of this electronic supplementarity for critical reading by highlighting how it can reveal particular meanings that the text being responded to can reasonably be said to marginalise and / or repress. Given the potentially very large size of social media textual product, knowing how to explore these supplements with electronic text analysis software is essential. To illustrate the above, I focus on how the content of online discussion forums, explored through electronic text analysis software, can be used to assist critical reading of the texts which initiate them. The paper takes its theoretical orientations from the textual intervention work of Rob Pope together with themes in the work of the philosopher, Jacques Derrida.
-
Green and Screen: Does Mobile Photography Enhance or Hinder Our Connection to Nature?Connection to nature, which describes the affective, experiential and cognitive aspects of our relationship with the natural world, has been positively associated with increased wellbeing, as well as pro-environmental beliefs and behaviours. It has also been identified as a worthwhile and distinct goal of education, both in terms of environmental education assessment, as well as in broader terms. This short article aims to explore the effect of using mobile technology to enhance our connection to nature, through a short-term intervention. A total of 57 undergraduates (age range 20 - 31) were randomised into two groups and undertook a short walk in urban nature, with the instruction to notice the beauty in nature and note three beautiful things. One of the groups was asked to record these beautiful things using mobile technology (photography, audio or video recording). Pre- and post-activity measures of the nature connection, using the Connection to Nature Scale (CNS) State were taken and analysed. Results showed that although the intervention had an overall positive effect on participants’ connection to nature, technology neither enhanced nor hindered it. Qualitative analysis of participants’ description of the activity shows a largely positive experience. Limitations of this small trial are presented, and the potential to build an application to engage young people with nature, for increased wellbeing and sustainability, is discussed as a future direction.
-
ECOMEDIA LITERACY: EDUCATING WITH ECOMEDIA OBJECTS AND THE ECOMEDIASPHEREEcomedia literacy cultivates the exploration of ecomedia objects-- media texts (advertisements, news articles, television commercials, websites, films, etc.), platforms (streaming services, social networks, media organizations), gadgets (smart phones, tablets, computers, etc.), or hyperobjects (anamorphous disbursed phenomena that behaves like a system, such as the internet, fake news, or media industry). In this paper, I introduce an integrative method of analysis I devised called the “ecomediasphere.” The ecomediasphere prompts learners to explore the ecomedia object’s use and meaning from four different perspectives: lifeworld, culture, political economy, and materiality. Conceptually and theoretically, these four perspectives correspond with various lenses that inform digital media literacy and environmental literacy
-
Book Review: Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games. By Alenda Y. ChangIt is tricky to review books published in 2019, just before the pandemic. Playing Nature: Ecology in Videogames is a case in point: a book about ecology and games is timely. This is particularly so for the journal “Digital Culture and Education” – when so many are moving their teaching towards digital culture in ways they had not expected. This is as true for parents logging on to YouTube to remind themselves about long division as it is for university lecturers experimenting with OBS Studio. What can we teach from this book about play and ecology in digital culture at and after this juncture?
-
Teachers, AI Grammar Checkers, and the Newest Literacies: Emending Writing Pedagogy and AssessmentHigh school English (Language Arts) teachers are experiencing the most impactful shift in literacy practices since the advent of digital word processing: Artificial Intelligence literacies, which impact the production of writing with high-accuracy grammar suggestions. However, the specific role that AI grammar checkers play in teaching and assessing writing has been widely overlooked to date. In this focused study, seven New Jersey (USA) high school English teachers were initially asked about their current writing and grammar pedagogy and assessment. When participants were then introduced to an AI grammar checker, the emergent findings of this study showed that grammar is an implicit factor in student assessment, despite many high school English teachers no longer explicitly teaching grammar lessons. Furthermore, the participating teachers perceived AI grammar checkers as possible “personal assistants” that could improve student writing, teach grammar, and reduce teacher workloads. This study suggests that online grammar checkers can bring about meaningful critical reflection regarding the assessment of Standard English in high schools for teachers and researchers.
-
Talking past each other: Academic and media framing of literacyThe technological and social shifts of the past several decades have brought about new modes of learning, participation and civic engagement. As young people work, play and socialize in online spaces, the academic community is exploring the challenges and possibilities of education in the digital age. New definitions of literacy emerge to address the importance of digital skills, play and collaboration. This paper explores the diverging perspectives on literacy adopted by new media scholars and old media outlets. Thematic coverage in the New York Times from the last four years is analysed and compared to academic texts produced in the same period. Measures of salience for literacy as a topic are used in conjunction with framing analysis based on semantic mapping. The results of this study suggest that mainstream media employ a legacy literacy frame, stressing basic language competencies and traditional institutions. That perspective is markedly different from the academic discourse, which emphasizes a host of new social, technological and critical evaluation skills.
-
Critical reading of a text through its electronic supplementA by-product of new social media platforms is an abundant textual record of engagements – billions of words across the world-wide-web in, for example, discussion forums, blogs and wiki discussion tabs. Many of these engagements consist of commentary on a particular text and can thus be regarded as supplements to these texts. The larger purpose of this article is to flag the utility value of this electronic supplementarity for critical reading by highlighting how it can reveal particular meanings that the text being responded to can reasonably be said to marginalise and / or repress. Given the potentially very large size of social media textual product, knowing how to explore these supplements with electronic text analysis software is essential. To illustrate the above, I focus on how the content of online discussion forums, explored through electronic text analysis software, can be used to assist critical reading of the texts which initiate them. The paper takes its theoretical orientations from the textual intervention work of Rob Pope together with themes in the work of the philosopher, Jacques Derrida.