New Media in the Classroom

Two established and innovative scholars partnered with classroom practitioners to generate new knowledge of how to support expansive meaning making for children in contemporary times—what’s not to love? The book’s pedagogical principles are essential and expertly explicated and illustrated. This book will be cherished by academics, students, and teachers.
-- Rachel Heydon
In this significant new text, Cathy Burnett and Guy Merchant foreground the affective, embodied and emergent nature of making meaning with new media. They offer fascinating examples of children and young people engaged in improvising their way forwards as they compose and collaborate in different digital environments.  Illuminating the playfulness and provisionality involved, the authors skilfully show teachers how to create space for such experimentation, enabling children to engage both creatively and critically in this digital age.

 

-- Teresa Cremin

This book is a great read for educators and folks concerned with the impact on digital technologies on young people’s literacy learning. It grapples with all the main questions teachers are asking about how and whether to incorporate communication technologies into their curriculum. It offers a set of principles to consider when working with new media in the classroom, which are both ethical and pragmatic. Burnett and Merchant’s writing is uncluttered, entertaining and wise. I can imagine teacher study groups, staff meetings and seminars organized around this very helpful book. While these authors are exploring new theoretical ground in their scholarship their treatment of this complex area is light, accessible and fresh.

 

-- Barbara Comber

This an exciting publication that offers authentic approaches for educators to meet challenges of the literacy that students need in our evolving digital landscape. Cathy and Guy apply ongoing educational research to justify their proposal of a "Charter for 21^st Century Literacies". While acknowledging extant polarisations and tensions, the nine principles of their Charter are designed around specific pedagogical approaches that allow for the diversity of students, their environment and the media. Through each chapter the authors demonstrate the need for classrooms to enable "creative, collaborative and experimental meaning making that draw on different elements of one’s communication repertoire". Examples are offered to demonstrate the multidimensional potential of literacy across linguistic, media and social contexts.

-- Dr Maureen Walsh