The connected child: tracing digital literacy from school to leisure
Keywords
digital practices
digital literacy
children
identity
school
contexts
Publication details
| Year: | 2014 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/1554480x.2014.977290 |
| Issued: | 2014 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 10 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Start Page: | 113 |
| End Page: | 127 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Bjørgen A.; Erstad O. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Pedagogies: An International Journal |
| Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
| Topics: | Learning; Internet usage, practices and engagement; Literacy and skills; Digital and socio-cultural environment |
| Sample: | "The data were collected by video observation and semi-structured interviews with 37 students between 9 and 13 years (from fifth to seventh grade) in three classes in three primary schools, all representative for Norwegian schools in terms of size, technical equipment, numbers of students and teachers and socio-economic status." (Bjørgen and Erstad, 2014) |
| Implications For Parents About: | Parenting guidance / support |
| Implications For Educators About: | Digital citizenship; Professional development; School networking |
Abstract
This article directs attention to how young students make sense of the connections and disconnections of digital practices between school and leisure. By using New Literacy Studies as a frame of reference, we study how students’ conceptions of digital literacies and their positional identities are defined across school and home. In contrast to most other studies of similar issues, we study children in the age range from 9 to 13 years old. The methods used are qualitative interviews and video observations of these students at three Norwegian primary schools. The analysis shows how various digital practices in the classroom become meaningful in the translation to leisure time. We discuss how digital practices initiated in the classroom may be relevant to students’ out-of-school worlds, based on how they get opportunities to unite and translate practices between these two contexts. This has to do with how school’s digital practices may be important in connecting identities across contexts. We argue that the issue of identity must be understood as connected to digital literacy. Our main thesis is that the school context plays a prominent role in introducing youngsters to new digital practices that might be important in developing their digital literacies.
Outcome
The analysis shows how various digital practices in the classroom become meaningful in the translation to leisure time. We discuss how digital practices initiated in the classroom may be relevant to students’ out-of-school worlds, based on how they get opportunities to unite and translate practices between these two contexts. This has to do with how school’s digital practices may be important in connecting identities across contexts. We argue that the issue of identity must be understood as connected to digital literacy. Our main thesis is that the school context plays a prominent role in introducing youngsters to new digital practices that might be important in developing their digital literacies. (Bjørgen and Erstad, 2014)