Is learning changing in the digital age?
Exploring the digital age, children’s media culture, ICT policy and critical literacy
Henry, Marian J.
(2011)
Is learning changing in the digital age?
Exploring the digital age, children’s media culture, ICT policy and critical literacy.
Doctor of Education thesis, Dublin City University.
In a DES Report (2008), it is claimed that “learning is changing” and that a pivotal
force in bringing about this change is Information and Communications Technology
(ICT). This thesis aims to explore this assertion. >
The theoretical perspective is informed by both cultural and critical theory and is
inspired by the work of Williams, Hall and Gramsci. This perspective allows for culture
and the relations of power in the construction of knowledge, common sense and ideology
to be foregrounded and explored. This work also asserts the need to reconceptualise our
understanding of ICTs in society and education, from being ideologically inert technical
tools, to recognising their central role as mediators of information and communication.
Acknowledging the dynamic and interactive relationship between education and
society, the contested idea of change in contemporary society is explored through social
theories of the Digital Age. That children have existing relationships with ICT outside of
school has only recently come to the fore in ICT policy. The nature and diversity of these
experiences are explored through a discussion of children’s media culture. The evolution
of, and influences on, ICT education policy in the Irish context are examined as they
represent the official response to the challenges and opportunities of the Digital Age.
Given the level of change in the information and communications environment, it is
asserted that this poses questions for what constitutes literacy in the Digital Age. A
discussion of critical literacy, inspired by the work of Freire, and media literacy theory
concludes the discussion and represents a way in which learning could change in the Digital Age.