NRG/CEMP workshop ‘Digital Media, Culture and Education: Third Space Literacies’ (Weds 24 May, 4pm, F104)

Our final NRG session of the year will be held Wed 24 May at 4pm in F104 and we will be hosting a joint workshop and book launch with colleagues from CEMP. This will be led by Julian McDougall and John Potter around the theme of Digital Media, Culture and Education: Third Space Literacies, which is the title and subject of their recently published book (see below).

All are, as always, most welcome.

NRG / CEMP Research Seminar

Wednesday 17 May, 4pm, F104
Digital Media, Culture and Education: Third Space Literacies
John Potter and Julian McDougall

This workshop will present themes addressed a new book (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) by John Potter (Visiting Fellow in CEMP) and Julian McDougall. We will share the key arguments from the book and invite people attending to reflect on how they relate to our thinking and our practices.

About the book:
Addressing and developing a theory of a ‘third space’ for learning, the book presents research and thinking about new dynamic literacies, porous expertise, digital making/coding/remixing, curation, storying in digital media, open learning, the networked educator and a number of related topics. The book takes as its starting point the idea that an emphasis on technology and media, as part of material culture and lived experience, is much needed in the discussion of education, along with a criticality which is too often absent in the discourse around technology and learning. It constructs a narrative thread and a critical synthesis from a sociocultural account of learning, media and technology in the digital age, and will be of great interests to academics interested in the mechanics of learning and the effects of technology on the education experience.

Endorsements:
“Brings to life the lived experience and creativity of young people and makes visible their meaning making practices. It surfaces ideas in ways that are theoretically and methodologically ground-breaking … a refreshing, hopeful, and above all, challenging book, that enables, develops and supports new thinking in media education and literacy studies. Accessibly written, this is a welcome addition to the field, which speaks to the cultural context of civic engagement for young people in and out of school, or ‘not-school’. Now, more than ever these voices are needed as resistance is a key part of survival for young people whose modes of participation need to be strengthened and supported in a challenging world. Dynamic literacies are the way forward – and this book articulates and maps out a pathway through to action.” (Kate Pahl, Professor of Literacies in Education, University of Sheffield, UK)

“This book is for all those who realize we face new and complex problems in education today; that staying in our academic silos and engaging in business as usual will no longer do; and that digital technology can free teachers to be designers, curators, and aggregators, bringing astonishing resources to learners of all ages and in all places. It is a magnificent piece of work and a breath of fresh air.” (James Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, Regents’ Professor, Arizona State University, USA)

“This book makes a valuable contribution to the fields it inhabits, not least by refusing reductive and easy polarities such as culture and technology, school and not-school, digital literacy and media literacy. Instead, Potter and McDougall set up a dialogue between fields of research, concepts of literacy, and domains of practice, a cooperative rather than adversarial model. They elaborate their central ideas of third-space learning, dynamic literacies, porous expertise and digital curation with a rich array of researched examples, showing the importance of collaborative learning in practice. This will be an essential read for lecturers, students and practitioners hoping to understand the landscape of literacy and learning in the 21st century.” (Andrew Burn, Professor of English, Media and Drama, University College London, UK)

Julian McDougall is Professor of Media and Education, Head of the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, where he leads an educational doctorate for creative / media teachers and editor of the Journal of Media Practice.

John Potter is Reader in Media in Education at the University College London Knowledge Lab, part of the UCL Institute of Education, where his research, teaching and publications are in the fields of digital media, culture and education.