Formal task: Why should teachers care about digital literacy and childhood in the digital age?

The reading from Marsh et al (2005) ‘Digital beginnings: Young children’s use of popular culture, media and new technologies, is very insightful in the way it views young children’s use of popular culture. The article explores and studies young children’s use of popular culture, media and new technologies in the home with a focus on the foundation stage in Early Years.  In this blog post drawing on this text, my own thoughts in view of the seminar and my own experiences and observations will be drawn upon.

The question posed ‘why should teachers care about digital literacy and childhood in the digital age’ is deliberated throughout the findings found in Marsh et al’s article. One benefit which is shown in the article is that parents were found to generally be very positive about the role of media in their young children’s social, emotional, linguistic and cognitive development. They felt that their children learn a great deal from film and television and that it has a positive impact on many aspects of their lives. By parents viewing media so positively it shows that teachers should care about digital literacy and implement it into their teaching.

Another finding which Marsh et al explains is that parents and other family members scaffold digital learning and children engage in family social and cultural practices which develop their understanding of the role of media and technology in society. From my own experience, I have seen parents helping children on iPhones and iPads on child friendly apps which helped children overall to develop an understanding of technology. From the previous point, relating back to parents, if parents are scaffolding children’s learning with technology then why shouldn't teachers care about digital literacy? Teachers are educators who need to equip children with an understanding of recent society, which Marsh et al (2005) states that children are growing up in a digital world and need to develop a wide range of skills, knowledge and understanding of this world from birth.

There is great research into print-based literacy where simply engaging in daily day to day lives of children print plays a part, children learn much about its role, nature and purpose (Hall, Larson and Marsh, 2003). It should be inevitable that children should be equipped with the knowledge and exposure of digital literacy in which it does not replace traditional forms of literacy, but it builds upon the foundation of traditional forms of literacy (Jenkins, 2006). Buckingham (2004) suggests that children develop media literacy even in the absence of explicit attempts to encourage and promote it. Through participating in seminars it has been evident that the use of technology in developing digital literacy is important. This occurs because of the fact that children are greatly exposed to digital technologies in which the use of them should be prominent in education.

Bibliography:

Buckingham, D. (2004) The Media Literacy of Children and Young People: A Review of the Research Literature. London: Ofcom.

Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21^st Century. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Marsh, J. Brooks, G. Hughes, J. Ritchie, L. Roberts, S and Wright, K. (2005). Digital beginnings: Young children’s use of popular culture, media and new technologies. Sheffield: Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.