[employment: phd in digital literacy practises of immigrant youth]

The digital literacy practices of immigrant youth for the formation of identity and learning networks (0.9 fte)

This project is focused on the analysis of the everyday digital literacy practices of Moroccan immigrant youth.While the past several years have seen an increasing amount of research on the digital literacy practices of youth, within and well beyond theNetherlands, relatively little of this work to date has focused on immigrant youth and their productions and interpretations of social media (e.g. weblogs, Hyves, YouTube, texting, Twitter, gaming). This project will provide a unique contribution to the field by developing ethnographic studies of youth as they use social media and integrate it into their everyday lives in the Netherlands.

We are particularly interested in how digital literacy practices are used to produce identities and learning networks. What are the shapes and scales of new media networks for Moroccan immigrant youth? How are these new networks changing, and how are they related to social networks with longer histories (e.g., extended family, community)? How do networks formed through practices with social media support the development of local, national, and transnational identities? How do such networks also structure new social spaces for learning?

These questions are addressed in this project through ethnographic research that will be augmented with other research methods, including social network analysis and survey data.

For more information see: www.uu.nl/wireduphttp://www.academictransfer.nl/organisaties/?adm_pin=00351&fuseaction=detail&Vacature_ID=B3KTUQY9

[ioct now accepting master's applications for next academic year]

The IOCT is now accepting applications for master's in Creative Technologies (both MA and MSc) for the upcoming academic year, 2009-2010.



Are you:

• a technologist with a creative dimension?
• an artist working with technologies?
• a designer with programming skills?

or someone with other cross/transdisciplinary interests?

The IOCT Masters in Creative Technologies is unique, groundbreaking and innovative. Delivered by the Institute of Creative Technologies, the course is run in partnership with the Faculties of Art & Design, Humanities and Technology.

The programme crosses traditional disciplines and boundaries and is designed to support students in developing and strengthening their individual creative technologies research and practice, enable them to work at the convergence of the e-sciences, arts and humanities subjects.

Students taking the MA/MSc Creative Technologies will be from a wide range of backgrounds and interested in developing multidisciplinary knowledge and skills in the production of digital media and products.

See the programme site for further details: www.ioct.dmu.ac.uk/masters.html

[digital literacy, learning and kids]

Youth "can be 'always on,' in constant contact with their friends through private communications like instant messaging or mobile phones, as well as in public ways through social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook."

"Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures" is a three-year collaborative project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Carried out by researchers at the University of Southern California and University of California, Berkeley, the digital youth project explores how kids use digital media in their everyday lives."

Project Objectives
The first objective is to describe kids as active innovators using digital media rather than as passive consumers of popular culture or academic knowledge. The second objective is to think about the implications of kids' innovative cultures for schools and higher education and to engage in a dialogue with educational planners. The third objective is to advise software designers about how to use kids' innovative approaches to knowledge and learning in building better software.

Research Summary
Over three years, University of California, Irvine researcher Mizuko Ito and her team interviewed over 800 youth and young adults and conducted over 5000 hours of online observations as part of the most extensive U.S. study of youth media use.

They found that social network and video-sharing sites, online games, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are now fixtures of youth culture. The research shows that today’s youth may be coming of age and struggling for autonomy and identity amid new worlds for communication, friendship, play, and self-expression.

Many adults worry that children are wasting time online, texting, or playing video games. The researchers explain why youth find these activities compelling and important. The digital world is creating new opportunities for youth to grapple with social norms, explore interests, develop technical skills, and experiment with new forms of self-expression. These activities have captured teens’ attention because they provide avenues for extending social worlds, self-directed learning, and independence."

Go here to download a two-page summary of the report.

Go here to download the summary white paper.

Go here to access the full report.

Go here for the press release and video being hosted by the MacArthur Foundation.

Photo from Old Shoe Woman on Flickr.

[phd studentships: information networks]

ISTR - Institute for Social and Technical Research> University of Essex> Subjects: Computing and Computer Science Geography - Human > Information Sciences Information Technology Media and > Communications Sociology Telecommunications>>

We invite applications for two BT/EPSRC CASE Studentships:

1. “The life-course of networked public and private media assets” (Supervisors: Dr Ben Anderson & Dr Rebecca Ellis) – based in the Technology and Social Change Research Centre - http://chimeraweb.essex.ac.uk/tasc/
2. “Capturing concerns in information networks” (Supervisors: Dr Michael Gardner & Prof. Vic Callaghan) – based in the Digital Lifestyles Centre - http://www.essex.ac.uk/dces/research/groups/digital/info.htm

The studentships, jointly sponsored by the EPSRC and British Telecommunications plc (BT) will provide an opportunity to carry out research and training in a three-year programme leading to a PhD.

For more info and how to apply see http://www.postgraduatestudentships.co.uk/studyfunding/3017

[3 cheers!]

woo hoo!

to those of you who know, i'm offering myself hearty congrats!

[canadian students = above average]

The other day I wrote about international literacy rates: "The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is an international comparative study of the reading literacy of young students."

However, there is another study that seems to be more in depth (it actually includes the whole of Canada and not just a synecdoche, using Ontario and Quebec to stand for the whole), plus that earlier study included 40 countries while this one looked at 57 and works out to 400,000 15-year old students.

"Canadian 15-year-olds students placed third on the science test, behind Finland and Hong Kong-China. In the sub-categories of "identifying scientific issues" and "using scientific evidence," Canada placed second behind Finland.
In reading, Canadian teens came fourth, behind South Korea, Finland and Hong Kong-China. Taiwan, Finland and Hong Kong-China led the top scores in math, with Canada placing seventh.
Overall, Canada was among the top performers, scoring well above average, along with Finland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong-China, Taiwan and Estonia. The United States fell in the middle of the pack in science and reading, and slightly lower in math. The lowest-scoring countries for all subjects were Brazil, Mexico and Luxembourg."

Other findings of the OECD study include:

In science, there is little variation in performance according to gender, but there remains a gender gap in reading and math, with girls significantly outperforming boys in the former, and boys doing slightly better than girls in the latter.

Students in minority-language school systems do not do as well in science and reading as pupils in majority-language schools. The gap is less pronounced with math.

In the 30 OECD countries, an average 25 per cent of students reported that they expect to have a science-related career by
age 30.

Between 35 and 40 per cent of students in Canada, the U.S. and Portugal said they expected a science-related career.

A minority of students reported that they engaged regularly in science-related activities, with television programs and articles leading the way as the most popular activities, with 21 and 20 per cent.

Most students were pessimistic about environmental problems being resolved in the future, with fewer than one in six saying that problems such as air pollution and nuclear waste disposal would improve in the next 20 years.

93 per cent of students agreed that science is important for understanding the natural world