Digital Media and Learning Research

Wondering if social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are having an impact on students and learning?

“It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online,” says Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine researcher and the lead author of the most extensive U.S. study to date on teens and their use of digital media. The study showed that America’s youth are developing important social and technical skills online often in ways adults do not understand or value."

"Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures" report is the result of 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.

Read more here:
Two page summary (PDF)
White Paper (58 pages-PDF)

The Digital Youth Research Web site has a lot of interesting information on this project, including some field stories/case studies presented by project researchers. Definitely worth spending some time exploring.