NEW MEDIA IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

Literature review

The use of new media in classroom instruction has been often discussed in relation to the

increasing use of technology in modern society. Understanding new media is seen as a necessary

tool to “successfully navigate today’s data rich and complex media environment” (Literat, 2015).

As educators, our role is to prepare students for this data rich and complex environment.

Understanding the uses of new media in classroom instruction is essential to being able to

prepare our students for entry into a world that is becoming increasingly digitized.

While most of the research in the field of new media use in our schools has been about

the positive results of implementation (Rust, 2015), little of it has gone to discovering how to

implement it. The use of new media in schools has shown to be a fantastic way to engage

students in the material, but as the authors of “Digital media adoption in schools: Bottom-up,

top-down, complementary or optional?” state, the implementation has fallen short of

expectations because “Many teachers use ICT only rarely in their teaching, and if they use digital

technologies, the expected change to a more active, explorative and student centered “21st

century learning” seldom takes place” (Cantieni, Wespi, Petko, Egger, 2014). This is because

despite how much research has been done into how effective new media is in classrooms, very

little research has been done into how to implement new media into classroom. This is where we

hope to add to the conversation about participatory media use. Although it has been shown to be

an effective tactic in the battle to get students to become more engaged in class, few teachers

understand or attempt to understand how to implement it. This is because, as stated by Beavis

(2013), successful use of participatory media in classroom instruction involves “the need to

respond to the orientations and expectations of those growing up in this world” (p. 39).

Educators need to rise to the challenge by inquiring about effective ways to use participatory

NEW MEDIA IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

media in their classrooms because the results are not only positive, they also have the potential to

affect real change to the world of education.

The research has shown that participatory media has many benefits for youth. “Recent

research demonstrates that videogames enhance literacy, attention, reaction time, and higher-

level thinking” (Delwich, 2006). Video games are often discarded as nothing but entertainment,

but research shows that they have benefits to youths who engage in them.

Besides increasing student involvement in class, the use of participatory media has been

shown to give students more opportunities to develop their identities. Rust states that “Social

media in school powerfully enables self-representations that diverge from the traditionally

legitimized academic self which is marked by serious participations, formal conventions, and a

distinct lack in the social identity play that marks students’ peer interactions” (2015). Getting

students to present more authentic representations of themselves helps then develop social skills

which fall in line with a more complete education according to Vygotsky’s theory of social

cultural development. “Today’s students try out their identities through Web-enabled authorship

in the form of home pages, blogs, and online social network site profiles” (Greenhow, Hughes,

Robelia, 2009). By providing students spaces to have this identity exploration while learning,

educators facilitate both the intellectual and academic development of their students. Adapting

to some of the new ways in which students develop their identities allows teachers to provide

safe spaces for students to grow and learn in.

The social benefits of the integration of new media in classroom instruction is a benefit

that is often overlooked, but it might not be as overlooked as its power as an agent of educational

equity. In their article on participatory media and city youths, Garcia and Morrell state that “The

NEW MEDIA IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

practices and dispositions city youth have toward media today reflect a changing relationship

that encourages manipulation, response, critique and remix. Because of this, technology is being

called upon as an antidote to education inequity globally” (2013). The same article shows that

the use of phones in classrooms has increased the test scores of low income students. By

providing students with something as common as a phone, test scores were improved. It stands to

reason that including other forms of ICTs in classroom instruction can help narrow the

educational gap between high and low income students. “A number of digital tools have been

developed to support student note-taking and annotation in classrooms” (Alvarez, Salavati,

Nussbaum, Milrad, 2012). These ICT tools help underprivileged students improve their

education by empowering them with more resources. By allowing students to take education into

their own hands, we can further enhance the academic experience of all students involved.

NEW MEDIA IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

Introduction

We live in an increasingly digitized world. In the span of a day, many people interact with a variety of phones, computers, video game systems, and tablets. The digitization of the world around us has impacted us in many tremendous ways. One of the impacts is the birth of a new type of media. Being easily connected has changed the way people think about communications and media, which caused the creation of new media. Often called participatory media or information and communications technology (ICT), new media is the new way in which media is created and shared. New media has become increasingly common as it envelops many different forms of communication and art, including video games, blogs, online videos, and social media.

These new forms of media have become a staple for the lives of many youths. As educators, it is our job to constantly look for ways to increase the engagement of students in our classrooms. What better way to increase engagement with students than incorporating participatory media in classroom instruction? Students often use varying forms of ICTs in class as sources of distraction, so using these technologies and medias as a part of classroom instruction should yield positive results in increasing both engagement and focus in class. Although the implementation of new media in classroom instruction seems like a step towards better education, many teachers do not know how to handle the implementation of new media in their classrooms. This is the question guiding this research team. Our question is “How can new media be used in classroom instruction?” with our sub-questions being “What should be the limits of implementation?” “What are some misconceptions about new media?” and “What types of new media are effective in classrooms?”

Understanding how to use new media as a part of classroom instruction provides educators with exciting new ways to enhance the educational experience of their students. By bringing in forms of media that give students the power to interact with it and participate in its distribution, educators further integrate students into their learning. This higher level of integration should be a goal all teachers strive to accomplish as it will make the educational process more fun. Using the forms of technology and entertainment that students use in their leisure time for educational purposes will make learning a more seamless process for students because it brings in their funds of knowledge.

To discover how to successfully integrate new media in classroom instruction, we will interview different professors in SUNY Plattsburgh to see how they feel about the use of participatory media in classroom instruction. In order to be as helpful as possible to educators, we plan on interviewing professors across multiple disciplines to get a varied perspective on the benefits and problems of making new media a part of classroom instruction.