Your Name and Title: Paul Treadwell - Distance Learning Advisor

School, Library, or Organization Name: Cornell Cooperative Extension

Country from Which You Will Present: United States of America

Language in Which You Will Present: English

Target Audience : Secondary school teachers, youth development professionals

Short Session Description: Drawn from projects involving youth working in the United States and Latin America, three case studies will focus on technology as mediator for the “re-presentation” of the world by learner-teachers, and the facilitation of that process by the teacher-learner.

Full Session Description : 

Drawn from projects involving youth working in the United States and Latin America, three case studies will focus on technology as mediator for the “re-presentation” of the world by learner-teachers, and the facilitation of that process by the teacher-learner. Project work with digital photography and video as tools for digital literacy development will be highlighted.

Using a method of digital literacy development that is grounded in the lived situation of the learners shifts the focus from technology as subject to that of  technology as a means of expression and communication. Embedding technical learning in a larger social context provides an approach to digital literacy learning that places the instructor in a position of peer – with each participant engaging in teaching and learning. The instructor holds the concrete practices that will enable learners to fully utilize technology for dialog and creation. The learners hold the as yet articulated “re-presentation” of subject that will flow through the tools.  In this way the disequilibrium present in traditional teacher learner relationships can be unseated and new ways of working and learning become possible.

Each of the three presented case studies will expand on this vision and illustrate effective practices for approaching digital literacy training in this way. By exploring a variety of learning contexts and a diversity of participants the underlying principles will be illustrated.  The range of technologies employed as tools for the organized, systematized and developed "re-presentation" of topics and materials rising from the learners will be discussed.

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:

TBD