The Digital Reading Experiences of Middle School Readers: A Phenomenological Study

Reading digitally is part of the 21st century New Literacies, residing in the curriculum as a comprehension skill developed with print reading skills. Differences exist between purpose of digital reading and print reading, manifested in the association of digital reading as a mostly non-fiction genre, the immediacy to digital information and its relevance to a reader’s decision about the usefulness of the information. Contrastingly, print reading can be fiction or non-fiction with access to all the text. The differences suggest that learning focused on immediate evaluation, synthesis, and application of information while reading digitally should be taught in the context of digital reading. This hermeneutic phenonmenological study examined digital reading experiences of eight middle school students. Using indepth interviewing to describe and understand the experiences, findings are presented as themes. The findings contribute to the ongoing discourse of digital reading, teacher preparation and development, curriculum, new literacies, pedagogy, and turning research into practice

Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality

Building upon a process-and context-oriented information quality framework, this paper seeks to map and explore what we know about the ways in which young users of age 18 and under search for information online, how they evaluate information, and how their related practices of content creation, levels of new literacies, general digital media usage, and social patterns affect these activities. A review of selected literature at the intersection of digital media, youth, and information quality -- primarily works from library and information science, sociology, education, and selected ethnographic studies -- reveals patterns in youth's information-seeking behavior, but also highlights the importance of contextual and demographic factors both for search and evaluation. Looking at the phenomenon from an information-learning and educational perspective, the literature shows that youth develop competencies for personal goals that sometimes do not transfer to school, and are sometimes not appropriate for school. Thus far, educational initiatives to educate youth about search, evaluation, or creation have depended greatly on the local circumstances for their success or failure

audialText: Improving communication accessibility for the deaf through automatic voice-recognition and wearable smart-technology.

Whether you are ordering food at a restaurant, asking for directions, or receiving a phone call from a family member, it is apparent that human communication is an important part of everyday life. Those who are deaf have limited communication accessibility compared to their hearing counterparts, and by default, obtain less public information and face more obstacles during social interactions. This thesis project will attempt to bridge this communication gap through the exploration of human interactions with user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. The goal is to design and develop an application concept for wearable smart-technology that will utilize voice-recognition software to improve common communication interactions for the deaf. It will also play a role towards improving incidental learning, literacy, and language comprehension for the deaf. This research will validate the need for increased accessibility, study human interactions, explore existing applications, and visualize potential technological solutions. It will also explore the language and literacy developments of deaf individuals. It will be user-centered in its approach using polls and surveys to help drive certain aspects of the application’s concept, user experience, and features. As a result of the research discoveries, an application concept will be designed strategically, developed conceptually, communicated visually, and finally prototyped through a digital platform in the form of a motion graphic

Evaluating Online Media Literacy in Higher Education: Validity and Reliability of the Digital Online Media Literacy Assessment (DOMLA)

While new technology continues to develop and become increasingly affordable, and students have increased access to digital media, one might wonder if requiring such technology in the classroom is akin to throwing the car keys to a teen-ager who has not completed a driver’s education course. The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable quantitative survey providing accurate data about the digital online media literacy of university-level students in order to better understand how digital online media can and should be used within a teaching/learning environment at a university. This study identifies core constructs of media literacy as recognized by noted researchers including ethical awareness, media access, media awareness, media evaluation, and media production. Because of the familiarity with media technology by today’s traditional higher education students and the expectation to incorporate these tools in the classroom, the digital divide that once was separated by socio-economic status may be shifting instead to divide generations. While this study is confined to the creation of the instrument, the survey – in the future – is intended to measure digital media literacy levels in both university students and faculty to determine if differences exist between those two groups and to better understand how digital media can and should be used within a teaching/learning environment at a university. Using a 12-step process, the study resulted in a 50-item instrument allowing a quantitative measurement of digital online media literacy. Results repeatedly showed a reliable instrument when viewed as a whole, with individual constructs indicating varying degrees of reliability on their own. The instrument was found to be reliable with a .919 overall coefficient

Beyond voice: Audience-making and the work and architecture of listening as new media literacies

Considerable attention in communication, media and social science scholarship is focused on voice, which is considered as an important form of social capital and necessary for social equity. Studies have extensively examined access to communication technologies and various forums such as the public sphere, as well as media literacy required to have a voice. Despite continuing concern over a 'digital divide', the emergence of Web 2.0-based 'new media', also referred to as 'social media', is seen as an empowering development contributing to the democratization of voice. However, based on two studies of online public consultation and critical analysis of the literature on voice and listening, this article argues that two important corollaries of voice, as it is commonly conceptualized, are overlooked. To matter, as Nick Couldry says it should, voice needs to have an audience and, second, audiences must listen. While considerable attention is paid by mass media to creating, maintaining and engaging audiences, comparatively little attention is paid to audiences and listening in discussions of new media and social media. In an environment of proliferating channels for speaking coinciding with demassification and 'fragmentation' of audiences, engaging audiences and the work of listening have become problematic and are important media literacies required to make voice matter. © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Participatory mobile- and web-based tools for eliciting landscape knowledge and perspectives: introducing and evaluating the Wisconsin geotools project

Despite synergistic goals across a wide breadth of fields and modalities, coastal landscape conservation projects that engage the lay public and integrate narratives of place remain elusive. This paper addresses these needs by introducing and evaluating the Wisconsin Geotools, an integrated pair of mobile-and web-based applications that allow users to generate and share spatially defined multimedia observations — including photos, short textual descriptions (or journals), and audio and video clips — of their surrounding bioregional landscapes. We followed a participatory, user-centered design process to develop a mobile application that uses GPS capabilities to geolocate multimedia observations of landscapes and feed them into a web-based application, which displays content through the structure of an interactive story map. The applications were piloted with coastal community user groups in Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Wisconsin, USA. Over 800 observations were recorded by participants in our study area. Results from a user evaluation survey indicate the geotools effectively engaged participants in learning about and exploring their surrounding coastal landscapes. A spatial analysis revealed participants’ affinity for water-related features in landscapes. We close by suggesting a variety of ways in which these tools can support future projects and existing methodologies that are advancing transdisciplinary approaches to engaging the public in coastal conservation

Using Mobile Technology to Improve Autonomy in Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Postsecondary Education Programs

Nationwide there are approximately 200 postsecondary education programs that provide inclusive college experiences for young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) (Grigal & Hart, 2010). To navigate college campuses, the greater surrounding community, and ultimately competitive employment, young adults with ID need literacy, communication, and navigation skills. The purpose of these two studies was to investigate the effects of mobile technology to improve the autonomy of students with ID enrolled in a postsecondary education program. The purpose of experiment I was to examine the effectiveness of three different communication applications (i.e., text, audio, and video) to send and receive text messages (i.e., iMessage, Heytell, and Tango) for college-aged students with ID. Four students enrolled in a PSE program at a large university in the Southeastern United States participated in experiment I. An alternating treatments design was used to examine if there were differences in the acquisition and communicative understanding of each application. The results indicated that each participant learned how to send and receive text messages using multiple applications. Furthermore, all students improved the quality of communication including grammar and mechanics, relevance and comprehension, and professionalism. Experiment II examined the effectiveness of a navigation application for three college-aged students with ID also enrolled in a PSE program. Using a withdrawal/reversal ABAB design, students used the Apple iPhone and the Heads Up Navigator application to navigate to novel locations independently. First, students were given a copy of the university map during the baseline phase to walk to an unfamiliar location on campus. During the mobile application phase, students were taught how to operate and use a mobile device and navigation application (i.e., Heads Up Navigator) to navigate to unfamiliar places. Results from Experiment II indicated all students improved navigation skills with 100% nonoverlapping data which indicated a highly effective intervention. Visual analysis procedures were used to evaluate the intervention effects of both studies. Findings from the studies include implications for PSE and adult participants, the viability of mobile technology as an effective tool, and using digital tools to teach leisure and work skills. Recommendations for future research and practice are discussed

Teachers as World-Makers in the Digital Age

Despite enormous gains in educational technology and access to information, today’s students still struggle with digital literacy. In fact, some argue that today’s students are so distracted by digital media that their literacy skills are falling behind previous generations. In order to combat this phenomenon, researchers have singled out certain critical literacy skills for today’s students that, when taught effectively, will help those students develop into competent and productive adults: collaboration, composition, attention, evaluation, and responsibility. This study highlights and analyzes this important literacy research in order to help teachers better equip their twenty-first century students. Christian teachers especially should be willing to investigate the critical skills identified, decide on a unified approach to integrate them into their curriculum, and highlight them with students so that graduates of Christian education are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to use digital media to advance God’s Kingdom