Flirting,dating, and breaking up within new media environments

Although romantic and sexual relationships are an important aspect of young people's lives, research on how young people negotiate their love/sex relationships is lacking. New media environments provide a new context within which young people negotiate their love/sex relationships; however, what is negotiated is often not all that different from what was negotiated before the advent of new media technologies. Using an online discussion board and individual in-person interviews, this paper explores how young Australians, aged 18–25 years, engage with dominant gendered discourses to negotiate their love/sex relationships within the context of new media environments. Previous research suggests that young people make use of new media technologies to flirt with one another, to initiate new relationships, to maintain their relationships, and to fight and end their relationships. This paper focuses on young people's practices of mediated flirting, surveillance, and breaking up. It considers the creative and agentic ways young people use new media technologies in the negotiation of their love/sex relationships.     

Project InterActions: A Multigenerational Robotic Learning Environment

This paper presents Project InterActions, a series of 5-week workshops in which very young learners (4- to 7-year-old children) and their parents come together to build and program a personally meaningful robotic project in the context of a multigenerational robotics-based community of practice. The goal of these family workshops is to teach both parents and children about the mechanical and programming aspects involved in robotics, as well as to initiate them in a learning trajectory with and about technology. Results from this project address different ways in which parents and children learn together and provide insights into how to develop educational interventions that would educate parents, as well as children, in new domains of knowledge and skills such as robotics and new technologies.

Making Every Child Matter: A Model for Good Practice in Counselling Children and Young People with Learning Disabilities

This paper is set against the backdrop of new policies and legislation regarding the health, welfare and education of children and young people in England. In response to these policies, the Department for Education and Skills has developed an increasing number of strategies to support the psychological health and well-being of children and young people and thereby signalled greater recognition of the value of improving mental health in relation to children's learning, achievement, attendance and behaviour. Counselling is increasingly seen as an effective strategy for addressing the psychological needs of children and young people with social, emotional, behavioural and academic problems. The aim of this paper is to explore the inclusion of children and young people with learning disabilities (13–19 years) in mainstream counselling services. The nature of learning disabilities is examined in relation to accessing counselling services and a model for inclusive counselling practice is developed from the research findings. Findings are based on data collected from a quantitative survey ( n =396) of 3000 counsellors and analysed using SPSS, along with qualitative data from the survey, which was analysed using a thematic approach.     

From Digital Consumption to Digital Invention: Toward a New Critical Theory and Practice of Multiliteracies

The teaching of media and digital literacies has gained increased attention in the 20 years following the New London Group’s landmark publication. From approaches urging the study of popular culture to calls for youth led social media revolution, there is no shortage of approaches. Yet scant attention is offered toward articulating a new and comprehensive theory of pedagogy and production that acknowledges the changing tools and technologies at young people’s disposal, conceptualizes young people as media producers, and applies these developments to today’s complex classroom context. We aim to articulate a new critical theory of multiliteracies that encompasses 4 types of digital engagement: (a) critical digital consumption, (b) critical digital production, (c) critical distribution, and (d) critical digital invention. We make the argument that a new critical theory of multiliteracies needs to account for each of these types of digital engagement but that, ultimately, we must move beyond theorizing our youth as passive consumers or even critical users of digital technologies toward the project of facilitating youth communities of digital innovation.     

Young people learning about health: the role of apps and wearable devices

ABSTRACT

Young people’s engagement with digital health technologies is dominated by risk narratives. Yet, there are very limited understandings, from the perspectives of young people, about the health-related issues and opportunities generated by digital health technologies. This article presents new evidence on the types of health-related apps and devices young people find, select and use, and the reasons for their choices. Data were generated from a participatory mixed method design with 245 young people (age 13–18). The data were analysed using a content-led pedagogical framework. The data illustrate, vividly, young people’s agency in digital health contexts and the complexity and fluidity of young people’s decision-making. Schools, PE lessons and sport, as well as family members and peers, were powerful influencers on young people’s digital health-related knowledge and behaviours. It is argued that better understanding young people’s agency in digital health contexts offers important insights into developing effective health-related pedagogies.     

Mapping discourses in teachers' talk about using digital texts in classrooms

Many accounts explaining teachers' lack of engagement with new technologies in their classrooms engage with discourses that blame their lack of time, expertise, or enthusiasm. In this paper I offer an alternative reading that provides a more agentic explanation. A rhizotextual analysis is undertaken that reveals the connections between teachers' talk and the institutional and societal discourses that ascribe value and worth to particular approaches to using new technologies and their associated digital texts in literacy classrooms. These approaches involve a focus on the technical or operational skills required to use new technologies and the over-emphasis of production work when engaging with digital texts. Taking up these discourses (im)plausibly constitutes teachers as experts and professionals, rather than the more common deficit construction of them as lacking in the skills, knowledge or even creativity required to engage in more meaningful and challenging ways with the literacy resources that young people require in the twenty-first century.     

YOUNG PEOPLE,CULTURE, AND SPIRITUALITY: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR MINISTRY

Abstract This article brings together some of the literature and research on young people and spirituality from Australia and elsewhere. Using Harris s (1998:109) seven-component approach to defining spirituality, the literature and research about young people and spirituality are grouped and described as such: personal\communal; concerned with justice and with the nonhuman universe; relating to age as well as the Age; concerned with experiences and the rituals that emerge from them; and containing new and refined understandings of the sacred. Within these categories, this article describes certain characteristics of the spirituality of the young, particularly in the Australian context. Some of the implications of these characteristics for those who work with the young in ministry and religious education are then drawn out.     

Using Robotics to Motivate ‘Back Door’ Learning

This paper suggests that robotics can provide a vehicle for guiding primary and secondary school children toward an effective understanding of programming and engineering principles. It observes that children find robotics stimulating and motivating, and that their interest in, and focus on, making the robot do what I want leads them via the back door to learn about programming and engineering in a way that is both well-grounded and generaliseable.These observations arise from empirical studies of children participating in robotics competitions: we conducted observations and interviews with all the participating teams at two robotics events (one regional, one international), and we followed one young robotics team in a case study. The children had almost all built their robots using LEGO MindStorms for specific competitions, with soccer, rescue and dance events. The children typically worked in teams, building robots as an extra-curricular activity supported by a teacher/mentor. The children came from a variety of educational and social backgrounds.The paper considers what makes robotics motivating to children, including children who are not considered technically oriented. It describes learning that has emerged from children's experiences in building and programming robots. It describes examples of children learning subjects that they previously considered difficult and inaccessible, in order to solve problems in robotics. It describes examples of children identifying and understanding principles, concepts, and elements of practice that are fundamental to programming and engineering. It describes further how secondary school students working in teams learned that this programming and engineering knowledge has a social context.     

Youth take the lead: Digital poetry and the next generation

Digital literacy projects offer an exciting means of engaging young people in poetry. Many such projects fall short of realising their full potential however, overlooking students' technological expertise and ability to learn from one another. Youth slam and spoken word (YSSW) offers possibilities for developing these projects, making creative use of both new technologies and student‐centred learning techniques. YSSW's artistic and didactic achievements demonstrate what young people can achieve if we relinquish our privileged positions as authoritative teachers/artists. This article considers how YSSW participants have used digital technologies to create innovative artworks, develop new notions of literacy and inspire their peers to explore their own artistic, socially engaged identities.     

The hidden voices of children and young people with a parent in prison: What schools need to know about supporting these vulnerable pupils

This paper reports on a study with children and young people who have a parent in prison and identifies ways in which schools might better support these pupils. The paper is based on research and practice with 23 individuals from ten families. It first ‘sets the scene’ for these pupils’ lives by drawing on interviews with parents and carers. This helps to illuminate the context within which these children and young people are growing up. The paper then presents the views, and selected drawings, of the ten children and young people involved. The paper describes the forms of social isolation that families experience when a parent is sent to prison and the dilemmas and difficulties children and young people face at school. The recommendations focus on how individual teachers and schools might respond to the needs of this group.     

Productions of space: Civic participation of young people at university

Civic participation of young people around the world is routinely described in deficit terms, as they are labelled apathetic, devoid of political knowledge, disengaged from the community and self‐absorbed. This paper argues that the connectivity of time, space and social values are integral to understanding the performances of young people as civic subjects. Today's youth negotiate unstable social, economic and environmental conditions, new technologies and new forms of community. Loyalty, citizenship and notions of belonging take on new meanings in these changing global conditions. Using the socio‐spatial theories of Lefebvre and Foucault and the tools of critical discourse analysis this paper argues that the chronotope, or time/space relationship of universities, produces student citizens who, in resistance to a complex global society, create a cocooned space, which focuses on moral and spiritual values that can be enacted on a personal level.     

The Labor Market Imperative for CTE: Changes and Challenges for the 21st Century

The labor market in the United States is evolving in unexpected ways following the 2007 recession. Career and technical education (CTE) has historically linked young people to the workplace. In this article we examine the U.S. labor market and provide multiple perspectives on its growth and direction and implications for future directions for CTE. We examine the often conflicting data-based arguments and suggest that in a future increasingly dominated by robotics and artificial intelligence, new entrants to the workforce will require very strong social, employability, and work-readiness skills that reflect the behavioral, attitudinal, and character traits highly valued in the workplace and in society. These noncognitive, nontechnical skills can be developed in the CTE classroom, but require both new technical content in these classrooms and changes in how CTE teachers deliver their curriculum.     

The digital skills paradox: how do digitally excluded youth develop skills to use the internet?

Digital skills are an important aspect of ensuring that all young people are digitally included. Yet, there tends to be an assumption in popular discourse that young people can simply learn these skills by themselves. While experience of technologies forms an important part of the learning process, other resources (i.e., access to technology and support networks) plus clear motivations are required. Through in-depth interviews with 20 young people who are digitally excluded, this paper highlights the kinds of digital skills these young people find problematic, and the reasons why they find developing these skills so challenging. We demonstrate how poor access to technology, limited support networks and their current situation prevent these young people from gaining the experiences they need to support the development of their digital skills; and how lack of experience and inadequate skills limit the extent to which they perceive the internet to be valuable in their lives. These individual experiences, shaped very much by the wider social structure of which they are part, show how young people cannot simply be left to learn digital skills by themselves and that intervention is required to try to address some of the digital inequalities apparent in younger generations.     

Teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and the challenges of integrating educational robots into primary/elementary curricula

Twenty-first century education systems should create an environment wherein students encounter critical learning components (such as problem-solving, teamwork, and communication skills) and embrace lifelong learning. A review of literature demonstrates that new technologies, in general, and robotics, in particular, are well suited for this aim. This study aims to contribute to the literature by studying teachers' perceptions of the effects of using robotics on students' lifelong learning skills. This study also seeks to better understand teachers' perceptions of the barriers of using robotics and the support they need. Eleven primary/elementary teachers from Newfoundland and Labrador English Schools District participated in this study. The results of this study revealed that robotics is perceived by teachers to have positive effects on students' lifelong learning skills. Furthermore, the participants indicated a number of barriers to integrate robotics into their teaching activities and expressed the support they need.     

Portable Tablets in Science Museum Learning: Options and Obstacles

Despite the increasing use of portable tablets in learning, their impact has received little attention in research. In five different projects, this media-ethnographic and design-based analysis of the use of portable tablets as a learning resource in science museums investigates how young people’s learning with portable tablets matches the intentions of the museums. By applying media and information literacy (MIL) components as analytical dimensions, a pattern of discrepancies between young people’s expectations, their actual learning and the museums’ approaches to framing such learning is identified. It is argued that, paradoxically, museums’ decisions to innovate by introducing new technologies, such as portable tablets, and new pedagogies to support them conflict with many young people’s traditional ideas of museums and learning. The assessment of the implications of museums’ integration of portable tablets indicates that in making pedagogical transformations to accommodate new technologies, museums risk opposing didactic intention if pedagogies do not sufficiently attend to young learners’ systemic expectations to learning and to their expectations to the digital experience influenced by their leisure use.     

The Complexity of Disengagement with Education and Learning: A Case Study of Young Offenders in a Secure Custodial Setting in England

Abstract

This study explored the nature of disengagement in young people serving custodial sentences. This was in order to gain new theoretical insights into strategies for their reengagement with education. This is because 90% of young offenders who drop out of school prior to incarceration are reportedly disengaged (dropout being an indicator of disengagement). This paper reports on a qualitative ethnographic case study in one secure children’s home in England. Semi-structured interviews with 16 incarcerated young people were conducted from which five participated in in-depth case studies along with teachers and care staff. Data were collected as participants engaged with a learning opportunity over a period of time. Extending emerging theory of disengagement, findings showed that disengagement oscillated between both active and passive forms within the same individual and pointed to the need for a range of strategies needed for reengagement. This paper suggests that disengagement is complex where the physical and social context shapes how disengagement manifests. This has pedagogical implications for education in custodial settings and other at-risk children in alternative or mainstream education provision.     

'Am I the same?' Decision-making processes during the transition from school

This paper describes the kinds of decisions that young people with special educational needs and their families have to make as the time to leave school approaches. While these choices may be familiar, what is less familiar is how such decisions are made. The Code of Practice ( DfE, 1994 ; DfES, 2001 ) provides guidance on the support to be provided during the transition from school, but this only partially reflects the complexities of reality. The seven types of decision-making processes that are identified here are an attempt to describe some of these complexities as experienced by young people and their parents or carers. The paper concludes by suggesting that these insights could contribute to the emerging role of the Connexions Service Personal Advisers in providing more sensitive and effective support during the transition phase.     

Listening to excluded young people's experiences of e-safety and risk

This article reports on excluded young people's experiences with and management of e-safety and risk. It has importance in exploring these concerns given that excluded young people's voices are very often absent in education and technology research and yet they are potentially more at risk when using Information and Communication Technologies than middle-class young people for whom the risks may be lower. The findings are drawn from an analysis of the in-depth qualitative interviews carried out with 13 permanently and temporarily excluded young people between the ages of 12–15 in a Pupil Referral Unit in South East England. The accounts given by this group of young people suggest that the strategies they deploy to manage their safety online are underdeveloped and inadequate. This points in turn to a need for further interventions to foster and develop these young people's strategies to avoid online risk as part of more general initiatives to develop digital literacy.     

Watching,creating and achieving: Creative technologies as a conduit for learning in the early years

This paper describes the use of robotics in an Early Years classroom as a tool to aid the development of technological skills in a creative environment rich with literacy and numeracy opportunities. The pilot project illustrates how a three‐phase process can result in the development of: (1) emergent literacy and numeracy, (2) digital access for disadvantaged Early Years learners and (3) basic engineering concepts. The pilot study was conducted with a class of 16 students aged between 5 years and 6 months to 7 years, over a 6‐week period. During this period, the students were introduced to and engaged in the creation of robots and simple machines via the use of a commercial robotics package. The pilot was designed around three distinct phases: modelling, exploring and evaluating. These phases provided scaffolding for the students to engage with the technology and for the class teacher to develop her own skills. The use of this particular robotics package is unique to Australia, unique to Early Years, and links hands‐on, fine‐motor development with 21st century learning. The researchers and authors of this paper are currently based at the Australian Catholic University and are involved with projects involving creative, digital technologies, children in the early years of formal schooling, emerging literacy and numeracy for diverse Early Years learners and the development of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.