Critical analysis of the effects of the digital technologies on reading and learning / Análisis crítico sobre los efectos de las tecnologías digitales en la lectura y el aprendizaje

Abstract

In the digital age, the introduction of digital technologies (or information and communication technologies, ICT) in classrooms is a necessary, imperative reality. However, the educational results do not seem to match the expectations generated. For this reason, this revision seeks to make up for the scant attention paid to the possible harmful effects of the use of ICT based on research and educational practice. After providing a general overview of the impact of ICT on learning, we survey the results of studies that reveal potential negative consequences of their use inside and outside the school context. We analyse their impact on both academic performance and other more specific areas, such as reading comprehension, and we stress the negative effects on so-called ‘digital natives’. In short, what stands out is the importance of an evidence-based education practice which bears in mind the possible harmful effects of using ICT and bears in mind that its beneficial effects seem to rely on not only how much but also how they are used.     

Teaching media in a ‘post-truth’ age: fake news,media bias and the challenge for media/digital literacy education / La enseñanza mediática en la era de la posverdad: fake news,sesgo mediático y el reto para la educación en materia de alfabetización mediática y digital

Abstract

Digital literacy is often proposed as a means of dealing with the problems apparently caused by ‘fake news’. This positioning article considers some of the difficulties with this approach. It argues that fake news is not an isolated phenomenon, but one that needs to be understood in a much broader social, economic and cultural context. It also addresses the practical possibilities and difficulties of teaching in this area. The notion of ‘digital literacy’ appears to define the phenomenon in technological terms. By contrast, this article suggests that we need a broader notion of media literacy, which is based on critical thinking about the economic, ideological and cultural dimensions of media. Even so, the article suggests, the broader problems that are at the root of the problem of ‘fake news’ are unlikely to be solved very easily.     

Advances in research on internal and external factors that guide adolescents’ reading and learning on the Internet (Avances en la investigación de los factores internos y externos que condicionan la lectura y el aprendizaje de los adolescentes a través Internet)

ABSTRACT

Articles in this special issue — How adolescents read and learn on the Web: internal and external factors — provide compelling new empirical evidence on a suite of internal and external factors that guide adolescents’ reading and learning from Web resources. This commentary first provides a brief overview of the findings and interpretations from each of the constituent articles. It then builds coherence amongst the findings and interpretations across the articles and in relation to the broader extant research literature. The organization differentiates which factors appear to promote and which factors appear to undermine different facets of reading and learning from Web resources. Finally, seven important future directions are discussed that emerged from analysing and synthesizing ideas presented across the articles in combination with the extant research literature. The hope is that the commentary stimulates research directions moving forward, with mindfulness towards developing conditions that support online reading for a host of different adolescent readers.     

Discursive strategies and learning of the school language: an ethnographic study in a classroom with high ethnic and linguistic diversity / Estrategias discursivas y aprendizaje de la lengua escolar: un estudio etnográfico en un aula de alta diversidad étnica y lingüística

Abstract

Research on the dialogic and intersubjective nature of children’s learning has emphasised the study of educational discourse and the semiotic mechanisms involved in understanding the students’ constructive activity. These studies have been carried out in classrooms where there was continuity between the language of instruction and the students’ first language. However, the number of classrooms in which students have an initial language which is not the language of instruction is increasing. This article analyses the educational discourse in a multilingual classroom when the teacher interacts with seven students in a teaching unit about language. The study uses interactional ethnography. The results show the use of teacher inquiry into the students’ beliefs about the task and the semiotic procedures used to construct a shared intersubjective framework. The discussion emphasises the similarity of some of these procedures with those used in the family in the initial stages of language acquisition, as well as the variations which the teacher uses of the social and specific framework of reference.     

Reading in pairs Network: a training model based on peer learning (pairs of teachers and school networks) for the sustainability of educational innovation / Red Leemos en pareja: un modelo de formación basado en el aprendizaje entre iguales (parejas de profesores y redes de centros) para la sostenibilidad de la innovación educativa

Abstract

This article presents a study on a Primary and Secondary Education teacher training network from Catalonia for the implementation of the Reading in pairs program. The goal is to describe, analyse, and assess the training model’s characteristics in relation to the learning promoted among participants, as well as the possibilities of actually incorporating educational innovation in the schools. The results suggest that this formative ecosystem permits a degree of learning and understanding of the program and its conceptual foundations that is relevant to the ability to implement it creatively and to adapt it to each school so that its sustainability is guaranteed.