Digital media, cultures and technologies in language and literacy education

Our research encompasses a range of approaches to digital media, technologies, and literacies, with the goal to examine the role of “digital,” “media,” and “technologies” as dynamic and multimodal forms of literacy practice and theory. Faculty and students carry out research that seeks to advance knowledge related to digital literacies; experiment with digital media artifacts and texts for pedagogical, ludic and pedagogic purposes; develop cultural and social awareness concerning digital literacies, including decolonizing epistemologies that shape the digital world; explore creative and critical approaches to digital texts; and guide and participate in the production of digital media, such as makerspaces, remix cultures, podcasts, digital and analog games, and digital poetics.Digital literacies have been linked in both policy and practices to 21st century learning and competencies in all educational sectors. Despite the fact that research in this area is anchored in the premise that we are in a very different medium and condition today in education, where digital and social media dominate our lives, in fact, there is a great deal that remains unchanged about school-based learning, including the reproduction of inequities in access, skill, and praxis. Indeed, the global pandemic has laid bare those inequities, including to access to stable WiFi, computers, tablets, and/or phones to carry out schoolwork as it migrated entirely online, and has now also widened gaps in skills, competencies, and understandings related to digital and other literacies. Work in this area examines the structural, social, economic, environmental, educational, personal and professional landscapes of digital technologies and media.

Examples of Course Offerings

LLED 454: Adolescent Literacies
LLED 481: Digital Media in English Language Arts Education
LLED 559: Early Literacies with Digital Technologies and Media

Faculty

Research and Teaching Areas

Digital games
Digital literacies
Digital divides
Digital storytelling
Futures literacies
Online pedagogies
Language education technologies
Childhood literacies
Adolescent literacies
Technology-Enhanced classrooms
Digital arts
Digital culture

A Sampling of LLED Theses and Dissertations