Learning and the Digital Generations

This subject is not offered in 2013.

120 hours

Attendance at all classes (tutorial/seminars/practical classes/lectures/labs/online classes) is obligatory. Failure to attend 80% of classes will normally result in failure in the subject.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject will introduce students to the complex and emerging relationships between learning and digital communications. Drawing on the idea of digital generations, it enables students to gain an understanding of the ways in which digital communication is integrated into the lives of new generations. The subject will enable students to understand the ways in which young people both access and produce knowledge, blurring the boundaries of knowledge production and consumption and local and global spaces. It will explore how digital communications open up new opportunities for learning in both formal (e.g. schools) and informal (e.g. leisure) settings, challenging traditional ideas about where and how young people learn. It will also enable students to understand more about the ways in which digital communication technologies can enable disadvantaged young people to draw on local and global ideas and resources and produce new cultural knowledge through the use of new (digital) literacies and forms of civic engagement. Finally the subject will draw on both local and global examples, including the role of digital communications in youth-led revolutionary movements. On completion of this subject students will have a deepened understanding of the potential uses of digital communications for producing new knowledge and expanding the possibilities for learning.

On completion of this subject students should be able to:

• Have a knowledge of the relationship between learning and digital communications
• Understand the role of digital communications in supporting global flows of ideas, knowledge and products
• Be aware of the ways in which digital communications promote new literacies and can benefit disadvantaged young people
• Have an understanding of the challenges and opportunities that digital communications present for education and learning in the 21 st Century

There are two assessment tasks:

• Research essay 1 drawing on appropriate literature and concepts introduced in lectures and tutorials , 1500 words, due early in the semester, 40%
• Research essay 2, drawing on appropriate literature and concepts introduced in lectures and tutorials, 2500 words, due late in the semester, 60%

Readings will be posted on the LMS

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

This subject should enable students to:

• Become active global citizens
• Be critical and creative thinkers, capable of understanding how digital communications blur production/consumption, learning/teaching, local/global
• Engage meaningfully in public discourse about digital communications
• Have an understanding of the ways in which digital communications supports cultural diversity