Dan Perkel and Christo Sims, both Ph.D. students in the School of Information, have released a new study of the use of digital media and technology in afterschool programs, libraries, and museums.
Perkel and Sims, along with co-authors Becky Herr-Stephenson and Diana Rhoten, review a range of programs (including the long-running Computer Clubhouse movement, established in 1993 in partnership with MIT’s Media Lab), and then use the idea of “media ecologies” to investigate the role that digital media play (or could play) in these “intermediary spaces for learning.”
The authors conclude that “digital media and technology present great opportunities and challenges to youth organizations. Indeed, digital media can offer opportunities for both self-directed and collaborative learning, can open access to information that might not otherwise be accessible, and can allow for creative expression in new formats.”
Both Perkel and Sims previously participated in the Digital Youth Research Project, a three-year collaborative research project at UC Berkeley and the University of Southern California, also funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The report was published by MIT Press and is part of a series of MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning; it is also available online.
