The digital age and its implications for learning and teaching in the primary school.
The report provides a substantial but necessarily selective survey of research related to children’s lives in the digital age within and beyond school. It begins by drawing on studies of everyday uses of digital technologies, including those by children, to identify challenges and opportunities facing primary education. Next it explores how research is shaping possible responses to these challenges and opportunities. Arguing that technology use, in schools as elsewhere, is never neutral, the review considers research from five broad traditions that represent different perspectives and priorities. It discusses how schools might work across these traditions in developing curriculum and pedagogy and in their wider role in supporting children’s emotional, social and civic lives. It proposes that such considerations should be weighed in relation to broader debates about the purpose of schooling and about how schools relate to their wider social, political, economic and commercial contexts.
/ Through the technique of meta-analysis, this study investigates the scholarly articles appearing in peer-reviewed online and offline journals that address the topic of communication and development from 1998 to 2007 to determine publication trends in the field. The research was prompted by the sense that development was moving off the research agenda of most communication scholars. This seemed surprising in the era of globalization and it was decided to examine the literature for evidence. The study finds that published studies have moved away from mass communication and toward ICTs’ role in development, that they infrequently address development in the context of globalization and often continue to embrace a modernization paradigm despite its many criticisms. In addition, International Communication Gazette was found to be the only mainstream communication journal to include a significant number of articles on development communication.