workshop
Workshop on research design and instrumentation for studies of knowledge practices (for staff & students of Faculty of Education, HKU)
During the last decade a growing body of new research methods on literacy and digital media have emerged and been elaborated. Scholars in a wide range of fields and disciplines have explored new perspectives and methods in order to understand the transforming literacy practices in our culture. In this workshop I will give a short outline of some key issues of why ‘methodologies of studying transforming literacies’ is an important theme in contemporary educational sciences. The developments are expressed as part of literacy studies, emphasising the social practices of literacy, of different modes due to technological developments and fundamental changes in conceptions of reading and writing, and about consumption and production. I will use my own projects to raise reflection and discussion about research designs for literacy and learning in the 21st century. Of key importance for research are the methodological approaches we develop and the methods we use on studying transforming literacies. To what extent do we need to develop new or improved methods in order to understand literacy practices, for example evolving in online communities, and which are the challenges we face?
<p>Ola Erstad is Professor at the Institute for Educational Research, University of Oslo, Norway. He has been working withinthe fields of both media and educational research. He has published on issues of technology and education, especially on ‘media literacy’ and ‘digital competence’. From 1998 until 2005 he was head of research at a national centre on ICT research in education, leading large-scale innovation projects in Norwegian schools working on different levels of school development using digital technologies. He is leader of a research group at the Faculty of Education, Oslo, called ‘TransActionslearning, knowing and identity in the information society’. Recently his research interests are directed towards the everyday practices of using different media, the interrelationship between formal and informal ways of learning and media education in schools. His most recent publication is a book entitled 'Identity, Community, and Learning Lives in the Digital Age' (2013), co-edited with Julian Sefton Green for Cambridge University Press.</p>