Exploring the Potentials of Digital Literacies for Disciplinary Learning

• In Event: 56.073 - Slowing Down the STEM Train: Questions, Critiques, and Reflections About the STEM Education Movement

Abstract

This paper offers a theoretical conceptualization of digital and disciplinary literacies as inextricably linked concepts that when coupled together, offer powerful opportunities to harness the learning potential of the Internet to engage learners in STEM (Authors, 2016). Skilled Internet use and global networking unleashes vast potential and a multitude of real-world contexts for learners to engage as critical and agentive citizens. Linking digital and disciplinary learning uses the Internet’s networking and knowledge-building resources toward this end. Despite recognized potential, the STEM movement has given too little attention to the democratizing potential of digital literacies and has not fully embraced synergies between digital and disciplinary learning. Disciplinary insiders have served as gatekeepers to what information is made accessible and available to the public. However, the digital age makes access to knowledge and the ability to communicate and critique knowledge within a worldwide forum largely open and free. To capitalize on the open and free web, and to problem-solve and communicate solutions, we advocate that democratizing platforms be more widely used in STEM education to provide wider access to, and participation in, the disciplines.

Multiple text types, various modes of meaning making (New London Group, 1996), and online and offline cognitive practices all are situated in disciplinary contexts. Digital texts and tools used for STEM learning are grounded in social participation that is mediated by the discipline and the learning environment. Participatory cultures (Jenkins, 1992) are marked by low barriers to engagement where members’ contributions are valued. In the digital age, barriers to texts, audiences, production tools, and disciplinary experts are greatly reduced. Theories of multiliteracies, new literacies, and participatory cultures converge to offer dynamic potentials for STEM learning. Disciplinary learning is rapidly transforming as new technologies emerge (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008). Likewise technology transforms interactions and participation in all disciplines.

The authors will share an integrated framework informed by extant literature and invited experts in disciplinary fields including makerspaces, science education, language arts education, and math education that explore intersections between digital and disciplinary learning within their own work (Authors, 2016a). Intersecting threads that represent various synergies and associated implications are synthesized in this paper. Theoretical perspectives demonstrate that digital literacies are not simply technology-based texts and tools; they instead represent the multitude of ways people collaborate and create to generate and share ideas. This should be central to STEM education. Exploring the breadth of these perspectives can diversify approaches to STEM education.

Full participation in STEM is less possible without a full commitment to digital literacies and their associated practices. Taking advantage of ways that digital practices, networks, and information resources converge can enhance, expand and diversify STEM learning.

Author

• Jill M. Castek, University of Arizona