The research on young people’s use of new media is often described as a polarization between optimists who see in the new technology new possibilities for creativity, community and debate on the one hand, and pessimists who see the end of innocence, childhood and values on the other. Against this background, we seek to deepen the understanding of the fundamental conditions for activities in which digital tools as well as fiction in various forms are used to support instruction and learning. At the same time, we stress the need to study children’s and youths’ own notions – and use – of new media in practice.
More concretely, this field comprises research on various media such as books, theater and film, as well as their role not only in education but also in more informal contexts. This includes, for instance, current problem areas like the relationship between ICT use and learning in (pre)school routines as well as in daily life within the peer group. Questions of how comic series, books and film are used by teachers and students in instruction are central to this field’s empirical studies.
The field is highly interdisciplinary, not only spanning the other fields within educational practice but also raising questions of interest to researchers within educational science, technology, the humanities and the social sciences.
