Digital Media

A few points on digital media use in Education

The guidelines focus on the use of digital media as a benefit in classroom teaching as a creative and inclusive tool. Digital media take on an ever more pervasive role in the lives of our children and as such, the question if we should use digital media is not addressed here, but instead focus on how they can be used in a pedagogically relevant ways in combination with analogue tools to provide added value and function.

Children with special needs can benefit greatly from using digital media. Both as an inclusive factor in the actual learning activities with others, and it can be a platform where they can discover hidden talents that increase self-confidence. It can be the ability to understand how to program robots and show it to the other children. It can be how to use apps on an iPad and use them for making advanced videos together with other children. Both skills has the potential to change a vulnerable child’s social position in a group of children. Instead of being “the odd one out”, being the one that can do fun and useful things.

Some perceive media as pacifying, where children sit apathetically in front of a screen or touch screen. Of course, the use of digital media has a built-in risk of isolation, so the role of the educator is particularly important. Whether the media is something passive or active depends solely on the approach and perception one attaches to it. The strength of the media for educational purposes is most evident when the media are used as tools in line with scissors, paper, colors and books. The process of creating something is not fundamentally different with a digital aid in relation to a more physical one. If you combine the two, it can give even more value. It requires a minimum of equipment and some adults who dare to be curious. The children can often be more natural users once they understand how the media function.

It is not disqualifying when teachers do not know the digital aids 100 percent. Of course, there must be a basic knowledge, but the children are sometimes larger experts than the adults on the characteristics of some of the programs / digital media. The adults must therefore dare to move away from the role of the one who knows everything and who can control the whole process. And if the adult has the courage to be an experimental and curious participant in the process, it forms the basis for a new community of a process and a product, motivated by curiosity and created through play. But before embarking on it, it is even very important that the teacher know what the goal and purpose are. A written-down and well-considered strategy for the use of digital aids can help create peace, overview and direction in the teaching process.

Source: Klaus Thestrup 2019.

If you have more questions

If you still have questions about how to use the digital media after watching the guides and reading the activity set, you are welcome to ask questions to the partners directly in Google plus (the group called ARTinLAN - Ask Anything). We are happy to provide technical as well as pedagogical support on getting started and carrying out the activities in the activity set using digital media tools.