Digital media learning in the third space

ABSTRACT

In this article, we share the outcomes of two fieldwork focus groups conducted as part of a larger project investigating ‘third space literacies’ in digital media learning contexts. One focus group brought together an international group of media education practitioners at the Media Education Summit in Rome. The other was a transcribed conversation between four published researchers in the field, ourselves, Neil Selwyn and Cathy Burnett. The data from these two fieldwork activities was first presented as an afterword to our book Digital Media, Culture and Education: Theorising Third Space Literacies (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017).

Here, we present the outcomes and discuss their implications for the themes addressed in this special issue, namely contemporary forms of participation in formal and informal learning. Our contribution is a theoretical and research informed position, drawn from Cultural Studies, new literacy studies and educational research, on the ‘conditions of possibility’ for learning to take place in the ‘third space’ across and between these domains. This space facilitates dynamic literacies, curational practices and a porous exchange of knowledge. Purposive use of such a space can answer questions about the use of digital media for teaching and learning in school, the affordances of transmedia for education and the connection of teaching and learning in and out of school.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital media
• third space
• informal learning
• curation
• literacies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Julian McDougall is Professor of Media and Education and Head of the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice at Bournemouth University, UK. He is the author/editor of a range of publications in the fields of media education, media literacies and Media/Cultural Studies.

John Potter is Reader in Media in Education at the University College London Institute of Education, based at the UCL Knowledge Lab. His research, teaching and publications focus on media education, new literacies and the changing nature of teaching and learning arising from the pervasive use in wider culture of digital media.