Digital Literacy and Young Learners

My short annotated reference list of books and peer reviewed articles covering some of the recent research in this area. The main themes are around defining digital literacy and validating its importance as well as research into the development of digital literacy in individuals.

Agosto, D & Abbas, J. (2011) Teens, Libraries, and Social Networking : What Librarians Need to Know. This is also available as an eBook also via eBrary. Good overview and some great tips.

Barreto, S., & Adams, S. K. (2011). Digital Technology and Youth: A Developmental Approach. The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, 2 (6), 1-8. doi: 10.1002/cbl.20141

Bawden, D. (2001). Information and digital literacies: A review of concepts. [Review]. Journal of Documentation, 5 (2), 218-259. doi: 10.1108/eum0000000007083 A defining paper. Very useful explanations of the concepts.

Beautyman, W. & Shenton, A. K. (2009). When does an academic information need stimulate a school-inspired information want? Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 41 _(2), 67-80. _Useful background into research into children's information seeking behaviour

Gilster, P. (1997). Digital literacy. New York NY: Wiley Computer Publishing. Though not recent, this work is seminal to the topic and very widely cited; its definitions and ideas underpin much of the debate in the early 21st century.

Grimley, M., & Allan, M. (2010). Towards a pre-teen typology of digital media. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(5), 571-584. Retrieved from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/grimley.html Informative background study from New Zealand.

Hargittai, E. (2009). An update on survey measures of web-oriented digital literacy. Social Science Computer Review, 27 (1), 130-137. A critical examination of recent survey methods.

Harlan, M. A., Bruce, C., & Lupton, M. (2012). Teen Content Creators: Experiences of Using Information to Learn. Library Trends, 60(3), 569-587. Survey of teens' use of sites such as Vimeo, DeviantArt and YouTube.

Hatlevik, O. E., & Gudmundsdottir, G. B. (2013). An emerging digital divide in urban school children’s information literacy: Challenging equity in the Norwegian school system. First Monday, 18(4). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4232 doi:10.5210/fm.v18i4.4232 This study challenges many of our assumptions about the inherent digital literacy of the youngsters of today.

Hobbs, R. (2013). Improvization and strategic risk-taking in informal learning with digital media literacy. Learning, Media and Technology, 38 (2), 182-197. Digital media literacy case study of project involving elementary school children. See also link to her presentation elsewhere on this bag.

Jones, B., & Flannigan, S. (2006). Connecting the digital dots: Literacy of the 21st century. Educause Quarterly, 29(2), 8-10. One of the most cited papers. For a copy of the full version of the report (featuring well worked definitions ) go to http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Connecting%20the%20Digital%20Dots.pdf (link from Google Scholar).

Livingstone, S., & Helsper, E. (2007). Gradations in digital inclusion: Children, young people and the digital divide. New Media and Society, 9 (4), 671-696. Again heavily cited deals with the importance of digital literacy in combating social disadvantage. Livingstone also wrote another heavily cited article,

Livingstone, S. (2003). Children's use of the Internet: Reflections on the emerging research agenda. New Media and Society, 5(2), 147-166.

Meyers, E. M., Fisher, K. E., & Marcoux, E. (2009). Making Sense of an Information World: The Everyday‐Life Information Behavior of Preteens. The Library, 79 (3). Chicago-based Meyers and Fisher have been involved in a number of studies in and around the information behaviour of tweens.

Müller, J., Sancho, J. M., & Hernández, F. (2009). New media literacy and the digital divide. In L. Hin & R. Subramaniam (Eds.), Handbook of research on new media literacy at the K-12 level: Issues and challenges(Vol. 1, pp. 72-88). Overview of the situation globally with regards to socio-economic factors hindering digital literacy prior to 2009.

Ng, W. (2012). Can we teach digital natives digital literacy? Computers and Education, 59(3), 1065-1078. The hot topic: Australian researcher.

Sandvik, M., Smørdal, O., & Østerud, S. (2012). Exploring iPads in practitioners' repertoires for language learning and literacy practices in kindergarten. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 2012(3), 204-220. Very recent article focussing on mobile technology and multi-cultural experience.

Smith, J. K., Given, L. M., Julien, H., Ouellette, D., & DeLong, K. (2013). Information literacy proficiency: Assessing the gap in high school students' readiness for undergraduate academic work. Library & Information Science Research, 35 (2), 88-96. doi: 10.1016/j.lisr.2012.12.001 Interesting study from Canada.

Spatariu, A., Peach, A., & Bell, S. (2012). Enculturation of Young Children and Technology Technology and Young Children: Bridging the Communication-Generation Gap(pp. 24-48): IGI Global. An overview of how digital technology is impinging on the lives of young children and some of the implications for more informed and overt use of digital and technology in their education.

Walker, C. (2012). The Information World of Parents: A Study of the Use and Understanding of Information by Parents of Young Children. Library Trends, 60(3), 546-568. Valuable background in helping us understand how parents can be involved in developing their children's information literacy.

Wells, M. (2005). Digital literacies in the middle years of schooling. Paper presented at the Australian Teacher Education Association Conference Gold Coast, Qld. Useful background article with Australian context. Available from http://dro.deakin.edu.au/view/DU:30005636

Zickhur, K. (2014) Teens and Tech: What the Research says. Young Adult Library Services, Winter 2014.

Zimerman, M. (2012) Digital natives, searching behavior and the library. New Library World, 113(3/4), 174-201. doi:10.1108/03074801211218552 Some useful survey based research in academic library context, coupled with consideration about our assumptions about this age group.