Parent Involvement Information

Family Engagement as a Shared Responsibility in a Digital Learning Environment

Heather B. Weiss

Many of us have moments when we feel like Digital Disasters. We can't get an app to work, so we turn thankfully to a nearby Digital Native-who could be a six-year-old-for help. Even Digital Natives describe the difficulties of keeping up with rapidly changing technologies and the explosion of available information. We are all Digital Learners recognizing and managing the many ways in which the Internet and digital media are fundamentally transforming what learning is, and how, why, when, where, and with whom it happens, for everyone.

Who could have foreseen that third graders in an after school program in the United States would be web chatting with their counterparts in India, that a local library would have digital animation classes for youth, and that high school students would hold Saturday sessions to help their teachers learn new media skills? Digital media jet propels anywhere, anytime learning from early childhood, and it offers dynamic, collaborative learning opportunities. At the same time, it is challenging families and everyone involved with children and youth to make sure that children get the access, supports, and opportunities that they need to get the full benefits of digital media for learning. In today's technological world, the skills related to digital media navigation and use are crucial for success in school as well as in the workplace.

The rapid spread of digital media in daily life challenges us to think imaginatively about what we need to do to optimize digital media use for children's learning. We also need to think hard about how we need to change to make such learning happen. Emerging research tells us that parents of young children use digital media as one among several parenting tools (e.g., toys and books) to keep their children occupied. As children grow older, parents show concerns about how their children use digital media. They are trying to understand and manage digital media use so it does not harm, but benefits and contributes to their child's learning. However, parents are not always sure what to do or where to turn for information and assistance.

It is against this backdrop that we invited four experts (Gregg Behr, Mizuko Ito, Marsha L. Semmel, and Katie Salen Tekinbas http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/family-engagement-as-a-shared-responsibility-in-a-digital-learning-environment) to reflect on their work in engaging families in a digital learning environment. We asked them to address the question, "How can institutions offer relevant and useful guidance to parents and families about scaffolding their children's digital media use?"

As their responses and examples show, schools, museums, and libraries, as well as after school and summer programs, can incorporate digital media into the core of their work and build bridges to connect learning experiences for families and children across different media. These institutions can reach out and partner with parents and families in exciting ways to help them understand, shape, support, and share in their children's digital learning. With these practices, family engagement becomes a shared responsibility for children's learning and development in a digital environment. These practices also affirm and open up new roles for parents and families.

The growing use of digital media for learning often generates discussion about what it means for all children to have full and equal access to and participation with digital media. Access includes not only the availability of hardware and broadband, but also parental and institutional guidance and scaffolding so that youth make good choices in the use of digital media and have opportunities to use digital tools in and for learning. In their longitudinal study of literacy and learning in contrasting socioeconomic neighborhoods, Susan Neuman and Donna Celano point to the importance of digital access, broadly defined, in the development of the information capital that youth need for 21st-century success. They suggest policy changes to provide more resources and supports for disadvantaged communities, especially for libraries as learning centers, and also programs to train adults-including parents-to help students gain literacy skills and optimize digital learning resources.

Media scholar Henry Jenkins coined the term participatory culture to describe the ways youth go beyond consuming to creating and sharing media content. In a participatory culture (in contrast to a consumer culture), youth are actively engaged in creative expression. They produce published media (e.g., music, information, stories) and pursue civic engagement interests with strong support from others and with some type of informal mentorship. A participatory culture requires youth who are able to read and write and who are equipped with new media literacy skills. However, Jenkins points to the reality of a participation gap, one that can be addressed not by any one single institution. It takes families, schools, and communities sharing responsibility and working together to raise a child with the digital media skills necessary for engaging in a participatory culture that undoubtedly will shape school and workplace success.