Digital Mediaas Transformative Role in Education: Beyond Potential to Essential

Abstract

Achieving effective learning via digital media continues to be a major concern in contemporary education. The daily use of all forms of digital media is part of our lives and therefore becomes a key component of education. Educators must consider the process of digital media curriculum as a learning model and form of experience adapted to education. This means the significance is on how to learn as well as what to learn. This study demonstrated how the implementation of digital media curriculum via the Scratch game-making project contributed to middle school students’ interaction with the entire educational process. The goal was to rethink the role of digital media in transforming schooling. Based on classroom observation and interviews with the teachers and students from four middle schools in Denver, Colorado, the qualitative method of educational criticism and connoisseurship was employed to examine the use of digital media and the interaction between teaching and learning. Several themes emerged: (a) The production of digital media influenced students’ behavior and educators’ attitudes towards formal and informal learning; (b) digital citizenship is a substantial lesson in the course of digital learning and an understanding of the digital framework of society; (c) new literacy is critical, because ever-changing equipment supporting the digital experience provides dynamic and contrasting ways of connecting with society; (d) the reward of learning is by doing versus being told, and deeper learning is attained by students’ interacting with their own work; and (e) digital media programs, such as making video games for learning, provide students skills in communication, theoretical, aesthetic, creativity, and technical knowledge necessary for becoming successful digital citizens. The research revealed students’ enjoyment and effort in this new form of learning experience, which enhanced their critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity under teachers’ well-planned guidance. The challenge for educators is to constantly review and design educational approaches supporting students towards using the tools meaningfully and within a defined learning experience, continuing to help students become active participants and authors of their own identity and creativity. Educators need to find the best usage of digital media technology, providing students every advantage towards reaching an informed global perspective.