The world with us: Sight and sound in the “cultural flows” of informal learning. An Indigenous Australian case

Abstract

Abstract Studies of informal learning have tended to take for granted the success of youth in acquiring expertise with digital media. However, the pace of change in technologies increasingly requires individuals to learn on their own or in “unofficial” communities of learners. Examined here is a case of such learning within remote Indigenous communities of Australia. Based on a three year ethnographic research project investigating Indigenous youth learning in community-based learning spaces, this paper focuses on the learning of digital media technologies by adolescent and young adult male musicians. Revealed here is the manner in which long-standing social interactional patterns integrate with visuospatial and embodied modes employed by youth to bring digital media into their lifeways.