Young people learning from digital media outside of school: The informal meets the formal

Abstract

The dissonance between what teenagers learn in classrooms and their everyday lives is not a recent phenomenon, but it is increasingly relevant as school systems are unable to follow the evolution of media and society beyond traditional concerns regarding the protection of young people. An overly scholarly view of learning continues to prevail in our society, which seems to marginalize the knowledge that young people develop with and through media and digital platforms. Based on questionnaires, workshops, and interviews conducted with Portuguese teenagers, aged 12 to 16 years old (N=78), attending an urban and a rural school in the North of the country, this paper aims to understand how these teens are learning to use the media, what motivates them, and if their media practices contribute to the acquisition of skills and competencies useful to their lives inside and outside school. The research main results confirm the existence of a gap between formal and informal education. Informal education is mainly motivated by their needs and peer influence. Colleagues and family, alongside the Internet and self-discovery, appear as important sources of knowledge. Another important conclusion is that informal learning strategies contribute to the development of skills and competencies that are useful from a school viewpoint. La disonancia entre lo que aprenden los jóvenes en clase y en su vida cotidiana no es un fenómeno reciente, pero es cada vez más relevante, ya que la escuela no es capaz, evidentemente, de acompañar la evolución. En nuestra sociedad, sigue prevaleciendo una visión demasiado escolarizada del aprendizaje, que parece marginalizar los conocimientos que los jóvenes desarrollan con y a través de los medios y de las plataformas digitales. Basado en cuestionarios, entrevistas y talleres realizados con jóvenes portugueses entre los 12 y los 16 años (N=78), de una escuela urbana y otra rural del norte del país, este artículo pretende comprender cómo están estos jóvenes aprendiendo a usar los medios, lo que les motiva y si lo que hacen con ellos contribuye a la adquisición de capacidades y competencias útiles para sus vidas dentro y fuera de la escuela. Los principales resultados de la investigación confirman la existencia de un foso entre la educación formal e informal. La educación informal es sobretodo motivada por sus necesidades y por la influencia de sus pares. Los compañeros y la familia, junto con Internet y con lo que descubren por ellos mismos, aparecen como importantes fuentes de conocimiento. También se concluyó que las estrategias informales de aprendizaje contribuyen al desarrollo de capacidades y competencias útiles desde un punto de vista escolar.

Projection of the Flipped Learning Methodology in the Teaching Staff of Cross-Border Contexts

“…This is radically opposed to the traditional ways of education, where the only possible learning space was the classroom. In this case, the students view the contents (previously prepared by the teachers) in different places, during their spare time, in informal environments (Pereira, Fillol, & Moura, 2019) using mobile devices connected to the Internet (Long, Cummins, & Waugh, 2017). This promotes a learning process facilitated by the use of technology (Froehlich, 2018) and encourages flexibility, both of time (contents can be viewed as many times as necessary and at any occasion), and space (they can be viewed anywhere), in contrast with other more traditional and conservative methodologies (Boelens, Voet, & Wever, 2018).…”

Com-educational Platforms: Creativity and Community for Learning

“…The transformations of language (Martín, 2008) and learning (Pereira, Fillol, & Moura, 2019) synthesized by Gee and Hayes (2011) solidify in the educational proposals analyzed in the platforms. We are in agreement with Cipollone et al (2014) in noticing a clear influence of constructivism, not only in Minecraft, but in all the proposals reviewed.…”

Formative Transcendence of Flipped Learning in Mathematics Students of Secondary Education

“…Recent literature on this state of the art states that educational technology acquires great value in the teaching and learning processes because of the potential it reaches [88][89][90][91]. In this sense, the use of innovative resources implies a substantial improvement of various academic variables concerning the attitude and performance of students [2].…”

“…Today, teaching is witnessing a period of transformation motivated by technological inclusion. This transformation has materialized at all levels and areas [1,2]. Consequently, the appearance of new ways of teaching [3] and new means of learning in students [4] have been encouraged in teachers.…”

“…Justification and Research Questions The technological peculiarities of contemporary society entail an update and renewal of the teaching practice carried out in the learning spaces [2]. Specifically, the Mathematics subject -due to its nature and long career throughout the history of education-demands innovative pedagogical action with the purpose of improving academic indicators related to the subject itself and the attitude of the students [70,71].…”