Oti, Alfred Gabriel; (2018) The digital-making curriculum: the learning trajectories of frequent digital-makers in a London college. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Outside of formal education, many young people between 16 and 19 years of age are heavy consumers of digital content and some are frequent makers of digital content. Traditionally, the digital and media literacies and making skills needed for engagement with digital content come from participation in formal education courses such as Multimedia. The digital content taught and made within formal courses resembles the digital content that young people consume and make outside of formal education. However, in recent years, the participation levels of formal courses in which the making of digital content is prominent has fluctuated. Participation in some courses, for example, ICT has significantly declined and this has raised concerns about methods of teaching and learning as defined by the curriculums of such courses. Fluctuating participation patterns are often indicative of learner dissatisfaction with the methods of teaching and learning and the curriculums of formal courses that prominently feature digital-making. Consequently, learners complain about the lack of meaningful learning experiences of digital-making within formal education. Learners’ experiences of digital-making outside of formal education are often unrepresented in the curriculums of formal courses and this contributes towards learner dissatisfaction and fluctuating levels of participation. This thesis proposes an alternative curriculum for the study of digital-making within formal education, called the Digital-Making Curriculum (DMC) a term I have coined. Digital-making is the practice of ‘learning about technology through making with it’. The DMC encompasses the principles, and practices regarding the study, production, analysis, consumption, and distribution of digital content. The DMC occurs in formal courses where digital-making is the dominant or fundamental focus of the curriculum; or is of rapidly growing importance and prevalence, to the point that its absence would be impractical and detrimental for the progression of learners. The DMC incorporates learners’ experiences of digital-making outside of formal education into methods of teaching and learning. Consequently, the DMC facilitates the fostering of meaningful learning experiences of digital-making within formal education. At the core of the DMC, are social interactions between tutors and learners, in which both co-construct and co-develop learners’ understandings of digital and media literacies needed to solve problems and make decisions, during the construction processes of digital content. The DMC not only enables learners to develop a deeper understanding of digital-making but also enables tutors, curriculum makers and academics to gain a deeper understanding of how to effectively teach digital-making to learners on DMC courses.

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