1.4 Digital Media & Learning

Students today are consuming massive amounts of information through social media sites, such as YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr. According to a national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, youth ages 8-18 spend 7.5 hours every day using media, and as a result of multitasking, they are exposed to more than 10.5 hours of media content during the 7.5 hour period.

Additionally, many students have become producers and distributors of information. For example, students share photos, post videos, add text to fan fiction sites, and upload podcasts for public consumption. Lenhart (2012) found that approximately 27% of teens have recorded and uploaded video to the Internet.

As educators, we must learn how to effectively design and use digital media in order the capture the interest of our students and empower them as learners.