Ashley's Paper Topic

The educational field's fear/rejection of digital media:

In the last several years media has become the go-to communication venue and tool for so many sects of society. Politics, religion, environmentalism, entertainment and so many other groups have rallied around digital media as a means for changing & improving the quality and flow of communication. And why should it not, after all media is something that, in this society, virtually anyone can access and/or generate. Why then does the field of education seem to fear and reject the idea of digital media as a venue or tool to its students, its communities, and fellow educators?

I find this position very odd for two reasons, one: the educational field is so often publicly criticized for not being innovative/relevant enough. Yet the current mood is that digital media embodies the very heart of innovation and relevance for a technologically literal, global, web 2.0 society. Two: there is research, much of it more than 30 years old at this point; which indicates that the integration of devices like digital media support and expand on the principles of brain-mind learning, multiple intelligences, and varied forms of learning styles. All of these issues are supposedly forefront in the evaluation of teaching techniques, curriculum, school improvement, and state and national benchmarks.

I would therefore like to write a paper which a) discusses the correlations between media and the issues I have just mentioned combined with some case studies of educators and curriculums which are utilizing digital media to fulfill these goals, and b) explore when and how this mentality of aversion/dismissiveness to media was so strongly adopted by the educational field.

I'd really appreciate any thoughts/feedback on these ideas from my colleagues. Until tomorrow.