Do today's young people think differently?  Does their ubiquitous use of digital media to work,
create, socialize, and play profoundly shape the way they develop?  And if so, how?  These
are some of the questions guiding the research of the Developing Minds and Digital Media
(DM2) project.   Working closely with our fellow colleagues in the GoodWork project, we are
investigating the intersection of child development and new digital media (NDM) as they
relate to how children and young adults think and relate to others.  We are carrying out
empirical research and also preparing a number of position papers on relevant aspects of
child and youth development.
 
In the project’s first position paper, “Developing Minds and Digital Media:  Habits of Mind
in the YouTube Era” (http://www.pz.harvard.edu/eBookstore/PDFs/GoodWork51.pdf),
authors Margaret Weigel and Katie Heikinnen have synthesized the leading theories of
cognitive development (Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, Erikson), education and media studies
(Turkle, Papert, Jenkins), and empirical findings about young people’s digital media. The
authors delineate how certain habits of mind around attention, memory and comprehension
may be impacted by children’s immersion in NDM.  This framework is being assessed and
refined as DM2 researchers interview adult educators across a variety of domains who can
speak to cognitive changes they have observed in youth over time.  These results will be
further refined to focus on changes specifically associated with NDM engagement.
 

Howard Gardner. "Do Video Games Significantly Enhance Literacy?" Congressional
Quarterly Researcher, November 10, 2006.



The Developing Minds and Digital Media Project is funded by Judy Dimon.


See also: GoodPlay, Trust

Terms of Use