Warm welcome to the monthly research seminar of the Learning, Culture and Interventions (LECI) expert group on Friday 24th of May at 10:00-12:00, when there will be two presentations at Siltavuorenpenger 5A, room K108 (Minerva building).
From 10 to 11 o’clock there will be a presentation by Associate Professor/Reader in Media in Education, John Potter from the University College London, Institute of Education (UCL Knowledge Lab), UK.
Title of his presentation is: “Dynamic literacies and play: children's digital media cultures and lived experience”.
Abstract
This talk explores models of research which have children as participant co-producers, exploring questions related to their lived experience and its relationship to media cultures. Amongst other projects, it will present a focused ethnographic approach to data collection. This was used in ‘Playing the Archive’, a project on children’s playground games through the years, which considered identity, affiliation and cultural capital in the light of theories of both play and media literacy. It will suggest ways in which both researchers and educators can respond to the material conditions of childhood in the digital age. It will develop further the previously proposed concept of the space between home and school as a ‘third space’ as well as a framework of ‘dynamic literacies’ as a useful way to account for the relationship between literacy practices and digital media.
Biography
John Potter is Associate Professor/Reader in Media in Education at the University College London Institute of Education, based in the UCL Knowledge Lab. His research, teaching and publications are in the fields of: media education, new literacies, creative activity and learner agency; theories of curation and agency in social media; the changing nature of teaching and learning in response to the pervasive use in wider culture of media technologies in formal and informal settings. He has worked in literacy and media in education throughout his working life, as: a primary school teacher in East London; a local authority education advisor; a teacher educator and, most recently, as an academic and researcher, teaching on MA programmes and supervising doctoral students. In his work, he argues for a wider definition of literacy which encompasses the culture, interests and agency of learners, and proposes pedagogies which value the cultural capital which all social actors in formal and informal settings bring with them.
From 11 to 12 o’clock there will be a presentation by Professor Klaus-Peter Schulz from ICN Business School, Nancy-Metz, France.
Title of the presentation: “Revealing Collective Creativity for Learning and Development through Playful Modeling”.
Abstract
Collective creativity to bring about change and development in organizations has been addressed in several recent academic works, emphasizing that creativity can be achieved in collaborative processes. The main challenge for creative learning and development may, however, be seen in: (1) creating a collectively shared understanding among participants, (2) avoiding the dominance of particular individuals/ groups, and (3) providing "democratic" tools which can be used without specific crafts or artistic knowledge. The existing research indicates that the implementation of artistic methods, which are used collaboratively and in a playful manner hold a particularly high learning and development potential. The use and effects of such art-based mediation and playful modeling tools have been discussed and confirmed in several recent publications (e.g. Schulz et al. 2018; 2015; Meisiek & Barry 2014; Statler et al 2011) and work groups around the topic. Further questions arise: what kind of facilitation, choreography, hidden curriculum, contexts, frameworks and group settings are adequate to facilitate creative learning and development, and what are their effects? This LECI seminar presentation illustrates various perspectives and methodical approaches, such as storytelling, serious play, tool-kit based modeling, gaming and drama intervention, which are often applied to actively engage diverse stakeholder groups in joint creative processes, learning and development.
Biography
Klaus-Peter Schulz is a full professor for innovation and strategy at the ICN Business School, in Nancy and Metz France. He is also a board member of the research laboratory CEREFIGE for European Research in Management, Economics and Finance at the University of Lorraine, France. His research draws mainly form cultural historical activity theory, applied in the field of collective creativity, innovation capabilities and sustainable development. In recent years, he has published several articles and one book addressing playfulness, participation and modeling in development processes. His passion is in participatory action research, by which he develops, tests and reflects ideas together with practitioners and students.
Everyone interested is very welcome to join the seminar!