Workshop in conjunction with www2012 conference 

This workshop will be held in connection with LiLe 2012

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Workshop topic and themes

The Net Generation, Y Generation, C Generation, digital natives... there are many terms – several controversial - used to name youth who were born into a world where the Internet is of great importance. These terms issue from a huge body of studies that focus on youth and digital culture (CEFRIO, 2011; Ito et al., 2008; Lenhart et al., 2008), on the emerging knowledge society (UNESCO 2005) and that illustrate a wide consensus on how new media are altering the way youth learn and socialize. They demonstrate that teachers face a new audience engaged in tagging, searching, gaming, multitasking, social networking and collaborating through Web 2.0-related activities. Indeed, youth  appear more engaged in digital networks where they can create content, share knowledge and expertise, access cultural artefacts or remix existing material, realizing the Papert’s prophecy (1980).

Emerging Web technologies clearly offer new opportunities to learners but there are surprisingly few examples of such uses at school and little evidence of their impact in  education. Although teachers are not entirely out of this movement as a growing number of them are engaged in online networks that foster professional development and where they share “living” teaching resources (Gueudet et al. 2011) and best practices, most schools are still focused on training autonomous problem-solvers whereas there is a growing need for creativity, teamwork and collaboration skills within multidisciplinary networks in order to solve the kind of problems faced by an increasingly complex world. Thus, there is a growing gap separating youth digital culture from mainstream academic school culture.

In line with the www2012 conference, this workshop aims at understanding the real impact of emerging Web technologies in transforming education. It will offer researchers and practicioners the opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise in putting forward new models of teaching and learning in the Internet Age. The aim is to bridge the gap between youth digital culture and school culture in order to face the new and complex challenges being addressed by educators in the knowledge society. The workshop will be complementary to LiLe 2012.

Papers focusing on concrete applications of emerging Web technologies are particularly welcome, as well as more theoretical and position position papers with a special focus on introducing social media in education.

References
CEFRIO. (2011). Les "C" en tant que citoyens. Génération C, 1(1).
Gueudet, G., Pepin, B., & Trouche, L. (eds.) (2011). From Textbooks to ‘Lived’ Resources: Mathematics Curriculum Materials and Teacher Documentation, New York, Springer.
Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., Boyd, D., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lange, P., & Robinson, L. (2008). Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. Chicago: MacArthur Foundation.
Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Rankin Macgill, A., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens, Video Games and Civics Pew Internet and American Life Project. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. NY: Basic Books.
UNESCO (2005). Towards knowledge societies (UNESCO World Report). Retrieved June, 26th, 2011, from http://www.unesco.org/en/worldreport