New Media in the Classroom: Rethinking Primary Literacy

‘This an exciting publication that offers authentic approaches for educators to meet challenges of the literacy that students need in our evolving digital landscape.’

Maureen Walsh, Adjunct Professor, Australian Catholic University and Honorary Professor, The University of Sydney

‘In this significant new text, Cathy Burnett and Guy Merchant foreground the affective, embodied and emergent nature of making meaning with new media.’ 

Teresa Cremin, The Open University

The rise of new media technologies has changed the ways in which children engage with texts and this has implications for literacy provision in schools. Drawing on research exploring new media practices within and outside school, this book explains and encourages classroom activity that makes purposeful and appropriate use of these literacies and is underpinned by a set of guiding principles for teaching literacy in contemporary times.

Key topics include:

• Building on children’s experiences in and out of school
• Supporting children to draw on multiple modes and media to develop and convey meaning
• Developing a responsive approach to literacy provision
• Investigating ways of encouraging collaboration through and around digital media
• Encouraging children to use digital media safely and advantageously

This is essential reading for primary English or elementary language arts modules on initial teacher education courses including university-based and schools-based routes into teaching and also for current teachers wishing to enhance their own literacy teaching.

Cathy Burnett is Professor of Literacy and Education at Sheffield Hallam University.
Guy Merchant is Professor of Literacy in Education at Sheffield Hallam University.

Cathy Burnett is Professor of Literacy and Education at Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University where she leads the Language and Literacy in Education Research Group. Her research interests focus on relationships between technology, literacy and education. A previous editor of Literacy, she has published widely in the areas of literacy, technology and education, including the co-edited collections New Literacies around the Globe: policy and pedagogy (2014), Literacy, Media, Technology: past, present and future (2017) and The case of the iPad: Mobile literacies in education (2017).  She is President Elect of the United Kingdom Literacy Association. 

Guy Merchant is Professor of Literacy and Education at Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University. He specialises in research into digital literacy and the inter-relations between children and young people, and new technologies of communication. He is widely published in international journals and is a founding editor of the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. The ground-breaking Web 2.0 for Schools was co-authored with Julia Davies, and he has since co-edited a number of collections including Virtual Literacies (2013), New Literacies around the Globe (2014),  Literacy, media, technology: past, present, future  (2017) and The Case  of the iPad (2017). He is active in literacy education and professional work, including writing curriculum materials and professional publications.