The MacArthur Foundation has funded a major piece of ethnographic research on youth engagement with digital media which has just been released. “Kids’ Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures” is available in a variety of forms (short summaries, an extensive white paper, the whole report) and so on. Among other findings, the report suggests that youth use online media to extend friendships and interests, and to engage in self-directed, peer-based learning. The report suggests several implications, including the almost banal notion that “adults should facilitate young people’s engagement with digital media.” This is a really significant piece of research, and worth pondering in full.

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