Welcome to the website for the Media, Culture, and Learning SIG of AERA

The Media, Culture, and Learning (MCL) Special Interest Group (SIG) is devoted to critical inquiry and pedagogy concerning the use of media within and across formal and informal learning environments. MCL originated in direct response to calls for a scholarly community that brings together overlapping disciplines related to digital media and learning, including Media Studies, Culture Studies, Learning Sciences, and Curriculum & Instruction.

Background

Research Foci

Since its inception, the SIG has evolved to support many contemporary issues, including, but not limited to, the critical inquiry of media and technology (in their various forms):

• Within, and sometimes despite, school cultures;
  
• Within and across digital and non-digital spaces;
• Within and across other formal and informal learning environments, and;
• Within society in general

While the research foci of members are emergent, recent presentations at the AERA conference have featured explorations of:

• Youth online participation and civic education
• Makerspaces and making
• Mobile technology and access
  
• Popular culture, media, and stereotypes
  
• Social media, meaning making, and online communities
• Videogames, identity, and socially constructed practices
• Locative literacies and wearable technologies