DML: Rating Quality and Learning Potential of Consumer Digital Media

Digital media scholars, learning scientists and educators have begun converging on learning design principles and measures of quality for digital media used in traditional educational settings. Meanwhile, researchers and educators have identified a group of “deeper learning” and “21st century skills” that are crucial to kids’ participation and success in today’s global, digital world. These are skills that cut across home and school, across formal and informal learning environments. However, less attention has been paid to making these assessments and criteria available to families and parents who contend with daily decisions about their children’s media use. Consumers are hungry for information and guidance on the learning potential of the media their kids want and use (Common Sense Media, 2011). Informed consumers will not only make informed decisions, but also potentially stimulate smart demand for higher quality digital media learning products for kids and teens.

This panel brings together stakeholders in developing assessments or ratings of quality and learning potential of kids’ digital media for parents, educators and consumers. Panelists will provide an overview of consumer-oriented services that curate educationally-oriented digital media (e.g., mobile app curators), share their research and development processes, provide ideas and insights on the challenge of evaluating products in a rigorous yet consumer-friendly manner, raise questions about balancing parental concerns with optimism about the potential of media, and provoke discussion about the importance of translating cutting-edge academic thinking on pedagogy and learning technologies for wider adoption by all those who inhabit the learning ecology in kids’ lives.