What do we want to know?
There has been a growth in schools of engagement with and production of moving image texts using digital technologies. This has been conceived both as a form of expanded literacy and, in wider terms, as a set of cultural practices drawing on popular cultures and the use of digital media beyond school. This review investigates how the use of ICT impacts on the development of moving image literacy.
Who wants to know?
Teachers, those involved in teacher education and policy-makers.
What did we find?
- Several of the studies find a connection between media literacy and the cultural experience of young people, suggesting that curriculum content which recognises this factor is more likely to motivate high-quality work, to locate learners as determiners of their own meanings, and to be aware of ways in which the developing social identities of young people are implicated with their media cultures.
- Several studies find that the incorporation of moving image media in curriculum programmes leads to gains in literacy, broadly defined.
- Five of the studies report enhanced motivation in working with moving image media, while one finds a negative effect in the case of girls and computer games.
- It was difficult to distinguish between the impact of digital and analogue media technologies.
- There does appear to be some evidence that social semiotic theories of multimodal communication offer useful ways to understand learning processes related to the moving image.
What are the implications?
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Pupils’ interpretation of the moving image and understanding of it can only fully be regarded as a ‘literacy’ if they also have opportunities to produce moving image texts. This argument has implications for the literacy policies of government education departments. However, these technologies have significance beyond the English curriculum.
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The findings of the review give theoretical underpinning for the use of moving image work in classrooms, as well as in initial teacher training in English.
How did we get these results?
Nine studies were synthesised, all published since 1990.
This summary was prepared by the EPPI Centre
This report should be cited as: Burn A, Leach J (2004) A systematic review of the impact of ICT on the learning of literacies associated with moving image texts in English, 5-16. In: Research Evidence in Education Library. London: EPPI Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London.