Connecting, Communicating and Learning through New Media Project

The Connecting, Communicating and Learning through New Media Project explores the impact of digital technologies and media practices on the broader social, cultural and linguistic ecology of remote Indigenous Australia by asking three overarching questions:

  • What are the positive and negative sociocultural consequences and implications of new media technologies and online practices?
  • What are the positive and negative linguistic consequences and implications of new media technologies and online practices?
  • What are the consequences for learning in a context where traditional cultural transmission and language socialisation patterns have been challenged?

Research is being undertaken in a number of communities in remote Indigenous Australia by Dr Inge Kral under an Australian Research Council funded Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). The project runs from 2012 to 2014. The DECRA project aligns with the ELDP language documentation project enabling an exploration of the links between oral narrative traditions, especially sand story telling, and young people's new multimodal digital communication practices.

The research builds on ideas developed in Talk, Text and Technology and Learning Spaces.

Connecting, Communicating and Learning through New Media

Digital technology is transforming the nature of communication and learning world-wide, and social media is catalysing personal and societal transformations. Indigenous youth in remote Australia are coming of age connected to a globalised world where new forms of digitally-mediated social interaction are altering social and cultural practice, communication styles and learning processes. New technologies are also enabling innovations in multimodal communications, cultural production and enterprise development. While there are many positive aspects associated with the uptake of digital technologies, it is apparent that we do not yet understand the full impact of the internet, social media and mobile phone usage in remote communities.