S. Craig Watkins
S. Craig Watkins studies young people’s social, mobile, and digital media behaviors. He teaches at the University of Texas, Austin, in the departments of Radio-Television-Film, Sociology, and the Center for African and African American Studies. Craig is also a Faculty Fellow for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement and a Global Fellow for the IC2 at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan.
He is the author of three books including, The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future (Beacon Press 2009).
Addressing issues that range from the social impacts of young people’s participation in digital media culture to the educational implications, Craig has engaged a dynamic mix of communities. Among them: the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Drug Addiction, IBM Center for Social Software, SXSW Interactive, the National School Boards Association, Smart Mixed-Signal Connectivity, the Austin Forum on Science and Technology for Society, iCivics, MacArthur Foundation, and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (NYC). He also blogs for the Huffington Post and DML Central, the online presence for the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub located at the systemwide University of California Humanities Research Institute and hosted at the UC Irvine campus.
Craig is a member of the MacArthur Foundation’s research network on Connected Learning. Among other things his work in the network will include leading a team of researchers in an ethnographic study of teens and their participation in diverse digital media cultures, communities, and learning ecologies. Craig is also developing a pilot project that looks at the connection between youth, digital media, learning innovation, and civic engagement. This work examines how educators are using social, digital, and mobile media to design the future of learning.
For updates on these and other projects visit his website at www.theyoundandthedigital.com.
Redesigning Education: Digital Literacies and the Future of Learning
Not that long ago educators struggled to limit young learners use of social, digital, and mobile media platforms. Digital media was largely perceived as a waste of time and a causal factor in the rise of the "dumbest generation."
Designing the Future of Learning: Identifying Barriers and Opportunities
The workshop is a hands-on exercise of design thinking, gamestorming, and collaboration. What are the barriers to creating more innovative learning environments?
