ECREA16-Abstract

249

Saturday, November 12

1 6 : 0 0 – 1 7 : 3 0

2006; Kress 2010). Being transformed into an interactive environment, Old Barny is seen as a product of readers’design: by employing non-linear reading

strategies, users augment the original text by gaining information from explanatory pop-up comments, multimodal profiles of characters, interactive map

of the location etc.. Digital adaptation becomes a qualitatively new kind of text that integrates the prototext with metatexts.The enjoyment of reading aris‑

es not only from following a story from the beginning to the end, but frommapping the fictional storyworld as an integrated system. Despite some concerns

related to the efficiency of multimodal features and navigational freedom of digital texts (Ohler 2006), it is clear that the usage of technologies renders any

material more attractive to young learners and thus facilitates making texts more relevant to pupils' everyday cultural environment. Moreover, research

(e.g. of Gorski 2005) has also shown how networked digital resources can strengthen inclusive and collaborative learning in multicultural classrooms, which

concurrently supports the argument for their fruitfulness for the integrational goals set for our project. The coherence that may be brought to heterogenous

texts through their creative digitalization is seen as a promise of a higher integrity - on the level of society. Gorski, Paul 2005. Multicultural Education and

the Internet: Intersections and Integrations. Boston etc.: McGraw Hill. Jewitt, Carey 2006. Multimodality, “Reading”, and “Writing” for the 21

Century.

Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education 26 (3): 315–331. Koskimaa, Raine 2007. Cybertext Challenge. Teaching literature in the digital world.

Arts & Humanities in Higher Education 6(2): 169–185. Kress, Gunther 2010. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication.

Routledge: London. Ohler, Jason 2006. The world of digital storytelling. Educational Leadership 63 (4): 44–47.

PP 731

Communication and Partizipation with Digital Maps – An Educational Approach

H. Atteneder

, N. Ferber

, T. Jekel

University Salzburg, Communication Science, Salzburg, Austria

University Salzburg, Department for Geoinformatic - Z_GIS, Salzburg, Austria

University Salzburg, Geography, Salzburg, Austria

Based on the concepts of a (geo) digitalized societey (GISociety) and the rising mediatised world this contribution discusses the possibilities to communicate

and participate with/through GeoMedia. GeoMedia is media that combines information and communication technologies with geographic information. An

increasing pervasion with media technologies, emerging Geoinformation (GIS) technologies, the upcoming web 2.0 and an increased individual mobility

reinforced by and with new„smart“ spatially enabled mobile devices have led to dissolved boundaries between consumer and producer of (geo)information

in our society. Besides that in recent years an increasing number of easy and open source mapping tools promoted emerging research domains such as

Citizen Science, Volunteered Geographic Information, Neogeography and Open Government Initiatives. Those research domains underline the perspective

that mapping is easy and possible for everyone explicitly for lay people (Haklay, 2013). According to such an optimistic perspective maps can be seen as

a tool for (self-)expression. Furthermore it is assumed that the (geo)web leads to more participation and more democracy (Haklay, 2013). Nevertheless

the rise of critical cartography, which assumes that cartographers do not produce “objective” maps that show “accurate reality” imply that lay people are

able to become (specialist) cartographer of local and regional geographies. In fact maps that imply hegemonic power relations become with the rise

of GeoMedia tools for empowerment since the consumer of maps becomes the prosumer of cartographic information and visualisation (LESZCZYNSKI &

ELWOOD, 2014). Furthermore, GeoMedia are part of the significant and fundamental changes in our communication and visualization of (geo)information

and have an important impact in decision making processes in our mediatized society. Education needs to adapt to these developments of a (geo) mediated

world. The concept of Education for Spatial Citizenship offers the adequate theoretical framework and is rooted in the emancipatory domain of education,

linking geoinformation to secondary education. An Education for Spatial Citizenship aims to empower lay users in their everyday appropriation of space

through GeoMedia. (Gryl & Jekel, 2012; Gryl, Jekel, & Donert, 2010; Jekel, Gryl, & Schulze, 2015) Aiming to change hegemonic power relations the im‑

portance of an integration of diversity and gender dimensions (and hence inequalities in general) in educational approaches in geography and media

education seems to be indispensable. At the University of Salzburg an interdisciplinary project between communication science and geography links science

topics, pedagogies and school practice for students in teacher training. This contribution provides an example of learning and teaching with GeoMedia.

The approach is based on everyday GeoMedia use and its implications for the construction of feminine/masculine fear vs. feel-good-spaces. The developed

learning environments have been tested and evaluated in school.

PP 732

Digital Literacy and Multimodal Practices of Romanian Young Children (4–6 years)

T. Gyöngyvér Erika

Sapientia University, Applied Social Sciences, Cluj Napoca, Romania

As part of a broader research initiative, our exploratory study aims to identify the digital literacy characteristics and multimodal practices of Romanian

young children aged 4–6. Mobile technologies are challenging the efforts of parents and educators in supporting their young children’s learning, therefore

it is crucial to map the array of new digital skills (COST, 2014). While age group 9 to 16 years old has been studied by European projects (EU Kids Online,

2006–2009, 2009–2011, 2011–2014; Net Children Go Mobile, 2014), younger children’s digital practices and skills have been less covered by systematic

research (Marsh, 2015). We conducted a descriptive case-study research and applied qualitative methodologies for data collection. The qualitative research

was implemented in a Romanian kindergarden located in a small town (Miercurea Niraj, Mures County, Romania, around 3500 inhabitants). We selected in

the research ten children aged 4–6: five girls and five boys. We collected qualitative data using the following methods: visual research – we asked the chil‑

dren to draw two drawings: a/ their favourite digital device and b/ their most preferred application, c/ we asked them to interpret their drawings; interviews

– a/ we interviewed the children regarding their digital practices in the presence of their kindergarden teachers, b/ we made interviews with the parents

about the children's digital practices at home, c/ we made interviews with the kindergarden teachers about the children's digital skills; direct observations