The ability to think critically and creatively are essential graduate attributes for science students yet many science graduates lack these skills and may struggle to gain employment. As undergraduate science educators, we are aiming to improve critical thinking, creativity and the promotion of deeper learning in our students. We have designed and…

Background: The study reported in this article focuses on an exploration of the role and nature of play in young children's use of toys that connect physical and digital domains. Purpose: The purpose of the article is to explore the nature of the connections that are made in play that transverses physical and virtual domains. The article draws on…

In this article, the author discusses some of the photographs and videos that her students produced, and shares how their artwork serves as one way that, when given freedom and choice, children will incorporate violent play into their artmaking activities. The author argues that these images are not evidence of inherently violent, dangerous, or…

Students in a Sociology of Gender class were each required to provide five digital photos of something they have seen in their worlds that represents beliefs or behaviors related to gender. The photos were organized into themes related to assigned readings on gender and work, family, sexuality, health, education, and more. A short film using their…

This paper discusses potential strategies and sources for approaching uncomfortable topics and reviews the challenges facing teachers who choose to do so with the topic of genocide as an example. Using a variety of techniques, including graphic organizers, political cartoons, comic books and graphic novels, films, children's and young adult…

This paper discusses pre-service teachers' use of multi-modal tools to produce three-minute films in light of critical moments in their teaching practice. Two cases are considered; each centers on a film, a "little epic" that was produced by a future teacher who attempts to work within an anti-racist framework for social justice.…

Hollywood movies are popular in Uganda. This paper reports a study that investigated access to English-language Hollywood movies in Uganda, by way of an ethnographic audience study carried out in slum areas of the city of Kampala. The researchers visited and participated in the watching and reviewing of English-language movies in makeshift video…

This article narrates how the use of video camera has transformed the life of Jack Williams, a 10-year-old boy from Colorado Springs, Colorado, who has autism. The way autism affected Jack was unique. For the first nine years of his life, Jack remained in his world, alone. Functionally non-verbal and with motor skill problems that affected his…

This article addresses the use of video in classroom research. Influenced by the work of Deleuze on cinema, it challenges the mundane realism that continues to regulate video method, and its role in perpetuating what Deleuze calls the "everyday banality" that produces and conceals the "intolerable". In failing to interfere with the everyday…

It should come as no surprise that digital video technology is of particular interest to English language learners; students are drawn to its visual appeal and vibrant creative potential. The seven original case studies in this book demonstrate how video can be an effective and powerful tool to create fluid, fun, interactive, and collaborative…

Bridging the disciplinary divides is reflective of the nature of learning and work in the 21st century. Yet the new Australian curriculum suggests schools are likely to be increasingly trapped within the disciplinary boundaries (Reid, 2009). In this article, we report a small case study which investigated the assumption that integrative approaches…

This article explores the use of participatory video in finding solutions to challenges faced by schools and communities in the contexts of poverty and the AIDS pandemic in one rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Locating the analysis within the study of feminist visual culture and the notion of the female gaze, the article focuses on…

At the risk of seeming to make exaggerated claims for visual methodologies, what I set out to do is lay bare some of the key elements of working with the visual as a set of methodologies and practices. In particular, I address educational research in South Africa at a time when questions of the social responsibility of the academic researcher…

Digital storytelling provides an opportunity for children and adolescents to design multimodal narratives that represent and reflect upon their lives and interests. In the article we look at how two English language learners, Diego, a male Mexican-American kindergartener, and Allie Feng, a female Chinese-American junior in high school, drew upon…

In the increasingly digital and multimodal landscape of adolescents' literacies, it is particularly interesting to explore how young people are making and remaking their identities in online and offline spaces. These self-authoring practices are especially significant when the authors are African American adolescent boys, whose lives are often…