Language and Learning in the Digital Age

In Language and Learning in the Digital Age linguist James Paul Gee and educator Elisabeth Hayes deal with forces unleashed by today's digital media, forces that are transforming language and learning for good and ill.ã They argue that the role of oral language is almost always entirely misunderstood in debates about digital media.ã Like the invention of writing and print earlier, digital media actually power up or enhance the powers of oral language.ã Gee and Hayes deal, as well, with current digital transformations of language and literacy in the context of a growing crisis in traditional schooling in developed countries.ã With the advent of new forms of digital media, children are increasingly drawn towards video games, social media, and alternative ways of learning. Gee and Hayes explore the way in which these alternative methods of learning can be a force for a paradigm change in schooling.ãã The book is based on examples taken for an array of digital media and can serve as an introduction to the New Literacy Studies in the context of digital media and new digital literacies.ã This is an engaging, accessible read for scholars in a variety of different disciplines, as well undergraduate and postgraduate students studying language, linguistics, communication studies or education.