Language and Learning in the Digital Age

"Language and Learning in the Digital Age is both grounded and wise. Gee and Hayes' perspective is one that looks back as much as it looks forward and it has a place on everyone's bookshelf or digital reader, so that we can take stock in how far we have come (and how far we have to go)." Jennifer Rowsell, Canada Research Chair in Multiliteracies, Brock University, Canada

"Both a stimulating and highly readable account of how new media are changing the way we communicate and learn and an antidote to the various moral panics surrounding computers, the Internet and youth culture. This book should be required reading for anyone working in education today." Rodney Jones, City University of Hong Kong

In Language and Learning in the Digital Age, linguist James Paul Gee and educator Elisabeth Hayes deal with the forces unleashed by today's digital media, forces that are transforming language and learning for good and ill.

They argue that the role of oral language is almost always entirely misunderstood in debates about digital media. Like the earlier inventions of writing and print, digital media actually power up or enhance the powers of oral language.

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. 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.

This is an engaging, accessible read both for undergraduate and graduate students and for scholars in language, linguistics, education, media and communication studies.