The Institute for Research on Digital Literacies has for two decades brought together scholars, teachers, learners, tech industry experts, school boards, and feminist gaming pioneers from around the world to understand the transformative power and consequences of emerging digital technologies. It is my honor to join this community and to launch a new phase of IRDL’s proud story by welcoming a community of researchers whose interests extend our mandate to include digital cultures related to youth, social media, surveillance, and privacy issues, AI, generational analysis, diverse literacies, and ongoing innovations in learning technologies. Our work at IRDL is supported by York University’s research excellence mandate, our award-winning faculty, and our dedicated post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduates, and staff. In a rapidly changing digital world, the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies looks optimistically toward a future of discovery, collaboration, mentorship, and innovation. On a personal note, in the past few months it has become clear that the digital world is radically shaping the way we live our lives. Like many of you, my whole world has moved into digital spaces – my family life, my work life, my social life. And, there are many others for whom this isn’t possible, who aren’t able to access these spaces easily. It is with this in mind that I approach this new academic year both excited and daunted by the challenging work ahead to understand the complexities of 2021’s digital experience as our lives weave in and through digital spaces. Sincerely, Dr. Natalie Coulter Director of IRDL
Kurt Thumlert, a recent addition to IRDL and our resident fun guy. Kurt is a lecturer in York University’s Faculty of Education. His research and teaching focus on production pedagogies and new media, the arts and multimodal literacies, and informal/DIY cultural production. Kurt’s work examines the opportunities of digital media, game-based learning, and simulation and role-play for inviting sustained engagements within multiliteracy-learning challenges, as well as for supporting authentic modes of art and knowledge making. His courses invite students to critically co-explore the sociotechnical resources and participative opportunities of emerging media ecologies, as well as related production-based learning environments. Kurt’s recent publications include several articles co-authored with Suzanne de Castell and Jennifer Jenson on educational theory, games, and technology studies. Connect with Kurt via: Serious Play Lab Twitter: @MerlotPontiac
2019-21 Sounding off: Learning, Communicating, and Making Sense with Sound This project investigates existing professional subject matter experts (SMEs) and artistic “communities of practice” where sound/aural experience is central. It examines what and how people learn through inquiry into sounds, sound-making materials and aural/acoustic experience, and how (re)claiming sound as a vital ‘mode’ of sensory experience can afford new opportunities for sound-based inquiry across disciplines, as well as afford more inclusive and innovative music pedagogies adequate to 21st century learning contexts.
2015-2020 Refiguring Innovation in Games (ReFiG) is a 5-year project supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Composed of an international collective of scholars, community organizers and industry representatives. ReFiG is committed to promoting diversity and equity in the game industry and culture and effecting real change in a space that has been exclusionary to so many. More information about the project is available on the website: www.refig.ca