ABSTRACT
The need for teachers and their students to engage with digital literacies at all stages of education has been articulated in numerous policy documents and directives in many parts of the world. More often than not, the economic desirability of twenty-first century skills is seen as the central rationale for this (Abrams and Merchant, 2013), but commentaries also make reference to the increasing role of digital literacy in citizenship and participatory culture (Jenkins et al., 2006). At the same time, in both education theory and research, the importance of acknowledging and using students’ knowledge of popular culture is a key theme, with a growing number of studies addressing the rise of popular digital culture (New Media Consortium, 2009). In the face of this, educators now also realise that levels of participation in digital culture vary considerably between populations and within social groups (Warschauer and Matuchniak, 2010). To add further complication, the understandings and experiences that learners and their teachers have, and need, are rapidly changing as technology itself changes (Davies and Merchant, 2009).
