Gardner and GoodWork Project to Study Youth's Use of Digital Media

Hobbs Professor Howard Gardner received a $900,000 grant last week from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to study young people's use of digital media.

"The MacArthur Foundation, whose board chair is Fischer Professor Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, is making a wager that we can learn a lot by studying young people as they use these new and fast evolving media, and we may even be able to make the process easier and more educationally productive," Gardner said. "Our research group on the GoodWork Project is pleased to be a part of that effort--for now, we are calling our group the GoodPlay Project."

"This is the first generation to grow up digital – coming of age in a world where computers, the internet, videogames, and cell phones are common, and where expressing themselves through these tools is the norm," said MacArthur president Jonathan Fanton. "Given how present these technologies are in their lives, do young people act, think and learn differently today? And what are the implications for education and for society?"

Gardner's research entitled "Ethical Perspectives on Young Persons' Use of Digital Media" is one of many studies-- to be conducted as part of a $50 million effort by the MacArthur Foundation over the next five years--on understanding the educational impact of the widespread use of digital media on youth.

"Very occasionally in human history, changes in the media of communication bring about gigantic changes in the culture," Gardner said. "Many people, including our research group at Harvard, feel that the new digital media may bring about huge changes, and that these will emerge first with young persons who have grown up with computers, cell phones, instant messaging, online social networks, multi user games, and the like as part of their daily environment."

The study will examine young people, aged 15-25, who regularly participate in online games, social networking sites, and other online communities through in-depth interviews, hypothetical ethical dilemmas, and observations of youth participating in online communities.

"While much of young people's activities in cyberspace are social--constituting more "play" than "work"--we believe that it is critically important to explore the ethical character of their conduct in this evolving sphere," said Carrie James, project manager at the GoodWork Project, a research group based at the HGSE. "Recent public attention has been focused on the risks young people face as they spend increasing amounts of time in cyberspace. While threats to youth may exist, our concern is not with the ways in which they may be victims. Rather, we wish to understand how young people conceptualize their participation in virtual worlds and the choices they make as they interact with one another."

The research will look at what beliefs, values, and goals youth bring to online activities, as well as ethical considerations and identities they construct.

"We seek to uncover strategies for good play and ultimately to develop tools to encourage it," James said.