Keynote 1 Dr Alison Kahn: Digital Children: Ethnographic methods to address Essential Digital Skills
Channel: Applied Cognition Technology and Interaction Group
Date: 2022-02-04

Dr Alison Kahn – Visual Anthropologist; Director, Think Tank as SDS-Heritage; Visiting Fellow in Digital Learning Systems at Loughborough University.

Dr Alison Kahn did her PhD in anthropology at Oxford University. Alison is a fellow in Museum Anthropology and Modernist Literature with the prestigious Stanford University program in Oxford. She set up her own company, the Oxford Digital Film Institute (ODFI https://odfi.co.uk/odfi-team/) which provides workshops on digital methods for research and film making. Alison won several major awards for her anthropological films. Alison is also a fellow in Digital Learning Systems at Loughborough University and Director of the Cultural Heritage, Education and AI Think Thank for the SDS group, which manages digital archives. She lectures worldwide on digital methods and in her keynote will discuss how the pandemic has provided lessons to overcome issues in methods for digital transmission of information in children to facilitate learning.

Digital Children: Applying ethnographic methods to address The Essential Digital Skills (EDS) Framework outlined by the Department of Education (2018).

Historically. there has been an enormous amount of research in child development and classroom teaching initiatives to account for different needs of children. The global pandemic has brought into focus how ill-equipped most education institutions are when it comes to teaching children remotely. Whilst higher education and adult learning has gradually been adapting to on-line learning, the digital divide leaves many powerless and unable to progress in education and work,  This study asks several questions that address the critical gap between information and knowledge. How might we improve engagement with young minds to prepare them for a lifetime of learning? How can we best support primary care givers (PCG) and teachers to reduce anxiety around learning online, and how might we create a more inclusive education system fit for all types of learners from the ‘cradle to the grave’?

Here are the two films shown in Alison’s presentations:

Covid Classrooms: Underprivileged children’s worsening educational crisis by Navya Sara Jaiswal, 2021: https://youtu.be/91m_Yyse024

Chronicle of a Summer (French original title: Chronique d’un été) by Jean Rouch, 1961:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct-49TYmzMg