This paper presents a curious case study of a teacher in an informal media literacy learning environment who worked with a group of 9-year olds in Philadelphia. Using a mix of direct observation, interviews with the teacher and students, videotapes of classroom activity, examination of documents created by the students, as well as lesson plans and reflective writing produced by the teacher, this paper documents the experience of a novice teacher who, flummoxed by an accidental encounter between her students and a homeless person, transformed an uncomfortable the experience into a teachable moment. Children’s questions about homelessness became the organizing frame for the learning experience, as the instructor helped children make sense of information on the Internet, analyze popular culture films and news media, and conduct interviews with community leaders and advocates for the homeless. The inquiry process resulted in a collaboratively-produced multimedia project, created by children. The project included a 14-page nonfiction comic book, created with a digital camera and simple multimedia production software, that was shared with their families, civic leaders, and the school community. This paper demonstrates how teacher openness to unpredictability plus a high level of strategic risk-taking enable the construction of powerful learning experiences in work with city children. The case study has implications for pre-teacher education for digital and media literacy, including the function of support systems including in-school mentoring, reflective writing and peer-teacher support groups as they may promote the development of openness to unpredictability and strategic risk taking, which are conceptualized as a set of socio-emotional and experiential competencies that teachers need when using digital media in an urban community as a tool for learning.

1. Serendipitous Urban Encounters and
Strategic Risk Taking in Informal Learning with
Digital Media Literacy
Renee Hobbs
Harrington School of Communication and Media
University of Rhode Island
International Communication Association, May 28, 2011

2. A university-school partnership program designed to strengthen
children’s ability to think for themselves, communicate effectively,
and use their powerful voices to contribute to the quality of life in
their families, their schools, their communities, and the world.

4. By taking photographs, maps, making drawings and audio-
recordings, children learn how to create media messages that
express their views and experiences, examining cultural life by
studying the complex and multivalenced relationships that are
part of urban life.

5.  Requires a well-structured activity with a clear audience and
purpose
 Requires some creative & independent thinking from learners
 Requires careful monitoring of small groups
 Requires the use of media & technology

6. Both teachers and school leaders have concerns about mayhem
and loss of control that may interfere with digital media projects
(Hofer & Swan, 2006).
 Not clearly linked to standards
 Not easy to assess student learning outcomes
 Not text-based
 Children are not sitting down at desks
“unpredictable” and “exhausting”

9. Why?

10. Why?
A pedagogy of listening activates the
search for meaning and
understanding in the various social
and physical environments of
everyday life.
Listening to children’s theories
enables educators to discover how
children think, how they develop a
relationship with reality, and how
they begin to question it.
--Carla Rinaldi, Reggio Emilia early
childhood education expert

11. Research Composition
Feedback & Revision Distribution

16. Empowerment and Protection
are Embedded in Strategic Risk-Taking
Children learned that homelessness Children did not use the Internet
occurs when people lack jobs, to gather information
housing, and health care, when they independently. Instead, the
are victims of domestic violence, or instructor selected child-
have problems with alcoholism, appropriate content about
substance abuse, or mental illness. homelessness for children to read,
view and discuss.

17. Implications for Teaching and Learning Digital Media Literacy
 Create an experiential learning environment
 Provide an appropriate balance of structure and freedom
in learning activities
 Be alert to unexpected and ambiguous moments
 Promote an atmosphere of trust and respect where
learners feel comfortable asking all kinds of questions
 Structure an inquiry on a topic unfamiliar to the instructor
and model research practices with learners
 Balance empowerment and protection with sensitivity to
the developmental needs of learners

18. Engagement Promotes Civic Action
The pedagogy of listening enables children to discover the
rush of delight that occurs when they experience the world,
using the city and community as inspiration for authentic
learning, civic engagement and communicative action.

19. Serendipitous Urban Encounters and
Strategic Risk Taking in Informal Learning with
Digital Media Literacy
Renee Hobbs
Harrington School of Communication and Media
University of Rhode Island
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
Twitter: reneehobbs