Academic and Peer-Based Community Research
In 2019, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts’ Digital Literacy and Intelligence stream as well as the Digital Strategy Fund, our digital youth strategy commenced with one-year of extensive research into the digital literacy and reading habits of contemporary youth. This deep-dive revealed a strong link between youth engagement, digital literacy, place-based learning, and critical pedagogy, highlighting the urgent need for innovative engagement initiatives. From this research, Digitally Lit was born.
Below are some highlights of our initial research. Digitally continues to conduct qualitative and quantitative research to this day.
Academic Research
In the interest of best practices, Digitally Lit consultants put a call out to graduate schools across Atlantic Canada to secure an academic intern for the strategy. Taylor Stocks, a doctoral student from Memorial University’s Department of Education, was selected to spearhead the strategy’s academic research while the consultants set about conducting the strategy’s industry-based research.
To learn the results of the Taylor Stocks' doctoral research, please review his academic paper here.
Youth-Led Community Based Research
In addition, a handful of young Atlantic Canadian researchers were trained in performing community-based research with their peers.
To learn the results of the youth-led Community Based Research, please click here.
Video Games & Youth Literacy
In the interest of capturing the literary imaginations of young gamers, a minimum viable product in the form of a video game was created and trialled during the forementioned focus groups. This video game was designed to feature several Atlantic Canadian titles that feature facts and folklore relating to Acadia and Sable Island specifically and Atlantic Canada more generally.
To check out the MVP designed to pique gamers’ interest in reading Atlantic Canadian books—the video game ‘Ghosts of Sable Island’-- please click here.