Praxis: Key Research Findings to Date
Academic and Peer-Based Community Research
While this strategy will always focus on continuous learning and improvement, the rationale for its current state-- a public, youth-informed, place-based and iterative online engagement and literacy strategy –was first informed through a year of rigorous strategic research.
Beginning in Spring 2019, this research was supported through the Digital Literacy and Intelligence stream of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Digital Strategy Fund. Guided by reps of four Atlantic Canadian publishers, Atlantic Canadian Publishers Digital Youth Engagement Strategy (APDYES) set out to gather data and ultimately, insight into the digital literacy and reading practices of today’s digital natives. Meanwhile, ongoing research continues 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.