Digtial Media and Learning

Television is an extremely popular platform for entertainment. Since its creation in the early 1920’s it had become increasingly more popular. Given this popularity there has been not only an increase in consumption but also an increase in the technologies used. This paper will attempt to answer the question; how has television consumption changed and, what are the main mechanisms behind this? Firstly, the origins of television will be discussed focusing on the early and differing production methods adopted in both the UK and the USA. Early views and consumption habits will be analysed in order to grasp early opinions on this medium of entertainment. Then existing technologies that have had a significant impact will be evaluated including the VHS, DVD and the recent innovation of Online streaming. In order to effectively analyse this a more detailed look into Netflix and its original content will then be discussed to show how this platform is changing consumption and television itself. Finally the role of the internet will be discussed focusing on the theory of social TV, the spoiler effect and the role of online communities with regards to television consumption.

We live in a changing world, and the focus on how things of the past were done in the media is now in tension with new ideas and evolving methods. From this backdrop, Ulla Carlsson builds on previous works published by Nordicom to present the four-section, 22-article edited volume Freedom of Expression and Media in Transition: Studies and Reflections in the Digital Age. Branded as a publication to introduce the historical significance of freedom of the press broadly (in the Nordic cultures of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and the contemporary influence of freedom of expression and communication rights coupled by globalization and digitization on multicultural societies, Freedom of Expression is directed for academicians, journalists and non-governmental organization types to understand better the regional conversations involving the aforemen-tioned and their influence on the current media sphere (p. 10). On first glance, Freedom of Expression seems dense, narrowly focused and disconnected from the larger global conversations surrounding freedom of expression and press and digital innovations in a multicultural context. At times, one might observe the book's numerous generalizations, such as " globalization and digitization connect people and economies across great distances " and " limits of freedom of expression are not constant—they are marked by its cultural and social context " (p. 11). Although Carlsson's observations are accurate in establishing the scope of the publication, they might cause some readers to wonder if more succinct examples could have advanced the pace to the publication. However, the four sections of Freedom of Expression offer great depth in the carefully assembled texts. I will briefly discuss each section and present a few significant essays that provide a better understanding of Carlsson's publication organization. These articles serve as notable conversation starters for important topics. The text reveals a thematic pace and a methodical consistency that bridges the Nordic cultural and its scholastic influences on the world. The challenges and successes in the Nordic media sphere are not unlike those being addressed in other parts of the world. This is seen in each of the four sections. In section one, Rethinking the Nordic Media Model: A Challenge to Democracy (the smallest section with two articles), researchers examine communication rights and introduce readers to the media welfare state model in a Nordic context. This heavily historic section sheds light on the structures that have linked the Nordic welfare state with media policy measures. By examining the four over-arching themes of universalism, editorial

The TEFL Lab is an exciting and innovative new venue for exploring practical and theoretical issues of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). It hosts a wide range of teaching resources, including current coursebooks and accompanying materials, teacher manuals, method guides, and teaching aids. The inventory of the TEFL Lab also includes an extensive collection of graded and annotated readers, literature that is suggested for the EFL classroom, and also a carefully selected stock of picture books and children's literature. The TEFL Lab is also equipped with modern classroom technology and digital media, for example an interactive whiteboard, a classroom set of iPads, educational software, and films.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's award-winning Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History is a highly trafficked educational resource that presents a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of global art history through The Met's collection. This talk, presented at the 2016 National Museum Publishing Seminar, outlined the philosophy behind the website's relaunch, showcased the major changes to the website, and summarized next steps for the Timeline.

In contrast with post-phenomenology, which understands the relation between humans, society and technology in terms of mediation, the techno-phenomenology of French philosopher Bernard Stiegler conceives of technical objects as originally constituting and conditioning human beings and their social organizations. His so-called general organology, an elaboration and expansion of Gilbert Simondon’s mechanological understanding of technical ensembles, thinks humans, social organizations and technologies as processes of co-individuation that dynamically relate to each other in a transductive way, as taking shape only within their constantly changing relationships. Most importantly, general organology considers the libidinal energy flows (drives and desires) within the circuits of psychosocial individuation as conditioned by technologies and theorizes these technologies as pharmaka that simultaneously support and undermine psychic and social individuation processes. According to Stiegler, the new digital pharmaka currently engender a generalized malaise or ‘unwell-being’ [mal-être] in today’s societies because they totally disrupt the existing (literary and analog) technical milieus upon which psychic and social individuation was based over the last century. On the other hand, however, the new digital pharmaka carry the promise of a new age of reason, culture, knowledge and spirit, i.e., a ‘digital enlightenment’, if only their hegemonic ‘toxic’ functioning in the current capitalist conjuncture can be transformed  into a ‘curative’ one to inaugurate new modes of individual and collective existence. In my talk I will discuss some of the specific ‘empowering’ characteristics of digital pharmaka allowing for such a turn to a new age of ‘well-being’, specifically focusing on new possibilities for collective production as well as creative resistance they offer for countering the massive ‘disempowerment’ and ‘impossibilization’afflicted upon individuals and the social within the current hypercapitalist era (think of big data, algorithmic governance, neuromarketing and generalized robotization).