New Release Books by Lelia Green

The easy interface of touchscreen technologies like tablets and smartphones have enabled children to access the digital world from a very young age. But while some commentators are enthusiastic about how this can open up a new world for play, learning, and developing digital skills, others see the dangers of yet more screens, inauthentic play, and time spent isolated with electronic babysitters that detract from interaction with parents and the learning of social skills. Including a glossary of key terms, this book draws on a three-year research project examining the realities of 0-5 years olds' experiences of these technologies in the UK and Australia. The authors draw heavily on Vygotsky and engage with other thinkers including Bronfenbrenner and Bruner. It explores how parents of young children evaluate these opportunities and concerns, and how they try to work out ways to parent in relation to technologies they did not experience in their own childhood. The book examines how digital technologies fit in with other elements of children's daily lives including their preferences, pleasures and sociability. The book also explores the extent to which grandparents, parents and educators engage with children's experience of digital technologies.

Life without the internet, a very new technology, seems almost unimaginable for most people in western nations. Today the internet is intrinsic to media and communications, entertainment, politics, defence, business, banking, education and administrative systems as well as to social interaction. The Internet disentangles this extraordinarily complex information and communication technology from its place in our daily lives, allowing it to be examined anew. Technology has historically been shaped by governmental, military and commercial requirements, but the development of the internet is increasingly driven by its users. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and many other emerging applications are shifting the way we express ourselves, communicate with our friends, and even engage with global politics. At the same time three-quarters of the world's population remain effectively excluded from the internet. Packed with case studies drawn from around the world, The Internet presents a clear and up-to-date introduction to the social, cultural, technological and political worlds this new media form is creating.

Lelia Green looks at what drives technological change, showing that the adoption of new technologies is not inevitable. She also explores how a variety of technology cultures coexist and interact.

Produced for unit ALC102 (Introduction to communication B) offered by the Faculty of Arts' School of Literary and Communication Studies in Deakin University's Open Campus Program.

Lelia Green looks at what drives technological change, showing that the adoption of new technologies is not inevitable. She also explores how a variety of technology cultures coexist and interact.