Scaling Up Digital Media: Toward a Conceptual Framework

Since 2006, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has been engaged in an initiative on digital media and learning. As part of this initiative, the Foundation has supported innovative programs that design model learning systems for children and youth in both in- and out-of-school settings. The initiative now faces the challenge of scaling up these new programs to more schools, libraries, and other youth-serving institutions. Scholars and practitioners have been grappling with the considerable challenges involved in scaling up new innovation for quite some time. Yet, most of what we know about scale-up and its challenges are from research on conventional reform efforts: traditional curricula, whole school reform models, or specific instructional strategies. The digital media programs funded by the Foundation differ from these approaches in three ways that may have implications for scale-up: 1) they make different demands on the adults who implement them; 2) they have increased flexibility, adaptability, and interactivity, raising questions about what is being scaled up if the innovation is continually changing and evolving; and 3) technological developments (especially the internet and social media) have created new mechanisms for the process of scaling-up, including online professional development, user groups, and support communities. We need a new conceptual model to understand scale up of digital media that foster learning for children and youth. This conceptual model must that take into account the nature of digital media technology itself as it may have different affordances and constraints for scale up than more conventional educational innovations. It must acknowledge the changed technological landscape for scaling up innovations; in particular, it must consider the role of informal learning environments and alternative pathways. This project will develop such a conceptual model. To do so, we will engage in three interlocking: a) a lite